Emerging Designers

Trang Dang

Trang Dang [Photo: Mark Wemple]

INTERIOR DESIGN

Trang Dang's class assignment called for creating a pied-à-terre for a young businessman in Manhattan. Dang found inspiration in origami, and her project earned her the 2010 Donghia Award, a $30,000 scholarship that is awarded to only 12 out of 225 students who enter the contest.

Dang, who left her native Vietnam at 15 to live as a student in the U.S., was eventually adopted by a couple in Sarasota. "My mom found Ringling. I visited the school and loved it," Dang says. Ringling's interior design department head, Norman Hervieux, says Dang was chosen to participate in the Donghia competition because, "We asked ourselves, ‘Could this nominee win?' And the answer was a unanimous yes." Hervieux says Dang's winning design is "truly brilliant."

Room design that won Trang Dang the 2010 Donghia Award.

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