Army's top graphic designer is passionate about her work

By Trish Muntean, Fort Wainwright PAOJune 17, 2010

Venus Sung
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska - The top graphic designer in the Army's Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command is a Fort Wainwright employee.

Venus Sung, a graphic designer for the Fort Wainwright Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Marketing Department recently won the grand prize in the Edge Family and MWR Command contest.

The FMWRC has contests throughout the year to get Army graphic designers and artists to showcase their layouts and designs and how they market at their installations in FMWR. "It helps them show what they can do and gives installations other ideas for them to use," said Mitzie Jewitt, chief of NAF Support Management and Sung's supervisor.

For the Edge contest, applicants were asked to submit their brochures, flyers and posters featuring designs that are edgy and on the current or new trends of marketing styles. Sung submitted a portfolio of the work she has done since starting her current job a year ago and for her efforts she was awarded a trip to Las Vegas to a graphic design conference.

"Maybe it is a little bit nerdy of me, but I am actually more excited about the Photo Shop world conference than about Las Vegas itself," Sung said.

"Venus is amazing," said MJ Lohrenz, director of FMWR at Fort Wainwright. "She is one of the most creative people I have ever met and continually brings her talents to benefit the MWR programs."

Jewitt agrees "Venus is a very talented designer and artist," she said. "She is very knowledgeable and keeps current with trends, like social networking. She keeps Soldiers and families informed with our Facebook page and our FMWR website.

In addition to graphic design, Sung also draws, paints, writes and composes music. Even away from the office, she is always creating something. There are not enough hours in the longest summer day for her to get everything done on her wish list. In fact, there may not ever be enough time because that list keeps growing by the hour.

"Music and painting are very important to me. Just getting away from the computer and getting my hands in there," Sung said. "Oil, acrylics, water, collaging, inks..." She also does some composing "I kind of dabble more in jazz right now," she said

Her summer reading list includes books recommended or loaned to her by friends. She also says that she would like to write a book one day.

Not that she has time to read. There are a lot of other things she said she wants to do.

"By the end of the summer, I want to create a short film of some sort, whether it is animation or not, just to kind of dabble in another media," Sung said.

By the end of the summer, I would like to write some short stories," she said. "Definitely go out and go hiking, go out on some glacier runs, go to Denali. With the summer hitting, I don't want to be inside at all."

She is inside at least once a week, though, playing the piano at church. "Music really inspires me. I didn't realize how much. I hated piano lessons. I remember many, many days of tears - my mom just forcing me to practice and practice. I don't know when it hit me," Sung said.

"Throughout the years, when I had a problem or things were going really good and I wanted to express that, I went to the piano," Sung said. "That's how I play on the piano, I have that communication with God. If not, it's nothing. All my talents and passions and whatever it is that I have that I use is just to praise God, because otherwise there is no point. That is how strongly I feel about it."

When Sung was born, her parents had already decided she was going to be a doctor. "It was assigned to me since birth," Sung said. "But growing up, I have always enjoyed drawing, creating new things. Even as early as six years old I started drawing and in fourth grade I entered a contest and won that. I just kept going and doing projects. It was just always something I have been passionate about."

She recalls breaking the news to her parents in college that she was not going to be a doctor, but wanted to pursue a career in art instead. "I was thinking about going into painting, majoring in that, but to appease my parents and not be a complete starving artist I said 'graphic design, I got to do it.' "

Sung is the oldest of three children and is close to her sisters, Sarah and Pauline. She is also close to her parents, Young Chol and Chung Ok,. "I think my parents are proud of me. I hope they are."