Biography
Tùng Lâm, known artistically as Tùng Nâm, is a Vietnamese illustrator and book cover designer based in Hanoi. He works across both digital and traditional media—including watercolor and oil painting—to create quiet, emotionally resonant illustrations for book covers, editorial projects, and personal work.
His real name, Tùng Lâm (meaning pine forest in Vietnamese), reflects the natural themes that flow through his work. Raised by a gardener father, Nâm’s lifelong fascination with plants, trees, and quiet landscapes informs his visual world—rich with flora, symbolism, and a sense of stillness.
In his final year of art college, Lâm made the pivotal decision to leave school and pursue professional work. He joined Nha Nam Publishing House, where he spent over ten years designing covers and crafting visual identities for literary titles. This foundation shaped both his technical skill and his deep sensitivity to the relationship between image and text. To date, he has illustrated more than 300 book covers, including the Vietnamese editions of internationally acclaimed titles such as:
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
My Sweet Orange Tree by José Mauro de Vasconcelos
The Sound of the Mountain by Kawabata Yasunari
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Visually, his work is influenced by Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints, particularly the landscapes of the legendary Kawase Hasui. Nâm’s compositions often convey stillness, solitude, and atmosphere. His work is marked by nostalgic blue and green tones, evoking a sense of melancholy, memory, and emotional depth. Through soft gradients and carefully structured scenes, he invites viewers into reflective, quietly moving worlds.
Now working as a freelance illustrator, under the art name Tùng Nâm, he is exploring new creative directions beyond publishing—taking on projects that allow him to grow artistically and connect with audiences through visual storytelling.
His real name, Tùng Lâm (meaning pine forest in Vietnamese), reflects the natural themes that flow through his work. Raised by a gardener father, Nâm’s lifelong fascination with plants, trees, and quiet landscapes informs his visual world—rich with flora, symbolism, and a sense of stillness.
In his final year of art college, Lâm made the pivotal decision to leave school and pursue professional work. He joined Nha Nam Publishing House, where he spent over ten years designing covers and crafting visual identities for literary titles. This foundation shaped both his technical skill and his deep sensitivity to the relationship between image and text. To date, he has illustrated more than 300 book covers, including the Vietnamese editions of internationally acclaimed titles such as:
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
My Sweet Orange Tree by José Mauro de Vasconcelos
The Sound of the Mountain by Kawabata Yasunari
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Visually, his work is influenced by Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints, particularly the landscapes of the legendary Kawase Hasui. Nâm’s compositions often convey stillness, solitude, and atmosphere. His work is marked by nostalgic blue and green tones, evoking a sense of melancholy, memory, and emotional depth. Through soft gradients and carefully structured scenes, he invites viewers into reflective, quietly moving worlds.
Now working as a freelance illustrator, under the art name Tùng Nâm, he is exploring new creative directions beyond publishing—taking on projects that allow him to grow artistically and connect with audiences through visual storytelling.
