Dan Hu // Portfolio

Storyteller, Songwriter, Student

danhu2023@u.northwestern.edu
masquerola.weebly.com
linkedin.com/in/danwho

Updated September 2021

I am Dan Hu, and I attend Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, and Integrated
Marketing Communications. My passions include everything from:

music production and to branding and graphic to journalism, photography,

songwriting, design, and much more.

Film 02 Publication Design 14 Writing 21

Branding & Design 03 Music Production 16 Science 21
Photography 09 Journalism 18 Miscellaneous 22
02 03

Film Masquerola Branding

The Visible Poetry Project
& Design
December 2017 – April 2018
eo Bikeshare LLC
I was selected as the youngest of October 2019 – March 2020
thirty filmmakers to take part in the
2018 Visible Poetry Project, giving I was Director of Marketing at eo Bike-
me the opportunity to work along- share LLC, a student-run dockless
side professional filmmakers. With bikeshare startup at Northwestern Uni-
a minimal budget, I lead a team as versity. Marketing, website, branding,
director and producer. The Visible merch, video commercials – I did it all.
Poetry Project screened at the New
Clockwise from top right: Team photo;
York Poetry Festival, in Seattle, Bei-
Spring launch flyer;
jing, and cities across the world.
example bike tag;
website landing
page; sticker.

Cities RomEO Brilliance

October 2017 – January 2018 February 2020 – March 2020 September 2021

Music video for the song Cities A new couple meets by the bike Product video and quick guide
by my friend Joyce Zheng. rack in this video ad for eo LLC. for Brilliance Laser Inks.
04 05

Imagine 2018 / hackBCA

December 2017 – September 2018

I served as Director of Design for my high school’s annual

hackathon, one of the largest and longest running high
school hackathons in the nation.

Because the nature of our event was different from past

years, I was in charge of overseeing a complete rebrand-
ing of the event. I led a team of artists to carefully se-
lect fonts and colors to develop our new visual language.
Our brand tells a story consistent with the event slogan
through the futuristic space theme: shoot for the stars. Above: Our Imagine 2018 team wearing the shirts I designed.
Below (clockwise from top left): Website design; sticker; photo of two attendees with shirt and badge; sticker.

hackBCA presents

Above: Our logo.

Right: Our three

poster designs
that were used Sept. 29 – 30 @ BCA.

as advertising IMAGINE
and prizes for 2018
the event.
06 07

BCA History Conference Green Ribbon Day

February 2019 – April 2019 January 2019 – March 2019

Shortly after finishing my work for Green Ribbon Day, I
began my branding and design work for the BCA Histo-
ry Conference. 2019’s theme was WWII, and my designs
were inspired by propaganda and design principles from
the general time period. The vehicles featured are based
off of archival photography, to maintain a certain level
of historical accuracy. A bright color palette was used (as
opposed to darker colors usually associated with war) to
attract students to sign up for the event.
Green Ribbon Day was the newly established mental
health and wellness day at my high school. Green is the
color associated with mental health awareness, and to
promote the event, I wanted to create posters that gave
off a feeling of peacefulness. I also designed the logo for
the event, and now, Green Ribbon Day is observed yearly
at my high school.

Life is a balance.
Join us March The Mental
5th @ BCA for Health Club
workshops meets in
about mental Room 20 on
health and Thursdays at
wellness. 7:40 AM.

What does 1 in 5 teenagers

“mental health” live with a

mean to you? mental illness.

We ean all think a little bit more In a classroom of a 20, that’s four

about how mental health afeets students in the room who could

our lives and the people around us. be struggling to keep up with

schoolwork, maintain friendships,

enjoy hobbies, get through the

day, or even just get up in the

morning. What do you know

about mental illness?

Source: World Health Organization

Join us March 5th @ BCA for workshops Join us March 5th @ BCA for workshops
about mental health and wellness. about mental health and wellness.
The Mental Health Club meets in Room The Mental Health Club meets in Room
20 on Thursdays 7:40 AM. 20 on Thursdays 7:40 AM.

Talk about it.

Above: Our
brand colors. Above: Our logo. Join us March The Mental
5th @ BCA for Health Club
workshops meets in

Right: I designed Right: Posters about mental

health and
Room 20 on
Thursdays at
three posters for and handouts wellness. 7:40 AM.

the event. that I designed.

08 09

Retro-North Productions
Photography
March 2019 – June 2019

Retro-North Productions is a Phonetography

film production studio I started
with my friends to make short June 2017 – Present
films and videos over the sum-
mer of 2019. The visual language Before we get to the main course – first, here
is fashionable and modern and are some pictures I shot on my phone.
designed for social media.

Right: Logo and wallpaper.

Below: Instagram story

highlights.

Entrepreneurship In Action (EPIC)

March 2020 – Present

As Co-President of Northwest-
ern University’s entrepreneur-
ship student group, one of my
many duties was to work with
our Marketing Chair to devel-
op our brand by designing new
banners and stickers, and re-
designing the website.
10 11

CalmlyGoingWild
January 2018 – April 2019

CalmlyGoingWild is my photography page on Insta-

gram, which peaked at 7,500 followers and amassed
nearly 700,000 total post views.

Every other day, I would color edit and upload a photo

from my archive. Over time, not only did this give me
valuable color editing experience, but I gained a fol-
lowing on Instagram.

My photography has been featured on the cover of Ae-

rie International, and has been awarded by the School
of the New York Times.

This spread: Pictures from Alaska and British Columbia.

Next spread: Portraits.
12 13
14 15

Publication Design Memory Maps

The Official Newspaper of the Bergen County Academies Volume II, Issue 8 // March 2019
April 2019 – June 2019

The Academy Chronicle

The Best Restaurants
in Bergen: BCA Answers
// Krishi Desai
The Academy Chronicle asked BCA
students what their favorite restau-
rants in Bergen County are– here are
five of the top results! Page 8
Speaker:
Dr. Sang-Mook Lee
// Grace Tan
We asked BCA students about how they
felt about Dr. Sang-Mook Lee’s address
to the student body, and about speaker
visits in general. Page 9
Spring Movie
Preview
// Eli Engler As my senior year of high school came to
The spring movie release schedule
of 2019 is stacked with exciting pros- a close, I decided to gather my friends’
memories into a book. Memory Maps is a
pects– what upcoming movies should
you go see? Page 13

December 2017 – May 2019 collection of stories from dozens of stu-

It’s Spring! dents, and the memories they cherish
In late 2017 I joined my school newspaper, Playlist from special locations around our high
The Academy Chronicle, as design editor. That The Academy Chronicle’s
school. I published the collection as a
first year, I completely redesigned the news- own playlist for jumping hardcover book and sold over 40 copies –
into the spring season!
paper, standardizing fonts, margins, and and I hope my friends will fondly reread it
other aspects of the layout. The result was // Jenn Baer for years to come.
// Pgs 11 – 12
a consistent, beautiful newspaper, which I
would pass on to my team of four assistant Right: One copy of the book.
design editors. Below: Selection from Memory Maps.
Contents Join Us
Right: Cover of March 2019 issue. ABF Alumni Panel 3 Dr. Sang-Mook Lee 9 Instagram
Appreciating IDA 4 It’s Spring! Playlist 11 @AcademyChronicle
Website

Below: Other issues of the Academy Chronicle.

Food Instagram 6 Skillsusa Spring Clean 12 AcademyChronicle.Com
History of spark 7 Spring Movie Preview 13 Email
Best Bergen Restaurants 8 Wordsearch 15 bca.AcademyChronicle@Gmail.com

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Contents
We founded IRIS as a meditation club to sneak some naptime into school– but instead, we ended up painting
Website
Join Us
Contents
the walls of the basement hallway. Wild. More students chill during their frees in the hallway now than before,
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Join Us
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16 17

Music Production
MasqRosé
January 2021 – Present

Music is where all my passions

come together. Graphic design.
Photography. Video. Branding.
And of course, the music itself.

I began teaching myself how to

produce music in January 2020,
and during the COVID pandem-
ic, songwriting became my main
project. In November 2020 I be-
gan developing the persona of
MasqRosé, and in January 2021 I
released my first song, Regolith,
a futuristic, synthwave song.

Three months later, in April 2021,

I released why am i still here? ev-
eryone else is gone, an indie pop
song. And another three months
later, I released Pastel Cadillac, a
hip-hop song.

Going forward, music will con-

tinue to be my main project.

This page: MasqRosé logo;

profile picture; website land-
ing page; and my iconic Rose
Tinted glasses.
Next page: cover arts for
Regolith, why am i still here?
everyone else is gone, and
Pastel Cadillac; thumbnail of
the music video for Pastel Ca-
dillac.
Mashups
Pen Pineapple Apple Pen
+ Gentleman Mashup
September 2016
Shortly after the Pen Pineapple Apple Pen
video was released, I mashed it together with
PSY’s Gentleman. The video was surprisingly
popular, currently at 204,000 views.
From Nowhere
(Croll + Baardsen)
July 2015
My favorite song is From Nowhere by Dan
Croll. I like one remix of it too, and I mashed
the two together so that I could get the best
of both. The remix is now at 97,000 plays.
18 19

Journalism New York Times Opinion

February 2020
The Yappie My video coverage of members of the North-
western University College Democrats can-
January 2021 – Present vassing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was published
on The New York Times Opinion’s Instagram
I’m an Editor for The Yappie, story on the day of the Iowa Caucuses in
the most read newsletter on 2020.
Asian American politics and
power. We’re the only non-
partisan publication tracking
BuzzFeed News
Asian American and Pacific
Islander (AAPI) politicians, September 2020
activism, and influence. Our
main product is a weekly Several months into the COVID pandemic, I
briefing. published photography/artwork in BuzzFeed
News illustrating the warped sense of time I
The Yappie’s briefings are felt while in quarantine.
read by officials in the White
House, Congress, and state
legislatures across the coun- Right: My Instagram story for NYTOpinion.
try. Our stories have been Below: My photography in BuzzFeed News.
featured in Politico, USA To-
day, PBS NewsHour, Yahoo
News, Insider, and elsewhere.
It is our goal to become the
Politico of Asian America.

Right: My debut piece, “The

Asian Americans who helped
Biden win”.
20
Facebook
November 2019
In 2019 I was invited to Face-
book’s New York office to be a
part of a panel discussion about
how young people consume
news through Instagram – to an
audience of about two hundred
journalists.
The Daily Northwestern
September 2019 – March 2020
At The Daily Northwestern,
Northwestern University’s stu-
dent newspaper, I was an audio
reporter and co-creator of the
NU Declassified podcast. I host-
ed or produced 10 bi-weekly ep-
isodes.
Alfalfa Studio
February 2019 – August 2019
Interview the Gram was an in-
terview series I did for the blog
of Alfalfa Studio in New York
during my internship there.
Once a week, I interviewed a
creator on Instagram – includ-
ing photographers, graphic de-
signers, comic artists, and more.
I conducted 15 interviews over
the course of several months.
21
Writing
The Doomsday Bible From How Far Should You
Initiate a Greeting?
September 2017
October 2018
This short story placed 2nd in the genre
category of the Ringling Storytellers of To- If you write with the smallest font size avail-
morrow writing competition. Author Virgil able in Google Docs, you can fit 2,141 words
Suarez said of the story, “I’m quickly drawn onto a single page. That’s how long the train
into this story and its extremely plausible of thought is of the main character of this
darkness.” The story asks a simple question:
what goes into a book written for the survi-
short story, when they see someone ap-
proaching – but who’s still too far away to say
vors of an apocalypse? hello to.
Science
Kaye’s Effect
March 2017 – April 2017
Despite all the artistic work I did during high school, my aca-
demic “concentration” was actually in science. As independent
research under the supervision of Dr. Ozgur Dogru, I studied
Kaye’s effect, a phenomenon occurring in shear-thinning liquids
in which they “bounce” when poured as a thin stream.
Right: A photo of a “multiple
bounce” occurrence of Kaye’s ef-
fect. Additionally, a laser was po-
sitioned to send light down the liq-
uid column – and surprisingly it
followed the liquid as it bounced.
22 23

Miscellaneous
128 Strongholds

December 2020 – January 2021

In January 2021, I became the first person

ever to visit all 128 strongholds in the Java
Edition of Minecraft. It’s a record I’m quite
proud of, and my Reddit post about it re-
ceived over 57,000 upvotes.

ColorInBCA

December 2017 – June 2018 I worked with our school admin-

Along with a friend, I co-found-
ed and lead an initiative to paint
two massive murals at my high
school. Over 30 students joined
us each week to take time after
school to relax and just paint.
Over a few months, we trans-
formed a long, windowless base-
ment hallway into a vibrant place
to be. The name was inspired by
the project Colour In Faith.
istration to obtain funds, and I
convinced our principal using
Photoshop mockups that we
should paint directly onto the
wall, so that students wouldn’t
be afraid to touch or lean against
the artwork. A good mural
should be a friendly but unin-
trusive part of its environment.
Now, new students sit and hang
out by the ColorInBCA murals,
Above: The design for ColorInBCA’s second mural, measuring 26’ x 8’.
which will stay for years to come.
Below: The design for ColorInBCA’s first mural, measuring 90’ x 8’.
Made with in Oakland, NJ