Here’s to a good work week, folks!

I found it recently upon looking through files in my old laptop, and while I now cringe a little bit with all the amateurish things I did while making this film (bad sound quality, terrible grading, among others), I am still quite fulfilled to have done this, mostly because of all the things I learned from the people I spoke to — Conrado de Quiros, Jovito Salonga, Carlos Celdran, Pete Lacaba, Butch Zialcita, Norma Alarcon, Ate Carmen, Aling Rosa and Kristong Hari.

In a way, I also feel a bit nostalgic of the determination my twenty-one year old self had while making this, heading to Quiapo almost every weekend to shoot (at one point, my dad said I was graduating as Bachelor in Quiapo), turning all the networks in Manila upside down for footage, and climbing over dilapidated platforms to capture the Nazareno coming out of the church on January 9. I pray that one day, I’ll find the same drive again, to create something that could be potentially interesting or useful for others, especially those in the academe.

And so, while this film is far from perfect, allow me to share it with you, in case you’d like to take a fifteen minute break to watch a bit of Quiapo today. I hope it’ll be as enjoyable for you to watch as it was for me to make.

Best Thesis, UPCFA 2005

Finalist for Best Editing, Moonrise Film Festival 2005

Monsters’ day out has arrived! This campaign was one of the first I worked on when I arrived in JWT. Recently, I received word that it went into print, which is a much better place to be in than the shelf! Thanks to Apol for doing some final tweaks before production.

Client : Unilever Cream Silk

Agency : JWT Manila

ECD : Dave Ferrer

Art : Kat Encanto, Apol Sta. Maria

Copy : Rachel Villanueva

Final Art : Gelo Lico

Accounts : Golda Roldan

Paul really liked the direction I took for Music in Monogeometry, a small graphic exercise I worked on while I was in Italy, giving credit to the music that surrounded me while I was alone. I thought that direction fit my vision for the band’s logo, as not only did it serve as soundtrack to a poignant moment in my life (yes everything is that dramatic), I also thought the band deserved an enigmatic representation, having pushed for sound that is so distinct and recognizably theirs, and yet impossible to classify into a genre. Likewise, the band needs no further introduction, having been featured in Time and BBC, and having done regional shows with Arcade Fire, Sondre Lerche and Bloc Party. I thought that with all their recent success locally and regionally, they could easily get away with a symbol without their full name (sort of like Starbucks just going with the mermaid, or Madonna just going by Madonna)

The result is one that hopes to be iconic but not blatant, doesn’t quite fall into categories completely (not quite visual, not quite type), and is always open to interpretation. Just like their music.

Did a few other studies as well, but Paul and I agreed that the one we chose might have stuck the right balance between mystery and clarity.

Here’s a single to keep you company this Sunday night. UDD will be playing next on March 4, at Malasimbo Festival in Puerto Galera. Be sure to catch them then!

Last February 13, seven of us presented our final projects, as requirement for graduation from Masters of Strategic Design at Politecnico di Milano. It was a nice reunion of sorts after 8 months, and it was nice to see that everyone refreshed and doing well. Needless to say, proper celebrations were in order, starting from mid-day until the evening. I think the wine gods would have been proud.

I posted some of the slides of my project, mostly as documentation of the strategic work I had to do to come up with the proposal that you’ll find here.

It wasn’t always a walk in the park — at times it would get extremely tedious, especially when I had to understand the funny figures lined up on the chart or do several analyses that would make me head bleed. But somehow I knew that, as creatives, it’s not only important for us to follow the direction given to us, but understand why it is that we’re taking them. (Or see whether they’re the right one in the first place)

At the end of the presentation, we were given our marks for our performance in the course, and I was happy to receive a mark of 110 (the highest in the Italian system), as well as news that I would be graduating with lode (honors). However, for me, the real victory with this whole experience was being able to learn new ways of solving problems creatively, and now feeling empowered that design and creativity can and should make a difference. That, and being able to learn this in Italy, which is really, another world to be fascinated with in itself.

So thank you to my teachers, classmates, friends, colleagues and every single face that I’ve met in my latest ambition come true. Thank you for every tool taught, every Italian word explained, every meal, walk and bike ride shared. I’ll always remember you, and I’ll always remember Italy.

Likewise, I will always be grateful to my family, friends and former colleagues in Manila, who supported all my crazy endeavors, through emails and emoticons. This one’s for you.

Here’s to moving on from this dream, to catching several others.

Our process went from studying key trends with a focus on the channel to doing on-site research on possible needs that we may address with Novacart’s offerings, always designing solutions for the target consumer in mind. Our result was a partnership with sustainable GDO-types like COOP, to provide optimized and multi-functional containers for the company’s fresh fruits, veggies and pasta.

Politecnico di Milano 2012. Team composed of : Katrina Encanto, Federica Fumagalli, Lina Loaiza, Mallika Mhatre,  Siliang Yi.

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