The Graphika Manila experience

Last weekend, Elaine and I went to the most-awaited art event in the Philippines, Graphika Manila. It was a rainy morning. I had an outfit planned for a sunny day since the day before that was hot and sunny but because Philippine weather is too awesome and bipolar --- it rained. So screw that outfit I planned for hours. I just randomly picked anything that wraps me warm.

Before SMX, we didn't know which part there we're going. When we arrived at SMX, we already knew where to go -- at that part where the lines are tripled downstairs and doubled upstairs. We got our kits and then the magic started.

The opening title played.

You can hear all the wows from the crowd. As for me, I was also amazed by the awesomeness of the editing. Everything went smoothly. The place was quiet except for the speakers, considering that the hall has over 3000 creative minds. I didn't even notice it's lunch time until my stomach told me I should be eating. Then we're back and then, boom... it was over. It was that fast. Time really flies when you're having fun. I was really enjoying the talks from the different artists. They all inspire me.

Here's a rundown of all the speakers and what they talked about.

1. 27+20 by Nico and Katwo Puertollano

They're based in Quezon City and they specialize in graphic design, photography, filming, etc. They create ads for TV commercials, music videos, documentaries, and short films.

They showed us one of their projects involving music videos. This one was made for Techy Romantics. I really find the white blob character sooooo adorable. (and the story in the video)

Last but not the least, I also learned from them two things. That...

Deadline is a friend, not an enemy.

This one is definitely true. I remember myself designing during org days in college...and deadline became our team's best friend. I did not consider that as a big hindrance to keeping myself from doing crap. Instead, I considered it as an advantage to focus myself on finishing the job and doing what I ought to do -- to create and to express.

Stay humble and hungry.

It's about trying to do and to be the best that you can. Socrates once said that "all I know is that I know nothing." To be hungry for more knowledge, and to keep learning endlessly and still admit that we are not perfect human beings.

2. Dan Matutina

I srsly love this man. He is full of awesome. Epic awesomesauce. Introductions? It's all about turon, the wonders of turon and why turon is so great. Turon aficionado here! His art is a combination of handmade + digital, dirty + clean. I love how he incorporates handmade textures and still manages to make everything look clean and really really beautiful.

I love how he always incorporates the Filipino culture in all of his works, especially things from Filipino folklore. You know --- manananggal, kapre, bakunawa and all those stuff. This one's an iPhone wallpaper I downloaded in Poolga contributed by Sir Dan himself. (Image was resized for my blog's uniform picture size requirement. OC person coming through. Click on the image to download it in its original size.)



I really dig that space manananggal concept. HAHA.

He teaches in UP Diliman - College of Fine Arts and he has a studio here in Katipunan. It's called Plus63 located at Unit 303 Prince David. I've been meaning to go there for a long time already --- but I'm too shy to goooooo. *hides in the corner*

3. Seph Mayol

This guy creates awesome illustrations. Elaine and I came in late after lunch so we weren't able to catch up with his whole talk. He's based in Cebu and he promotes art from people in the VisMin region.

His presentation highlight, for me, was the part when he presented an interactive program which translates human movement into abstract and colorful circular patterns on screen --- using camera and real-time image processing. (The memories of DSP and our image processing projects years ago.) Elaine finds this very familiar. Hello, hello, college thesis. HAHA.

4. Mike Friolo

The Filipino dude who's now based in Oregon, was the previous designer in Adidas and senior designer in Nike, and responsible for the Manny Pacquiao gears. He presented us the design process and evolution of his designs for the official Manny Pacquiao branding including the logo, crest, gears, apparels, etc.

Here is Mike's rendering of the official Pacquiao crest.

I really loved the carabao design but, well, Manny requested for the eagle. HAHA. I could not blame Manny. After all, the eagle is our national bird, right?

5. Laundry / PJ Richardson

Laundry is a design and animation studio in Los Angeles, CA. They make mostly commercial ads, music videos and interactive designs. They showed us an mv they made for Kanye West, an ad for Levi's, and an ad from Nike (?).

Here's one of their works I found on YouTube. This one was made for RealD 3D and Juicy Fruit. I can't find the one they showed during Graphika Manila (on YouTube, to embed here) but all their stuff can be seen on their site.

6. Weta Digital

Weta Digital has some awesome epic geeky/nerdy/artsy stuff. Try Google-ing them and behold the number of awesome movies they created visual effects for: Lord of the Rings, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, Matrix Revolutions, King Kong, Spiderman 2, X-Men, I Robot, etc. etc. and last but not the least... Avatar. They've won around six Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects. I think those were from LOTR and the latest was, of course, from James Cameron's Avatar.

They showed us the processes involved in creating visual effects for movies. I was just too amazed at every raw clip they show. It's not just pure design-design-animate... IT'S GOT EQUATIONS, BABYYYYY.

A Q&A part for all the speakers happened right after they finished. My jaw dropped even further when the guy from Weta Digital told us he never finished college. He took Physics and Computer Science...and then he got bored so he started this. Is it just me or there's something in common here with Bill Gates, Albert Einstein and Mr Smith from Weta?



Graphika Manila was way beyond awesome. It was an ultimate experience! I did not regret spending Php 1500 for this and...

I'm definitely coming back next year.