Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Philippine Parols on Fifth Avenue
*Each Parol lent to the display will have a tag with your family’s name on it.
Let these Stars of Hope serve as reminders that despite the challenges that face the Filipino people after a trying 2009, we continue to persevere, celebrating the season with hope, and looking with optimism to the promise of the New Year.
Please contact Ms. Zeny Avila at 212-575-4774 to schedule receipt of the Parols during office hours from November 25 to December 4. Bring your family (and your cameras!) to our Lantern-Lighting event on Saturday, December 5, 2009, at 5PM, before the Simbang Gabi at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Your Parols will remain part of the Stars of Hope display until 8 January 2010, and shall be returned thereafter.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Happy David and Brian Tenorio's DESIGNER FUNDRAISER -- OCT10 NYC
HAPPY DAVID and BRIAN TENORIO's joint birthday celebration to raise funds for ONDOY victims!!! OCT 10, 3-7pm at Bayan Café, then 9pm at PS450 Lounge at Park Ave.
- To all our friends in Fashion, Design, Gradschool (Pratt, Parsons, FIT, NYU, Harvard, Fordham, Cornell, Columbia), Healthcare, Entertainment, PR, Development Work, Humanitarian Work, Professional Orgs, and everyone else
- TWO GET TOGETHERS IN ONE DAY -- you can go to either one or both:
- If you feel like showing your support through simpler and less party-ing means, you can join us and our friends for a simple Kapihan at Bayan Café from 3 to 7pm (some get together over coffee/drinks--KKB. Our attendees are requested to pay for their own food as this is a fundraiser. We shall have a small table in the premises for collecting donations.)
- Or if you feel like meeting interesting people and making more friends, please join our mixer/socials at the PS450 Lounge at 9pm. (cash bar with no cover/no door charge).
- Ayala Foundation USA will be helping out in collections and giving receipts for your donations. Cash or checks ok.
- Any one person who donates the largest amount will be given TWO TICKETS (a $110 value) for IMELDA THE NEW MUSICAL (Oct 13 to 16 shows) (--raffle rules may change during the event). The play is directed by Tim Dang, based on the book by Sachi Oyama; music by Nathan Wang. More info at www.panasianrep.org. The tickets are compliments of the Pan Asian Repertory Theater. (Thank you, Ms Tisa Chang!)
- Please forward this to your friends, specially the ones in New York -- Filipino or otherwise, as my crowd will be mixed too. To forward this invite, just direct them to www.briantenorio.com. They can also call me (Brian) at +1 (347) 556 2799.
We shall also be giving out our buttons free for donors and supporters. If you can't make it to the event, please email me atinfo@briantenorio.com so we can find ways to send you these buttons.
From Brian:
My actual birthday was last Sept 26 (same day as the flood). And my home is actually in Provident Village, Marikina. I've so many friends and family members in that village. Some neighbors died and a lot of people from the city were affected as well. Our bungalow was totally submerged in water -- nothing was saved. Even all our pets died. This is a fund raising event for the flood victims and the poorer people in Marikina City (and other areas in Manila). -- Brian Tenorio
That's all that I can actually offer for now -- a great crowd! -- my beautiful (in and out) and intelligent and cool friends, great company and the pleasure of introducing everyone to everyone else. Please, please, please be there.
More about Brian Tenorio at http://portfolio.briantenorio.
Monday, September 21, 2009
From the CATATLYST Blog: Designs that Displace Desire
from CATALYST | Strategic Design Review
http://catalystsdr.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/designs-that-displace-desire/
http://catalystsdr.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/designs-that-displace-desire/
Designs that Displace Desire
June 4, 2009
By Guest Blogger Brian Tenorio
John Maeda, in his book The Laws of Simplicity (The MIT Press, 2006), said design could take on one of three strategies: shrink, hide, or embody. While this may be significant these days as we churn out simpler, smaller, and more task-oriented devices and products, we are still creating new things. The new generation iPod meant to replace the older generations will do exactly that, replace the older units – still more stuff.
The Designs that Displace Desire (DDD) forum is a platform for discussing design solutions that encourage less consumption and emphasize the lasting value of existing items. Designs that Displace Desire is definitely not about poorly designed products that make you not want to buy. DDD is actually effective design that promotes thought, careful reflection, and a satisfaction or happiness in discovering new value in currently owned products. It can be a new use for an item that presents itself in a time-determined manner: for example, jeans that just look better after you’ve had them so long that they are worn out, eventually becoming irreplaceable. In fact, thinking about it, that may be one of the best examples of DDD.
So are we tasked here to think of how to design nothing or to stop designing? Not really. The goal is to create designs or experiences that stop us from constantly wanting other things.
In summation, since design can drive desire and consumption, it also has the ability to provide long-term satisfaction. The idea is not really about doing more with less, but doing more with what we’ve already got. Also while this call-for-comments may seem to be propaganda for anti-consumerism, it is primarily a call for excellence in design. Designs that determine satisfaction and contentment are about focusing on what we have and what we have acquired and not what we are denying ourselves.
What is total quality management? What is worse-is-better? What is value-creation? What is recycling? How will the economy be affected if non-consumption becomes popular (as it is not yet the case)? Why buy? Why not notbuy?
Please leave comments and thoughts about DESIGNS DISPLACING DESIRE here or e-mail them to: info@briantenorio.com. From your comments we shall produce a more substantial article that discusses designs that stop at nothing.
Tehran-born, Filipino-American BRIAN TENORIO is a New York-based designer, multi-awarded in print and graphic design, business and entrepreneurship, and recently in accessories design (his label was included in the 2008 book 50 Must Buys in Manila). A former correspondent of Benetton’s COLORS Magazine, Tenorio finished the Managing the Arts Program at the Asian Institute of Management. One of Manila’s most influential and widely-publicized creatives, Brian Tenorio is currently with the Design Management Program of Pratt Institute. Visit his blog, Only Superlatives, athttp://briantenorio.blogspot.com.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Farewell Piece, circa 08-08-08
Farewell Piece, circa 08-08-08
BRIAN TENORIO: FAREWELL, MANILA
Filipino-American Designer Brian Tenorio
Takes-off for New York
in Marikina-made Designer Boots
Shoe label Tenorio Manila’s DREAMS Collection is Brian Tenorio’s parting anthology as he leaves for his sabbatical in New York this fall of 2008. The following text was written by Brian Tenorio, the Filipino designer label's Design Principal.
The foundation of all dreams is hope. Hope could then be the theme of my 2007 to 2008. It has been a while since I’ve released a statement as myself and not as the design principal of my label. You see, these two perspectives, while specially intertwined, have very different directions. Let me then write in the first person and share some learning I have from my beginnings in this industry, my short time in shoe design, and some insight on what is next. This is a “fashion show in print” in ways, as I do not attempt to showcase what is ready to wear, or what is hip. The goal of this text (and incidentally my Dreams Collection) is to inform and alert, remember, inspire, agitate, enliven, and hopefully widen the confines of what we think is real and necessary, to celebrate what is Filipino and Filipinized, and what we think is us and ours.
Creating My Mold (or Revelations as I was Beginning)
While writing this text, I am surrounded by prototypes of styles for my next set – a shoe made up of leathers from eight animal species, a shoe decked with Swarovski crystals, a pair adorned with jade, pearls, or leather straps inlaid with onyx.
What was essential when I started my work as a shoe designer was creating something from nothing. I meant to not simply produce “my version of” but to create pieces that were essentially me, footwear that spoke Filipino but sympathized with the musings and stories from the rest of the world. It was easy. Understand your environment, and produce something from it without leaving. Stay.
The result were shoe styles that could never be thought of as take-offs or “inspired from” from other foreign labels. These pieces were Filipino because a Filipino made them. A guava tree will bear guava fruits, and never apples. (And certainly not apples that look like guavas!) Hence, the molds were formed from silhouettes I dreamt of, roughened up and smoothened by challenges in production and kind words from family and friends, or people I met in the process.
The next stage in beginning things is understanding your own needs, wants, and desires. There is a difference between these three. Needs are details that will allow a designer to survive. Wants, when gotten, complete our undertakings, and allow us to do another cycle of work. Desires, when fulfilled, perfect our message and uplift the craft. Money is a need, exhibition is a want, and self-evolution is a desire. These are examples of each.
Kidskin Lining (and Other Realizations)
Work with What is Available
What is available is what can be imagined. I used to feel very sad thinking that we have very limited access to technology and materials from this country. Then I studied carefully what we have already. Since we have a limited selection of leather, I improved on my form, silhouettes, patterns, and cuts. With my mold makers, I engineered my own silhouette and contoured the slopes myself by hand. With the same kind of perforations on my shoes, I formed new shapes and figures, and created meaning and readings from them. Make what is necessary and beautiful, available.
Do Not Embellish the Exterior, Instead, Illuminate on the Essence
Younger designers will have the tendency to add or accessorize in order to highlight the value of their subjects. But really, what does not add, only subtracts and what they mean to bring out can actually already be there, lost in the layers of interpretation in colors, textures, and fabric. What young designers must work for is to illuminate the essence of their pieces. What are they about? What about these creations will improve the world, or at least, enrich an individual? What truth does it communicate? Where is the love?
You Exhale the Same Stuff You Breathe In
One should give more credit and value to his or her surroundings, for one's environment will be the basis of his ideas, dreams, and directions. A question that took me a long time to figure out was what made my styles Filipino (specially considering that I was not even born in this country—was born in Tehran, Iran—and also was on dual citizenship, Filipino and American). The answer revealed itself to me once during a talk I gave at the Asian Institute of Management. If you breathe it in, you tend to breathe the same thing out. We should then make this environment, this society, these islands, a very beautiful experience, a wonderful happy story, and most importantly a haven of love and learning for our children. We should make staying worth it, or leaving as a chance to spread the glories of Filipiniana.
Third World Blitz
(As I write this, I am listening to Five Years by the 90's Filipino band, Sugar Hiccup.) The concept of the “rest of the world” introduced to most of our generation in Benetton's campaigns in the early 90s, is back not only because the trend pendulum's tendency is to swing back, but also because we are part of the rest of the world. Apparently, while we look at what's happening in the world's fashion capitals, the creatives from these regions are also looking at us. And although we have been used to reading endearing blogs written by Filipinos about what’s hot in New York, Paris, or Tokyo, I have this theory that we can be the best only at being ourselves. We are the authority when it comes to being Filipino. The next step is to be better at how we are, and I am sure people will notice (as they have already in the last few years and the next ones, I hope).
The Silhouettes of the Future (Conversely, what dreams are made of)
The future of Philippine shoe design, I realized, may not be found in the already set-up industries in Marikina and in other regions in the Philippines. Philippine shoe design (well at least those that will come to be) now also exists in a new sector of industry—our shoe designers. Since the earlier days of Tenorio Manila in 2004, shoe design now is a recognized career option for a lot of our younger design students. Also, there are now more “out there” shoe designers with their own labels.
I feel that the future of Philippine Shoe Design should have its foundation secured onto these three different concepts:
Ecology: Love Your Environment
Tenorio Manila allows flaws in its leather, realizing that the world’s natural resources are limited and that the supply should be, as much as possible, shared equitably. Therefore, any animal, whether maimed, stricken, or nurtured with love, possesses a similar essence with any other creature. Leather from any origin deserves the same respect and integrity when finally laid onto any pair. A scar or a bite, or any similar flaw, are only markings of the creature’s story. These marks do not affect the strength and durability of the leather. This realization now outlines Tenorio Manila’s understanding of what makes a particular material good, and another, better.
Ethnology: Love Local to Go Global
I think that the world is already saturated with mixed-up ideas and a mélange of substance from everywhere, so that anything that is sincere, in pure-form, or is historically-intact turns out to be more valuable.
We then must embrace our culture and history and try to grow within them. We used to be the best shoemakers in the continent and we can be that again. The change can happen starting with the consumers by increasing the demand for Philippine-made shoes. On the other hand, improvement can happen if Filipino designers and manufacturers strive to produce better products.
Phenomenology: Go Personal to Love Global
To believe in human achievement through small personal victories is a truth I've learned (maybe again as an adult this time, in the last few years). If you pay attention very well to how you think and how you act, you will realize that within you are the same patterns of want, desire, and hunger that are present when commodities and goods are traded on a larger global level.
The Golden Age of Philippine-made designer shoes is not about quantity but quality and design. Our local manufacturers and industries should maybe welcome the designer. Shoe design means actually making wearable pairs and not just drafting fantastic illustrations. And to make real pairs, one must have the raw materials, equipment, machinery and skilled craftsmen. These components while readily found and available in our existing companies are not necessarily accessible to designers. When I was starting, the hardest part was to figure out who could make my shoes for me. And when I found some shoemakers and companies, the next obstacles was finding a way to get them to want to make for me. The third challenge involves re-training a set of craftsmen to create high-end shoes again. Decades and decades of making cheap pairs aimed to be competitive with cheaper imports from all over Asia has made it more difficult for these artisans to make very good shoes again.
The golden age of Philippine-made shoes is not about quantity but quality and design. The future of the Philippine shoe design industry is not only borne out of volumes of leather, or put together in man-hours in factories, or is written out in policies by government, but is first formed by the dreams and imagination of the hardworking creative.
BRIAN TENORIO: FAREWELL, MANILA
Filipino-American Designer Brian Tenorio
Takes-off for New York
in Marikina-made Designer Boots
Shoe label Tenorio Manila’s DREAMS Collection is Brian Tenorio’s parting anthology as he leaves for his sabbatical in New York this fall of 2008. The following text was written by Brian Tenorio, the Filipino designer label's Design Principal.
The foundation of all dreams is hope. Hope could then be the theme of my 2007 to 2008. It has been a while since I’ve released a statement as myself and not as the design principal of my label. You see, these two perspectives, while specially intertwined, have very different directions. Let me then write in the first person and share some learning I have from my beginnings in this industry, my short time in shoe design, and some insight on what is next. This is a “fashion show in print” in ways, as I do not attempt to showcase what is ready to wear, or what is hip. The goal of this text (and incidentally my Dreams Collection) is to inform and alert, remember, inspire, agitate, enliven, and hopefully widen the confines of what we think is real and necessary, to celebrate what is Filipino and Filipinized, and what we think is us and ours.
Creating My Mold (or Revelations as I was Beginning)
While writing this text, I am surrounded by prototypes of styles for my next set – a shoe made up of leathers from eight animal species, a shoe decked with Swarovski crystals, a pair adorned with jade, pearls, or leather straps inlaid with onyx.
What was essential when I started my work as a shoe designer was creating something from nothing. I meant to not simply produce “my version of” but to create pieces that were essentially me, footwear that spoke Filipino but sympathized with the musings and stories from the rest of the world. It was easy. Understand your environment, and produce something from it without leaving. Stay.
The result were shoe styles that could never be thought of as take-offs or “inspired from” from other foreign labels. These pieces were Filipino because a Filipino made them. A guava tree will bear guava fruits, and never apples. (And certainly not apples that look like guavas!) Hence, the molds were formed from silhouettes I dreamt of, roughened up and smoothened by challenges in production and kind words from family and friends, or people I met in the process.
The next stage in beginning things is understanding your own needs, wants, and desires. There is a difference between these three. Needs are details that will allow a designer to survive. Wants, when gotten, complete our undertakings, and allow us to do another cycle of work. Desires, when fulfilled, perfect our message and uplift the craft. Money is a need, exhibition is a want, and self-evolution is a desire. These are examples of each.
Kidskin Lining (and Other Realizations)
Work with What is Available
What is available is what can be imagined. I used to feel very sad thinking that we have very limited access to technology and materials from this country. Then I studied carefully what we have already. Since we have a limited selection of leather, I improved on my form, silhouettes, patterns, and cuts. With my mold makers, I engineered my own silhouette and contoured the slopes myself by hand. With the same kind of perforations on my shoes, I formed new shapes and figures, and created meaning and readings from them. Make what is necessary and beautiful, available.
Do Not Embellish the Exterior, Instead, Illuminate on the Essence
Younger designers will have the tendency to add or accessorize in order to highlight the value of their subjects. But really, what does not add, only subtracts and what they mean to bring out can actually already be there, lost in the layers of interpretation in colors, textures, and fabric. What young designers must work for is to illuminate the essence of their pieces. What are they about? What about these creations will improve the world, or at least, enrich an individual? What truth does it communicate? Where is the love?
You Exhale the Same Stuff You Breathe In
One should give more credit and value to his or her surroundings, for one's environment will be the basis of his ideas, dreams, and directions. A question that took me a long time to figure out was what made my styles Filipino (specially considering that I was not even born in this country—was born in Tehran, Iran—and also was on dual citizenship, Filipino and American). The answer revealed itself to me once during a talk I gave at the Asian Institute of Management. If you breathe it in, you tend to breathe the same thing out. We should then make this environment, this society, these islands, a very beautiful experience, a wonderful happy story, and most importantly a haven of love and learning for our children. We should make staying worth it, or leaving as a chance to spread the glories of Filipiniana.
Third World Blitz
(As I write this, I am listening to Five Years by the 90's Filipino band, Sugar Hiccup.) The concept of the “rest of the world” introduced to most of our generation in Benetton's campaigns in the early 90s, is back not only because the trend pendulum's tendency is to swing back, but also because we are part of the rest of the world. Apparently, while we look at what's happening in the world's fashion capitals, the creatives from these regions are also looking at us. And although we have been used to reading endearing blogs written by Filipinos about what’s hot in New York, Paris, or Tokyo, I have this theory that we can be the best only at being ourselves. We are the authority when it comes to being Filipino. The next step is to be better at how we are, and I am sure people will notice (as they have already in the last few years and the next ones, I hope).
The Silhouettes of the Future (Conversely, what dreams are made of)
The future of Philippine shoe design, I realized, may not be found in the already set-up industries in Marikina and in other regions in the Philippines. Philippine shoe design (well at least those that will come to be) now also exists in a new sector of industry—our shoe designers. Since the earlier days of Tenorio Manila in 2004, shoe design now is a recognized career option for a lot of our younger design students. Also, there are now more “out there” shoe designers with their own labels.
I feel that the future of Philippine Shoe Design should have its foundation secured onto these three different concepts:
Ecology: Love Your Environment
Tenorio Manila allows flaws in its leather, realizing that the world’s natural resources are limited and that the supply should be, as much as possible, shared equitably. Therefore, any animal, whether maimed, stricken, or nurtured with love, possesses a similar essence with any other creature. Leather from any origin deserves the same respect and integrity when finally laid onto any pair. A scar or a bite, or any similar flaw, are only markings of the creature’s story. These marks do not affect the strength and durability of the leather. This realization now outlines Tenorio Manila’s understanding of what makes a particular material good, and another, better.
Ethnology: Love Local to Go Global
I think that the world is already saturated with mixed-up ideas and a mélange of substance from everywhere, so that anything that is sincere, in pure-form, or is historically-intact turns out to be more valuable.
We then must embrace our culture and history and try to grow within them. We used to be the best shoemakers in the continent and we can be that again. The change can happen starting with the consumers by increasing the demand for Philippine-made shoes. On the other hand, improvement can happen if Filipino designers and manufacturers strive to produce better products.
Phenomenology: Go Personal to Love Global
To believe in human achievement through small personal victories is a truth I've learned (maybe again as an adult this time, in the last few years). If you pay attention very well to how you think and how you act, you will realize that within you are the same patterns of want, desire, and hunger that are present when commodities and goods are traded on a larger global level.
The Golden Age of Philippine-made designer shoes is not about quantity but quality and design. Our local manufacturers and industries should maybe welcome the designer. Shoe design means actually making wearable pairs and not just drafting fantastic illustrations. And to make real pairs, one must have the raw materials, equipment, machinery and skilled craftsmen. These components while readily found and available in our existing companies are not necessarily accessible to designers. When I was starting, the hardest part was to figure out who could make my shoes for me. And when I found some shoemakers and companies, the next obstacles was finding a way to get them to want to make for me. The third challenge involves re-training a set of craftsmen to create high-end shoes again. Decades and decades of making cheap pairs aimed to be competitive with cheaper imports from all over Asia has made it more difficult for these artisans to make very good shoes again.
The golden age of Philippine-made shoes is not about quantity but quality and design. The future of the Philippine shoe design industry is not only borne out of volumes of leather, or put together in man-hours in factories, or is written out in policies by government, but is first formed by the dreams and imagination of the hardworking creative.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
World Filipiniana: the new definition of global Filipino design
by Brian Tenorio New York, 2009
I was shopping once in Sydney for a nice coat for my sister. After several hours of going through different stores, I saw this Asian female with a nice top. I asked her where she got her nice jacket. She said, “Oh, I got this in Bayo, but it’s a store in the Philippines, you know?” In fact, yes, I do know. Since then, my travails have been more of shopping for experiences and food trips rather than shopping for clothes. The clothes I buy or have made in Manila.
So what is Filipino Design? What is World-Filipiniana?
Believe me, this will be the most important detail to know if you are a designer outside of the Philippines, temporarily or otherwise. Before being identified by your own name, you will be thought of as Filipino. That, I think, is a good thing.
Let us define Filipiniana first. Salvacion Arlante and Rodolfo Tarlit’s report, The State-of-the-Art of Filipiniana Collections in the Philippines, outlines a comprehensive definition: “Books and non-book materials about the Philippines, produced in or outside the Philippines, by Filipinos or non-Filipinos, in any of the Philippine languages, or in a foreign language.” Ateneo de Manila professor and sociologist, Dr. Fernando Zialcita, provides a more succinct and workable definition: “things from the Philippines (politics, environment, literature, art films, etc.) or to things that define the Philippines as such.” The Tinikling, San Miguel Beer Pale Pilsen, butterfly-sleeves, etc., these products are easy to identify as Filipiniana.
World-Filipiniana, on the other hand, is that area in space where products are Filipino either by origin, design, or execution with qualities that take on the global aesthetic. That “global aesthetic” feature is really what makes World Filipiniana different from just Filipiniana. You can’t exactly pinpoint where these products are from but upon further inspection or maybe a deeper reading, you will realize the Filipino components and qualities that are present in their make, materials, style, themes, or references. The music of The Out of Body Special (featured by Time Magazine), Vogue Magazine favorite Minaudieres by Celestina, Bert del Rosario’s Karaoke–these are much, much more difficult to identify as Filipino if you are not from the Philippins. In fact, even for most Filipinos everywhere else, these tickets are difficult to make out as ours – is it because they are not made out of capiz, or are not as aromatic as adobo, or that they lack that certain rhythmic percussive beat? They may not readily seem familiar but Filipino design is embodied in these products. That is World Filipiniana: from Philippine-design but of a global aesthetic.
Harnessing these and identifying these products as World Filipiniana creates more value for Philippine design. More value can eventually translate to profits or opportunities.
World Filipiniana as a creative asset
World Filipiniana adds an extra dimension to this definition by emphasizing sustainability through profit. How can more of excellent things be made if there is no demand? Sustainability means that there is enough demand for and profit in it so that the product can perpetuate itself into the future. Anchoring the definition of World Filipiniana to value and sustainability only means that it is a creative asset (or a tool for driving profits). Recognition, honor, and the love of country are cool motivations as well, but a product or design must be profitable of value in order for it to be made, propagated, and distributed. That must be realized by more Filipino creatives and designers in the Philippines and from all over.
I quote Von Totanes (filipinolibrarian.blogspot.com) when he asks: “Why is it that more Filipinos than foreigners are Googling 'Philippines,' while more non-Thais, relatively speaking, are searching for ‘Thailand’? Could it be that only Filipinos want to find out about the Philippines?” Is there a demand for things Filipino? If Googling countries is likened to consumers shopping for brands, then we would have to agree with the Design Management Institute (DMI.org) article that says “…brands are no longer just products. People can be brands, companies can be brands—even countries can be brands” (Corporate Brand and Packaging Design written by Jack Vogler, 2002). Objects from around the world can be identified as World Filipiniana–that is our brand and we must use that to our advantage.
Identify-Update-Participate
Firstly, the Filipino creative must correctly identify as many things as possible as World Filipiniana. These or of the Philippines, we must own them.
Second, we must re-acquaint ourselves with Philippine design history while updating on our knowledge of trends, methods, and sources. This is one of the main reasons why an updated definition is important. “World Filipiniana” creates a new perspective and a new dimension to practices and products, systematically adding more value.
Third, we should learn from cultures around the world. Really, the global traffic of products and ideas are about supply and demand –when there is less demand than supply, when there is limited space for recognition and consciousness, things become more competitive. Best beaches, friendliest, happiest, etc—these superlatives we can claim for ourselves and we should! We would also create more value for our country while we are at it.
Fourth, we must participate in the global dialogue of design as Filipinos. We should be devoted to the proliferation of the Filipino product. It may be one of the few things in this world that can unite our nation.
And lastly, expand and develop Philippine design. A Filipiniana-inspired gown is not only about using indigenous fabrics and tribal patterns, but may also use subtler references. The Filipiniana is integrated into the essence of the design—the meaning is enriched, and with that, the piece may even be more wearable in a New York afterparty, Paris soirée, or Tokyo tryst!
Pride + Practice = Progress
A chat with Boston-based Filipino-American artist and designer, Bren Bataclan (bataclan.com) has resulted in more ideas about nation building through education on Filipino aesthetics. “Aesthetic” is a strong word as it is not only a description, but also an influence, a motivation, a sensibility, and core feature from which all things created flow. Bataclan asserts that the Filipino aesthetic “could be the next big thing” as it has been in several industries, here and there, from time to time. He goes on by saying that pride is intrinsic to the success of Philippine design. I will add to that and say that pride plus practice equal progress for our culture and economy.
I gave a talk once at the Asian Institute of Management. Seeing that some of my designs did not seem to have direct references to Philippine culture, one of the participants asked me what made my designs Filipino. It made me think why she thought that it should have been one of my goals. From hindsight, I think my answer then was very honest, and can be considered practicable knowledge for other Filipino designers. If you breathe in Filipino, you tend to exhale Filipino as well. World Filipiniana—whether predetermined or otherwise— is our contribution to this universe. It is ours, and in so many ways, it is us.
Iranian-born, Filipino-American BRIAN TENORIO is a New York-based designer, multi-awarded in print and graphic design, business and entrepreneurship, and recently in accessories design (his label was included in the 2008 book 50 Must Buys in Manila). As a multi-disciplinary creative, Tenorio is launching a new designer line of sustainably made caskets, Lux Mortem, and two designer coloring books this 2009. Tenorio finished from the Ateneo de Manila University and the Managing the Arts Program of the Asian Institute of Management. He is currently with the Design Management Program of Pratt Institute in New York and a member of the Design Management Institute. Post comments on his blog, Only Superlatives, at http://blog.briantenorio.com.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
As a designer/creative in the Philippines, name something (anything) that you wish would happen or be available in our country.
Brian Tenorio SURVEY: As a designer/creative in the Philippines, name something (anything) that you wish would happen or be available in our country. Maybe something that would help you or empower you to improve on your skills/craft/work.
9 hours ago · Comment · Like
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
we have good writers but unfortunately, we are not a country of readers. we have good visual artists but not a lot can afford to invest in paintings. you grow a good market base and the art scene will pretty much run itself.
and as a provincial based designer:
"people should be aware that manila is not the whole philippines"
the cost of doing business in other asian countries is relatively predictable and stable. we are not the only asian country with the kickback/lagay system. the only difference is (i heard from a speaker on good governance), the amount given in the lagay system in other asian countries is "set" and doesn't vary as much. whereas here, it depends on who's brokering a deal.