You are invited to Abi’s exhibit at The Yuchengco Museum is at RCBC Plaza.

Does creativity run in the family? Or is it a matter of elders passing on their trade or inspiring their children?

The Yuchengco Museum highlights Tsinoy artists and designers through a special exhibit titled Full Circle: Creativity Moving Through Generations, which opens on April 13. Full Circle brings together five families of Sino-Filipino artists whose works highlight the flow of creativity from one generation to the next.

Full Circle presents the creative expressions of an older generation of Filipino-Chinese artists and designers juxtaposed against the creations of their sons and daughters. Illustrating both common themes and individual styles, the exhibit also examines the artists’ work within the context of their times and pursuits. Among the featured creative kin are the Cobonpue, Goys, Lim-Higgins,Magsaysay-Ho, and Syjuco families.

Full Circle: Creativity Moving Through Generations runs until June 30. The Yuchengco Museum is at RCBC Plaza, corner Ayala and Sen. Gil J. Puyat Avenues, Makati City. Museum hours are Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. To RSVP and for more information, call 889-1234 or e-mail info@yuchengcomuseum.org.

In her art, Liza uses a collage of acrylic on paper, assembled like a paper tole. Including both existing and new artworks, she continues the theme of stillness, of capturing that which is fleeting. With each artwork, the viewer pauses, then moves on. Within each pause, a moment opens up to a hint of a larger vision.

Also on display are artworks used as illustrations for children’s books, like Ang Mabait na Kalabaw, The Star Thrower, and Mga Kuwento ni Lola Bayang’s Rosamistica.

We love maps. So when Ivan Man Dy contacted us, we jumped at chance to design a map for him. For us, it was an ideal combination of information graphics and illustration – a good workout for any designer.

We got approval for the final design on schedule and Ivan was able to release the map in December 31, 2009, ahead of his target of Chinese New Year. The map is free if you join his food tour, but it’s also available for sale, for those who want to follow the map on their own.

The map has proven to be popular and has received great feedback across the blogosphere:

• Ivan About Town
• dong ho’s eskapo 3.0
• Ferdz Decena’s Ironwulf.net: En Route
• Nina Fuentes’ Just Wandering
• Rain Walk
• lagal[og]
• happy foodies

The final printed map measured 24×10.5 inches spread out, and when folded 4×10.5 inches (6 folds), with full-color printing on both sides of a C2S 100gsm coated (gloss) paper. This was a little bigger than the original specification of “around 12×19 inches”, but the overriding goal was to make it handy and useful at the same time.

Ivan contacted us in July 2009 and was looking for a tourist map to complement his famous Chinatown walking tour. The demand for a handy map has always been high, but this time he had the idea of an ad-supported map that can be given away for free during tours.

Aside from the information graphic of the map, it needed a directory of tourist sites and establishments, their ads and coupons, plus some write-ups about Old Manila Walks and the history of Chinatown. Ivan provided all the content.

While the ads made the map feasible, the key to the success was the map itself. It had to be accurate, easy to use, easy to learn, and it had to be visually appealing. In terms of graphic style, it had to stand out from all other maps of Manila, tourist maps or otherwise.

While we enjoyed the challenge, it was very important that the client, Ivan, worked with us closely across many iterations of the map design. He provided valuable feedback on the overall look and down to specific graphic details of the map. The map had to be right, it had to be perfect – and this was only possible with the kind of working relationship we had with the client.

Once the final map design and layout was approved, the front and back covers came next. The longest and final step was getting the content completed and proofread. The regular exchange between us and Ivan, of revisions and feedback, was critical to getting the map to the final stage.

Happy Birthday Liza!

We just had to complicate things. Each letter is written in a font which starts with that letter. And, each illustration for a letter is a word which starts with that letter in BOTH Filipino and English.

With CY + PJ of Inodoro

With Nelz of Dark Bulb

With Nico + Katwo of 27+20

With Electrolychee

Ariel and Ray with their batchmates

VS2 Totes for sale! Get your totes now!

With Christian San Jose

With Russell of The Farm

With Ryan + Garovs of Everywhere We Shoot

With Mike Sicam

With Ivan + Pauline of Acid House Post

At Mike’s workshop/warehouse/printing facility, we decided to choreograph a fight scene because that’s exactly how the place looks like! An action movie setting where gangsters hide and have fight scenes. This is Abi coaching Ariel for his fight scene. But Mike arrived before we even got started.

We had to pick up our frame before we head to Alliance for ingress. Mike is our ever dependable digital printer and go to guy for anything that needs to be produced urgently and still pulido. Mike is our hero.

Installing the ABC tiles into the frame.

Ika nga ni Mary Poppins, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”

Perfect fit!

Exhibit Signage + Twisted Fork’s Hot Shower

Ariel found a friend in Skeleton Boy by Springboard.

So did Ray

Vgrafiks installing their piece on the magic carpet.

That’s Nelz Yumul aka Dark Bulb helping out Vgrafiks with their installation.

It’s our turn with Mang Albert who put up almost all the artworks with the snap of his fingers! Thank You Mang Albert! You rock!

Ariel & Ray helping out Mang Albert with our piece

The reveal!

Studio Dialogo’s ABC: Side A

Side B

Dan (Twisted Fork) + Dang installing the Hot Shower

Looking good, Dan!

Finished installation by Vgrafiks

Ryan (Everywhere We Shoot) with Liza mounting their piece

This one is by PJ + CY of Inodoro Design. They also designed the VS2 Exhibit Logo! Maraming Salamat PJ + CY from the top & bottom of our hearts!

Ingress was easy & relaxed

Yep! It’s definitely working Dan!

This is Ariel + Ray, our newest recruits! Good job!

This is Abi!

This is Abi + Liza

The quartet

Skeleton Boy by Springboard from the rear

Of course, si Kuya Robert!

Kuya Robert + Bru admiring Dan’s mobile

Kuya Robert mounting his artwork

Ingress is usually a good time to catch up with each other’s lives! This is a catch up scene.

Three years after the seminal Project Versus graphic design exhibition, 18 Pinoy design studios—from industry stalwarts to envelope-pushing youngbloods, come together for Versus 2 this 2009. Inspired by legendary designer, Milton Glasers Designism movement, Versus 2 is a charity exhibit benefiting two fledgling NGOs that champion the arts: The Farm Projects http://thefarmprojects.org and Outlook Pointe Foundation OPF http://theopf.org .

Furthering the social thrust of the exhibition, the various artworks will revolve around the eight life-changing Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations http://un.org/millenniumgoals .

VS2: Design Changes will prove two things: that graphic design is an ever-evolving art form, and that—as an engine of modern communication, it is an excellent platform for social change.

Featuring works by:
27+20 / ACIDHOUSE / CHRISTIAN SAN JOSE / DARKBULB / ELECTROLYCHEE / EVERYWHEREWESHOOT / GE MAPA / INODORO / MIKE SICAM / ROBERT ALEJANDRO / SPRINGBOARD / STUDIO DIALOGO / TEAM MANILA / TWISTED FORK / VGRAFIKS

VS2 runs from August 13 – September 4, 2009.
Opening Night on Aug. 13, 2009, 8pm
@ Alliance Francaise de Manille
209 Nicanor Garcia Street, Bel-Air II, Makati City, PHILIPPINES
Tel. 8957585 / 8957441

http://versusmanila.com

VS2 is part of the Manila Design Week

Some of them are available on the YouTube, Vimeo:

And some can be found elsewhere on the Web:

• Rabbit Punch by Kristian Andrews
• Toy Angel by Zalina Bideeva
• The Spine by Chris Landreth

Title: Daisy Chain

Venue: Pablo Galleries, Cubao X, Metro Manila

Date: July 11 – August 6, 2009

Join us at the opening on July 11, 6:00PM. Be there or be square.

About the exhibit:

Abi Goy and Liza Flores have known each other since 1992 and have since shared a passion for art, illustration, and design. While their styles and visions are unique from each other, their careers and preoccupations have often crisscrossed and connected.

In this exhibit, they make a conscious attempt to let their art feed into each other. Each artist contributes to half of a series of 12 artworks, each work alternating and introducing the next. One object in an artwork will be found in the next – random objects like a bicycle, a mustache, a high-heeled shoe, an umbrella – creating a semantic chain that loops around the entire exhibit, with meaning endlessly being passed on and displaced.

Their divergent techniques and media also contribute to the excitement of viewing, adding more layers of interpretation. Abi Goy uses mixed media, while Liza Flores uses a collage of acrylic on paper, assembled like a paper tole.