My original design, a low-res image of which has been on Flickr and my Cafepress store since 2008 is on the left. The copycat’s “design” is on the right (watermarked with the statement “property of Invitation House”. Yeah, right!)

Totally Creative Graphic Design Studio copied my design

A friend who was browsing the Invitation House stall in Trinoma gave me the heads up. I’ve already written the proprietor, Jess Marquez — who may or may not know that the design is a rip-off – and I certainly hope something will be done about this soon.

UPDATE (May 31, 2010) ~ my friend, Rock Ed/ReThink Media Group head Gang Badoy Capati blogged about it on Tumblr this afternoon and the owners quickly got in touch with her so she set a meeting for tonight. We met with them just a few hours ago along with lawyer/writer Oli Reyes and I think it’s safe to say that we were able to reach an agreement with them. Apparently a freelancer artist/OJT student submitted the design to them and passed it off as her own (boo!).

The owners of TCGS and Invitation House, Mr. & Mrs. Jess Marquez seem like a pleasant couple and it turns out that they are willing to settle the mishap properly. I’ll give you details once we’ve finalized it but right now I am just thankful for the support of lovely friends who blogged/tweeted about it and gave tons of advice on how to handle the issue. It’s not about me getting compensated, it’s really about standing up for the creation and protection of 100% ORIGINAL work.

UPDATE: June 8, 2010

I received a tip as to the name of the so-called “artist” who ripped off my design in this entry’s comments page. Can anyone else confirm if the info provided is correct? By now I hope she’s learned that tracing over someone else’s hard work is SO not the way to success.

But what exactly happened, you ask? Weeeell, I neglected this blog for too long that spam comments corrupted my WordPress installation and so I had to do a total overhaul. It gave me an excuse to de-clutter and fix this page though so no worries, it’s all good.

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Anyway, much went on since my last entry before the unintended hiatus.

1. Three issues of WE have been published (I hope you can check them out, dear brides and grooms to be)

2. WE’s E-I-C Marbee Go and I started blogging at www.weheartweddings.com

3. I designed the album packaging for our dear friends, the Itchyworms. (Yes, there really are “Itchyworms” canned goods and other items in the supermarkets, LOL.)

4. I’ve concentrated on managing and marketing our online shops, Poptastic Tees and The Paper Basket. If you live, or have relatives, in the States, I really would appreciate it if you can point them to the stores.

5. I also worked on many other stuff like wedding invitations (not really my thing but I would do it for friends… and for my brother of course who’s getting married in December), some more gocco-printing, helping out Arn with his projects, etc.

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I’d also like to invite you to Superficial ll: Frailty – a group show featuring the works of 33 female artists opening September 13, Saturday 7pm at Pablo Gallery, Cubao Expo.

The participating artists are Carina Almonte / Jessica Antonio / Cynthia Arre / Bru / Mara Bernaldo / Mica Cabildo / Bea Camacho / Denise Castillo / Abi Dacayap / Liza Flores / Lala Gallardo / Marie Gan / Garovs Garrovillo / Abi Goy / Honey Hipe / Wiji Lacsamana / Ene Lagunzad / Hannah Liongoren / Mitch Mauricio / Feanne Mauricio / Jhoan Medrano / Gabie Osorio / Katwo Puertollano / Genie Ranada / Sunshine Reyes / Pepper Roxas / Sharon See / Mia Singson / Joyce Tai / Lette Teodosio / Pauline Vicencio / Shawn Yao / MM Yu

More details here.
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Taken when I was designing either Pillbox or Fruitcake, 1996

Lastly, it seems that all of Manila is a-buzz about the upcoming Eraserheads reunion concert. Naturally Arn and I are going², given our history with the band so if you’re going, we’ll see you there.

Nest & Budz Loveteam, photo taken in 1997

1. Well I am 36 y.o. after all
2. AND through the generosity of our dear friends Buddy & Nest who invited us as early as July, before the complicated ticketing details were even announced.

‘Andong Agimat’ to the US film mart
By Bayani San Diego Jr.

MANILA, Philippines — Unitel head Tony Gloria has a new baby.

“This is my pet project,” he says of “Ang Mundo ni Andong Agimat,” a popular graphic novel by prize-winning author/illustrator Arnold Arre.

Gloria has acquired the rights to “Andong,” which he plans to produce into either a feature film or a TV series. Or both.

“It can start as a feature film and we can later turn it into a TV series,” he says.

For the role of Andong, Gloria is eyeing Robin Padilla.

“He’s not your typical hero. Andong’s a loner and an ex-convict,” he explains.

Unitel is preparing an audio-visual presentation on “Andong,” which Gloria will screen at the American Film Market, running from Oct. 31 to Nov. 7 in Santa Monica, California.

(You can read the entire article on the Inquirer site or in my Multiply blog)

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As you can tell, I am beyond happy that Arn and his fantastic book² are getting the recognition they deserve.³

If you haven’t read it yet⁴, “Ang Mundo ni Andong Agimat” is available at leading bookstores (Fully Booked, Powerbooks, National) and comic book outlets.

Related entries:
- Si Andong Agimat, andito na!
- More Andong, more projects.
- Si Andong Agimat, parating na!

New blog for Andong Agimat:
- http://andongagimat.blogspot.com

1. Although of course family & close friends have known about it for a couple of months now.
2. Ok, biased since I’m the wife, but I strongly think that Andong is one of the most ORIGINAL takes on the Pinoy superhero out there.
3. Much thanks go to Mr. Gloria, Unitel, and Arn’s agent Dennis Cruz. (:
4. Huwaaaat????

So since my last entry,

1. we’ve come out with a special issue of WE called Wedding Essentials Destinations.

It’s still the same, good ol’ WE but it’s a stand-alone issue that features dream wedding and honeymoon destinations in the Philippines: Baguio, Boracay, Batangas, Palawan, Tagaytay, Cebu, Tarlac, Quezon, Davao, and Cavite plus real destination weddings, fashion spreads and articles on planning out-of-town weddings. The magazine is available at all leading bookstores and mag stands for P200. Click here for a larger image of the cover.

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2. I opened my new shop, The Paper Basket². Paper Basket sells pretty patterned notecards & journals, funky wall clocks and other cool gifts that are unique to the store.

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Be sure to check back every once in a while because new items and designs are being added all the time!

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3. Arn and I went to Singapore with his family and stayed there for a week.

More photos here.

***

My dear friend Neva is behind skin care line Leyende and she makes the decadent skin care products herself from organic and all-natural ingredients from all over the world. Isn’t that amazing? She’s a writer too so expect nothing but the most creative product names: No Rumple Silk Skin Butter, Smoothie Operator bath & shower creams, Kiss, Kiss, Balm, Balm Lip Balm, and many more. I personally use Smoothie Operator in “Norte” and Clean Slate Multitasker³ everyday and I’m addicted to them! They smell heavenly and they leave my skin soft and clean without the greasy feeling. I actually can’t wait to use them up so I can try the other scents and products. For details on how to order, please visit the site.

***
I’ve also been staying up late the past months watching all the seasons of Felicity⁴, episodes of Veronica Mars⁵, and Heroes <– OMG did you watch the finale? Wasn’t it awesome? “Call me Noah”, woot! Leave a message to discuss if you like.

1. And yes, it’s been paid for til the end of the year.
2. using some of the earnings from Poptastic. Cafepress is so very worth it, the shops actually pay for themselves
3. Thank you dear Nev!
4. I’ve missed this show!
5. officially on it’s last season *sob*

Non-trad ad for The Yoga Center.

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In Non-traditional Advertising, ads are strategically positioned in the most unexpected places e.g. the sidewalk, a manhole cover, and as in the brilliant¹ example above, a straw. The trick is in fusing your big idea with the 3D properties of the medium without making the proposition seem contrived². On that note, I stumbled upon this really cool collection of Creative Ads Around The World I thought you might enjoy!

.

UPDATE: Mr. Katana of Hemmy.net is the real creator of the Creative Ads list, and not the webmaster of Eglobe1 like I originally linked to. Apparently Onion82 of Eglobe stole Mr. Katana’s entry and is passing it off as his³. Read more about it here.

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Heyheyhey, why don’t you deck out your windows with these dooper-cute Halloweenie windsocks our good friends Nina and Carlo designed⁴ :

They’re available in Maxitoylab Alabang Town Center and Maxiworks Powerplant Mall in Rockwell. They’re made of nylon, are 2.5 feet in length and 18 inches in diameter, and cost P150 each. Grab one now, yes?
***
It’s been said time and again that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Last July, our 2-year old magazine Wedding Essentials came out with a Special Issue called WE Beautiful Weddings featuring 25 real wedding stories and photos submitted and written by actual brides. We even included a “supplier box” listing down all the vendors each couple worked with.

Remember?

.
Fast forward to this month: look what our more-than-5-year-old rival mag did. For their, um, version, they also asked brides to write the stories themselves — something WE has been doing since the very first issue. At least the art direction is different but the overall concept and format was copied right down to the supplier box.⁵ Well, well, well, how utterly flattering!
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So if you love WE, pretty please wait for our next issue and do feel free to take a peek at the behind-the-scenes action via my phlog.

***

Arn and I will be away from home⁶ for a couple of weeks but I’ll see if I can post from where we’ll be. Seeya.

1. It’s so simple, it makes you go “why didn’t I think of that?”
2. I’ve actually seen it employed locally, some better executed than others though, but it’s good to know that the brand people are becoming more open to the non-conventional approach.
3. Sigh, aren’t we all victims of intellectual property thievery lately.
4. They’re sooo cute! I’m guessing that sock #s 1, 3, 4, and 5 are by Nina and #s 2 and 6 are by Carlo, correct?
5. The only difference is that ours was a true labor of love and not something borne out of marketing warfare.
6. …and our dear little Abbas

***

David Carson. He was the Nirvana and Pearl Jam of the visual movement in the 90s. His work on Raygun changed the way I looked at graphic design forever — now here was someone who came up with attention-grabbing work by tossing the rulebook out the window. If you’ve seen the Pillbox magazines and a lot of the local Pepsi ads in the 90s, you’ll see how heavy his influence was on the art director.¹

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Neville Brody. Consistent use of loud colors, big and bold type, and striking graphic elements make his work distinct and memorable. It was also through studying his work that I learned the proper use of typography² as a design element. His designs seem to have a life of their own, they leap out of the pages containing them, just like the designer himself — he didn’t stop at print and has branched out to motion and space design as well.³

***

Saul Bass. This man is a legend, just take a look at the work he’s done — they include iconic posters and logos that have stood the test of time. The use of flat colors, blocky hand-lettered type, and simple shapes define his minimalist style. It’s most likely a testament to the limitations in printing during his time but I’ve always believed that when it comes to visual communication, the simpler and the more straight to the point, the better. Right?

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Milton Glaser. You’ve seen his “I *heart* NY” logo a million times, but the body of work he’s produced speaks volumes about his range as a designer. I can’t say he has a particular style because when you look at his designs, they don’t look like they came from just one person. But the randomness is good in that it shows versatility. Of his work, I like the ones that have illustrations the most. His psychedelic, free-flowing drawings seem to take us back to a time when producing art actually meant freedom of expression (and didn’t involve deadlines).

***
Locally, I have my design heroes as well and fortunately I’ve had a chance to work with them.

Robert Alejandro. Sir Robert is best known for his whimsical and stylish artworks for Papemelroti and the Ayala Malls. He was my Figure Drawing and Advertising 101 teacher in 3rd year college⁴ at the UPCFA and he just blew everyone away with his art and out-of-the-box way of thinking. Ask anyone in my class and they’ll tell you that he was the one who inspired them to be (a) an advertising art director; (b) a children’s book illustrator; or (c) a graphic designer — all of which he was.⁵ How cosmic is it that we formed and now belong to the same design group?

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Raymond Legaspi. He’s not as publicly known as Robert but he’s a force to be reckoned with in the Direct Marketing world, having won a ton of awards locally and internationally. Mr. Ray was my very first boss — I had my OJT at J. Walter Thompson in 1991 and was assigned to be his trainee. A few years later, we worked in the same company, Ogilvy & Mather, as colleagues where he was certainly one of the few art-based Creative Directors I had huge respect for because he always stressed on the importance of a big idea in visual thinking, unlike some who focused primarily on execution.⁶ Incidentally, he retired from the corporate world just a few weeks ago to pursue his first love, painting.

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And of course,

Arnold Arre. I know, I know, he’s my husband but to be honest, I’ve admired him and his work waaay before we even met. The first time I ever saw his paintings for Mythos, my mind just reeled at the detail he put into all of them — intricate brush and pen work, the stories behind them⁷ — the overall distinct style and theme of the entire exhibit was just so well thought of that I knew this guy was an intense and very passionate artist. The same goes for every piece of work he churns out, everything has a story. Everything has a reason. And isn’t that what good design should have? Reason. To matter.

1. Oh wait a minute, that’s me hehe.
2. My ultimate pet peeve: “designers” who stretch, squash and distort type. Ugh, I see it here all the time.
3. By the way I have a copy of the Propaganda album, 1234, which is one of his earlier designs. I swear I’ll have it autographed someday.
4. In 1990. That was the ONLY year he ever taught, lucky us.
5. I guess I’m guilty on all three counts.
6. I think the ultimate compliment was when he recommended that I be part of the Design Jury for last year’s Ad congress Araw Awards. I knew then that I’ve somehow earned his nod.
7. Yes can you believe it? Ask him about a character in his painting and he’ll tell you the back story he thought up for it.

So, just what is Beautiful Weddings? It’s a collection of wonderfully inspiring stories celebrating beautiful beginnings by real brides and will be sold for only Php 120.00 – a real steal for something almost as good as love!
It’s been a little over two years now since our EIC Marbee called me to discuss the possibility of building¹ a wedding magazine together. From scratch! It’s been her wish to come out with something like it and I guess it took her by surprise that it was a dream project for me too. And whaddya know, since then, we’ve released four thick volumes and I can wholeheartedly say that yes, with equal parts passion and determination, and a whole lot of crazy logic, it can be done.
Every WE issue is as exciting to work on as the last one. How is that possible, you ask? I guess it’s because (1) both Marbee and I have a love affair with weddings (well you can tell by how I obsessively lovingly planned mine); (2) I can’t ask for a nicer team of girls to work with – Marbs, Charlene and Ria are always full of fresh ideas and are a ton of fun to be with. More importantly, we share the same vision about what we want to convey through the mag: that “beautiful weddings” are not restricted to celebrities and people in high society. That no matter what budget you have, you can have the wedding of your dreams.; and (3) I get to flex my dormant – now – that – I’m – out – of – advertising creative muscles. Planning the design and layout of 250+ pages ain’t no picnic, my friend, but it’s a great big challenge each time.
That said, I know you’ve heard this enough from me but please, please support Wedding Essentials and WE Beautiful Weddings. We may be novices in the field but you can be sure that everything we do comes straight from the heart.
***
So how have you been? After I finished working on the magazines, I wanted to be away from the computer as much as possible so I took the chance to catch up on Veronica and the gang at Neptune² and it’s official: I’m hooked. The following video is for Lia and Neva and everyone else who loves the show: Go, watch, and sing-along.
***
By the way, I’ve somewhat been busy at the Phlog and in Multiply.

1. Yep, the task daunted us very much since both of us are from advertising and have had no experience in the world of magazine publishing, ever.
2. I finished watching both seasons already! I want more! More, I tell you!

So if you love cats, red tabbies in particular, and [a] you live in the US where Cafepress is based¹ or [b] you have tons of disposable cash anyway and want to contribute to a good cause², it would mean so much if you can support my latest entrepreneurial endeavor.

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Our favorite fashion designer Tippi‘s Pret-a-Party and Lounge Lizard lines are now also available at Backstage, located at the 2/F, San Lorenzo Arcade, Pasay Road, Makati (behind New World Hotel), hope you can take a look sometime! Stay up to date with her collections and shows by visiting their respective sites as well as her journal.

***
I’m quite pleased with the choice of judges for Philippine Idol. In the beginning I was afraid it was gonna be one of those Regine, Ogie -or worse, Kris-hosted affairs but the moment they announced that Mr. C was gonna be part of it, I was completely won over.³. If, like me, you’re curious about how the auditions are going, FrancisM just so happens to be chronicling the judging process in his journal.

1. ergo shipping won’t cost too much
2. our cat Abby‘s food and play fund
3. There’s just no one else who’s as credible. Pilita’s okay, I grew up seeing her all over TV and she’s definitely an icon. As for FrancisM, well I’ve been a fan since “Yo” came out hehe.

These four albums from SonyBMG are just the first batch of a series of 2-in-1 cds that feature the music of 90s bands like Yano, Sugar Hiccup, Sandwich and Color it Red. Don’t mistake them for greatest hits collections though – they’re actually a repackaging of two original albums per artist¹ that came out in the last decade. So buying one cd will actually give you two albums for the price of one², neat-o!

When we first learned that it was gonna be a series, we decided to lay it out similarly to the Eraserheads Anthology album so that they can be sold all together as a box set in the future. So now the challenge for Arn was how to make them all look similar yet different – like in Anthology, each illustration should also convey each band’s style and personality.

Arn did a pretty swell job, don’t you think? The illustrations are fab³ and he just kept amazing me everytime he whipped out a new drawing.

The cds go for P285 each, and please stay tuned because there are six more coming.

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As for me I’m still busy with the upcoming issues⁴ of WE but I’ll try to squeeze in a blog entry here and there as much as I can

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Again, don’t forget to visit Blow-Up Babies at the Gateway Mall! And because we’re talking about 90s bands this week, here’s a bit of trivia:

These two pretty little girls are the daughters of two members of a now-defunct but still very popular 90s band⁵. Can you guess what band it is and which members they are?

Photos courtesy of Blow-up Babies!

1. I had just told some friends that it seems so cosmic that Arn is doing the repackaging of some of the albums I originally designed – for instance, the 2-in-1 Sandwich album contains “Grip Stand Throw” and “4-Track Mind“, both of which I did the original inlays for.
2. and buying 4 will get you 8!
3. I wish I could post larger images but piracy, music and design-wise, has become quite rampant lately.
4. Yes, issues, in plural form, you read that right. Please wait and see.
5. Super obvious clue: Their rockstar daddies are bandmates in “Cambio”

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I originally intended my first WTSMG entry to feature the evolution of the design for my web portfolio but unfortunately (or fortunately, hah!) I didn’t keep screen grabs of what past incarnations looked like. You can satisfy your curiosity via The Wayback Machine but the earliest record that they have of my site is dated November 1999 and they didn’t keep earlier records of my circa 1997 Geocities and 1998 Tripod sites. Oh well..

So instead, I’ll just talk about the design for the spanking new Blow-Up Babies site.

1. Background: My good friend Quark called me up to say that they had a new shop opening in Gateway and that they needed a website for it. I was neck deep in work for WE but how can I say no to my kuya twin? And besides, what’s not to like about the project? It’s a recipe for everything I like: Unique product concept, check; Art and design-appreciative client, check; … Who also happens to be people I like, check.

2. Briefing: So k.t. Quark and Lia showed me the existing designs of their logo, membership card, passport and flyers which I honestly found very hip.

3. Development of Studies: I then developed a couple of studies that mimicked the look of their existing materials. I wanted the site to (1) showcase the kind of photos they took, and (2) communicate the rawness/freshness of the overall concept so I took inspiration from the look of Lomo photography:

4. They got back to me and said that yes, they’re nice but that the site design doesn’t have to follow the look of their existing materials. Kuya twin’s exact words – “Go wild, we want ‘Cynthia’ to shine through”. That encouraged me a lot to go all out and come up with something different yet familiar. So I developed this, which all of them liked:

Ok, I realized that it was kinda wild, was not reader-friendly at all and gasp, will take a whole lot of time to execute so I fixed it.
5. Finalization: And here’s the cleaner version.

The text was written by Quark and the first line “Oh! The Places You’ll Go” reminded me of a Dr. Seuss book and since the site would feature photos of kids mostly, I thought, why not lay it out like a storybook? I wanted to retain the raw quality so I chose handwritten type and playful frames. I also learned a bit of Flash to showcase the beautiful photos without compromising space in the layout. The little retro royalty-free drawings accompanying the text adds a friendly touch and, I thought, also injected the kind of wit and humor the shops owners have.

And that eventually evolved to the one you’ll see here.

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So please, please go visit Blow-up Babies at the Cinema Level of Gateway Mall. I told you a little about it in my previous entry, but I forgot to mention that they also take pictures of grown-ups! (Yup, blown-up grown-ups teehee). They have really creative layouts and a selection of uber-cool props so if your barkada wants a one-of-a kind group photo, or hey if you’re getting married anytime soon and don’t want the run-of-the-mill sunset-backed prenup photo, do drop by and see what you’ll end up with!