Design Co.Mission presents creative solutions for some Pinoy problems

Creative events usually exhibit a designer's body of work, or his forays into new media. But the thrust of the aptly-named Design Co.Mission was to present government leaders, students, entrepreneurs, art enthusiasts, professionals, and media practitioners with design solutions for problems in health, culture, and education.

“I think it's timely,” said Senator Teofisto Guingona III of the event. “We just passed a new law on design, and this heightens people's awareness as to what design is.”

Held at the Ayala Museum last August 3, the project was helmed by graphic design company Plus63 and joined by design community leader Team Manila and the award-winning graphic design studio Inksurge. The design groups were called "design scouts" while the categories were "design challenges."

The participants

“Ang daming design studios and we wanted [it] to be represented by small design studios muna,” said Bernice De Leon-Yumul, one of Plus63's co-founders and one of Design Co.Mission's organizers, on their choice of designers for the event.

“And they're our friends, so madaling ma-approach. Kasi yung mga ganitong radical na ideas na, 'huy, present kayo pero may problem kaming gagawin para gawan niyo ng work'—parang ang hirap i-approach pag 'di mo kilala.

“Plus, they are really known designers in the Philippines na.”

Plus63, co-founded and run by Dan Matutina, Rhea Alarcon and De Leon-Yumul, is a design company that also puts together talks and events with the goal of getting people excited about the intersections of design, creativity, and nation-building.

“It began as a conversation, an idea over coffee,” said De Leon-Yumul. “Sabi ni Dan, what if gumawa tayo ng event? It was a challenge for us, but it was also an opportunity for a passion project.”

"Passion projects" are Plus63's self-initiated happy projects that fall under their motto of "good vibes and good designs" and get their creative juices flowing. Design Co.Mission is one of them.

The presentations

Team Manila, helmed by Jowee Alviar and Mon Punzalan, were given the topic of education to tackle. In response, they redesigned certain everyday household items for children aged 0-6 so that they may begin or reinforce their basic education:

• 'A-Ba-Nig' and 'Biha-Sako' are banigs and rice sacks with the alphabet woven into them in bright colors
• 'Ha-Bi-lang' is a woven bayong sporting numbers
• 'Lata-lino' is a combination of letters, numbers, and colors printed on cans

They even came up with an educational manual for the parents, as well as a "play and learn center," which looked like a semicircular jungle gym.

Plus63 went next. Their problem lay in the health sector, specifically the sourcing of blood donations through social media. Having noticed how many people make Facebook status messages and private messages requesting blood donations for relatives and friends—especially during the rainy season, the season of dengue—they came up with a Facebook app called Kindred.

Kindred's goal is to establish lifelines with blood donors through a helpful platform. Currently, the studio is working on additional features, such as Twitter integration. The app will become available to the public this month.

Department of Health Undersecretary Dr. Teodoro J. Herbosa was very impressed with Plus63's solution. “When you have young design people thinking of stuff like this, parang solvable yung problem of blood shortage...I think using the app and the social network is a wonderful, great idea.”

Finally, it was Inksurge's turn. Rex Advincula, who spoke for himself and co-founder Jois Tai, said that the problem of culture for Design Co.Mission was “the hardest project they'd encountered.” He then presented a purely pictorial Powerpoint presentation that gave a brief rundown of the National Museum's history, divisions, and visitor statistics. They found that there had been a drop in visitors since 1998.

“The Museum's interior made us feel confused,” said Advincula. “It was gloomy, there wasn't much to see, and we got lost. But it was also well-informed, clean, nostalgic, and inspiring.”

He pointed out that the Museum had confusing floor maps, wordy visitor instructions at the entrance, yellow-stained captions and temporary signs. The sign for Osmena Hall, for instance, was simply its name printed on bond paper and tacked to a wall by the door.

Inksurge's recommendations included:

• A logo change—the Museum continues to use all three of the logos of its history and tacks all three all throughout the compound
• Better, clearer signs, floor plans, and admission instructions
• Informational brochures and separate brochures showcasing the profiles of National Artists
• Flyers and infoguides

Coincidentally, since Inksurge began their project, an article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer revealed plans to construct another gallery for the budget of P1 billion.

Feedback

De Leon-Yumul said that the point of Design Co.Mission was "to make a lot of noise" so that something will happen. "Design comes in for progress. At least we started with two or three studios muna kasi this is like a test run. We don't know kung ano yung magiging feedback."

But the two government leaders present seemed impressed enough.

“Actually, I could get him [Advincula] and bring him to any government hospital and [ask him to] tell me what design improvements I could do!” said Herbosa.

“It's not earth-shaking, but it does solve problems,” said Guingona. He liked all three presentations equally and pronounced them all implementable. “My only lament is that I wish that the other government officials were here to see, to appreciate the solutions offered by the young people.”

Herbosa said, “[The presentations] were great ideas and I think those things would be accepted even by our ASEAN neighbors. That's got a future, 'di ba? It can be even be sold internationally or regionally. The money will come later, it may not even come from the Filipinos. But you know, we're already investment-grade.. Once people have money, people don't want a bulok hospital.”

When asked about what he thought of the future of design in the Philippines, Herbosa had this to say: “With all these great minds I heard? I really think it is the next step. Kasi we've really been an artistic country... I think the Filipino has a big right brain and based on watching that kid [Matutina] tackling very big, very difficult problems, I think what's needed is the partnerships.”

“We are really decades behind in appreciation of how design can help us,” Guingona added, citing problems in Comelec election processes, traffic, and drainage for which designers can come up with solutions. “It would be a tragedy if we do not harness them [designers] to solve our country's problems.”

And as a parting shot, Guingona said, “In England, which is eons away when it comes to design, [the appreciation] was started by former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who understood and appreciated design. Do you know what her battle cry was to the government officials of Great Britain was? 'Design or resign!'”

So would the design studios give an encore performance of Design Co.Mission next year?

“Maybe,” laughed De Leon-Yumul. “It's really a challenge to organize. Pero yun nga, after nung event, ang daming feedback: could we bring it to schools? Baka if they have an event, maybe we could make also one for them? I think it's a good sign we should make another one.” — BM, GMA News