Dear Philippines | Letters for the Philippines

Design Week Philippines has their event held at the walled-city, Intramuros. Dear Philippines | Letters to the Philippines is an event part of the Design Week 2016 held at Teatrillos in Casa Manila, Intramuros.

Dear Philippines

Letters for the Philippines

It was on a sunny Sunday (April 17, 2016) where I volunteered for Type Kita’s exhibit which was Dear Philippines | Letters for the Philippines. If I had no class on Saturday, I would’ve volunteered for the two days (but that would be selfish of me, I know). And since I did not know how to get there via PUJ/PUV, I had to use Grab/Uber. There was no traffic so the fare was cheap although there were some traffic inside Intramuros due to the closed roads.

Letters to Philippines | Dear Philippines

The whole part of Intramuros where we were was filled artworks from various artists (some of them, I know, well, because of Type Kita). It was such a heart-melting experience seeing and bonding with the people you admire. Especially, having fun moments with then and the one and only Mister Kams.

Mister Kams is a Spanish graphic designer/letterer specializing in calligraphy and lettering. He was in Manila for about a month and have conducted workshops which was well-attended. If you want to see his works/site, just click [x].

With fellow volunteers, artists, calligraphers and Mister Kams

We even saw him personally write something for the exhibit and we were amazed on how he did it. He was really fun to be with.

Twinning with Teacher Geli and Mister Kams

There were postcards for sale, either plain or printed. They were sold at Php 10 and Php 20 respectively. With the plain one, you could design it on your own and have the option to mail it to yourself or to somebody else. People were choosing to the plain ones so they could design it themselves and let the creativity flow. I, on the other hand, was scribbling notes for the Philippines.

Twinning with Teacher Geli

Aside from the exhibit, there were workshops held at various places inside Intramuros. There was urban sketching by Abbey Sy, watercolor workshop by Tippy Go of Google Goeys and another one in Teatrillos which covered calligraphy (just not sure if what kind though).

But before their workshop, we were able to have a photo with them (missing Tippy Go of Googly Goeys) ☹️

From L-R: Gee, Roie, Abbey Sy, Alessa (lifeafterbreakfast), Geli Balcruz, Maria

Workshop with Googly Gooeys and Abbey Sy.

Mister Kams’s scratch while he used Jelvin’s mod pen

Aside from the workshops, there was also a live mural painting by Mister Kams and Mark Dean Lim. Both are amazing pieces and witnessing them doing it was really surreal. I only wish I could do what they did (this can happen sometime in the future).

I will do my best to compile all the snaps, snippets, videos that I captured during the event and place it here. I hope I can do it before this posts gets mold. 😂

From L-R: Carl Chua, Jelvin Base, Mister Kams, Maan Agsalud (of Type Kita)

WIP

And of course, behind the artists, there will always be those people who are there to capture the moments and to admire their finished products.

In truth, being a volunteer for the event was one of the best things that happened since I practiced calligraphy. Getting to interact with the artists you admire just makes me admire them more. They have gazillion followers on their social accounts and they still interact with us. They even gave us tips and the history on why did they push calligraphy, lettering, doodling or art itself.

Mister Kams with his work

It also motivates those aspiring calligraphers (e.g. ME) to become better at the craft and also to share the knowledge that I gained thru the practice. I highly appreciate online communities found in social networks that are open to sharing your works, asking for tips and even conversing with them. At least, even if the people around you (physically) do not understand how or what calligraphy is, the people in the community is there to support and appreciate what you do.

And that’s why my Calli Thursday blog series was born. *shameless plug over there* ✌🏼

Works by Ella Lama and Geli Balcruz

By Celine and Paolo Tugano

People may criticize, judge or hate calligraphy because for them it’s just a fancy handwriting but remember that doing it makes you happy so just shrug them off. The people who hate are just the people who’re the Jon Snow in calligraphy. Why? Because they know nothing.

But going back to the letters, this is my favorite:

From Richelle Macapagal, a lawyer and calligrapher

She just inspired me to push that even if I’m pursuing LLB, I could still become a calligrapher (even though not professionally). She told me (through her work, of course) that even if your career is different from what you really love doing (e.g. hobbies, passion) you can balance both and it could work alongside.

[bctt tweet=”If you were to write a letter to our dear country, what would you write?” username=”Mariaisquixotic”]

P.S. I’ll be fixing the video soon and will post it afterwards. Yay!