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a destiny by design

Tibor Kalman once said that good design is always “unexpected and untried.” The fervent, sometimes acerbic US designer, whose work for M&Co and Colors magazine has influenced a generation, believed that good design should increase interest in what is being communicated and benefit everyday life. Based on such criteria, the work of Filipino design collective Team Manila definitely makes the cut.

The hottest and most visible design studio among the capital’s creative, Team Manila has been grabbing lifestyle headlines with its eyecatching graphic design work for retailers and big corporations and for the many patrons of their own store.

The studio’s humble beginnings were in the classrooms of University of Santo Tomas where the founders, Mon Punzalan and Jowee Alviar, studied advertising. They were already considering the idea of coming up with their own outfit, but they went their separate ways after graduation. Mon went to work for music magazines Pulp and MTV Ink, while Jowee took his MA in design at the CalArts in Valencia, California, one of the best training grounds for graphic design in the US.

The two kept in touch throughout. When Jowee came back in 2001, they decided to put their ideas into action and set up their own business. Back then, their design war room was not as glamorous as their current Jupiter Street studio, where they relocated last August 2007. The company only had two computers and was set up in a garage in the suburban district of Parañaque.

Their first big break came from EMI and the band Slapshock. “Mon knew them from his time with the music magazines,” Jowee says. “When we were starting, they were putting together an album. So they asked us to do some album packaging for them, since that was our forte. Then they asked us if we wanted to do their music video Numb… we had never done one prior to that.”

Their jump into motion graphics turned out to be one huge leap for their business. “We got recognized,” Jowee recalls. “MTV Pilipinas gave us the best director award. Pulp magazine started asking us to do little parts for them.” From then on their list of clients grew as word of their one of a kind style got around. They took on projects from local retailers such as Bench and Human, and multinationals such as Nike and Shell. Meanwhile the team grew from two to 15.

As with all start-ups, however, maintaining a design practice is no easy feat. “Throughout these years, we’ve been learning how to run a business, and man, it is hard,” Jowee says. “It is because we don’t have that training. Our training is in [the] arts. All money matters, business issues such as accounting, they all needed to be solved. Yet slowly, through trial and error, and friends and people we’ve met along the way, who advised on what to do and what to get, our company was formed.”

A bigger challenge, however, is trying to establish an independent, free-standing design studio in a country where the tradition is razor-thin and the role of graphic design is often overlooked. “Back then, there were no graphic design studios,” Jowee recalls. Graphic design was usually confined to advertising agencies or was in the hands of freelancers and designers at the mercy of the clients’ beck and call.

But, as Jowee learned from CalArts, graphic designers should be an integral part of the creative process. “We wanted to make our mark. That meant injecting part of the local [Filipino and street] culture in the project we are doing. We have become known for doing that.” This certainly turned out to be a hit with their clients. They saw something fresh in Team Manila’s work and decided to try them out.

As a result, the founding partners of Team Manila were able to achieve something that previous local practitioners had not been able to do – to give graphic design credibility and graphic designers’ personality.

Jeepneys. Dirty ice cream. Askals (street dogs). Kutseros (coachmen). Aling Fely’s Carinderia in Santa Cruz. The Philippine vernacular is pervasive in much of the graphic works of Team Manila and nowhere is it more evident than in their urban clothing. Icons of pop culture are emblazoned on colored t-shirts with Filipino words in the classic international font, Helvetica. This trademark mix-and-match has clicked because it gave their work an unusual kind of immediacy, being both local and global.

“We thought the t-shirt would be a good vehicle for our message. We were just looking for graphic shirts but we couldn’t find anything like that to wear. So we made our own. We invited some people to the opening. The shirts had ‘Fishball Vendor’, ‘Sorbetero’, and the like on them,” Jowee says.

Their home-made, DIY fashion venture became another success. News of their shirts spread through word of mouth. The public started to appreciate what they were making, going out of their way to visit an improvised eight square meter shop in their former studio.

Their shirts and accessories are now sold in various concessionaires around Metro Manila.

Another thing about their t-shirt designs is that they are voted on by customers on their Multiply and Friendster site. “Team Manila believes in community,” Jowee says. “We want those who appreciate and understand our work to have a voice in making it.”

However, more than just making shirts that are hip, Team Manila is trying to make something iconically Filipino – be it the classic, the vernacular, the historic – something that their followers will look up to with pride. For them, graphic design too can be an agent of social change.

“It is like writing. It can be propaganda. We found it that powerful. And putting it on a shirt, it becomes timeless. More than a billboard or a poster because you wear it, you go around and people see it. And they talk about the shirt and its message. Stuff like, ‘We need more parks’. Or our classic – ‘Istambay Habangbuhay’ (Standing by… For the rest of your life), which also points to a certain aspect of our culture,” Jowee says.

Apparently, the many people who have been joining Team Manila’s community understand that message. Journalist Twinkle Gotico is one of their avid fans: “[Their products] are full of mundane elements of Pinoy life, which some of us might even be embarrassed about, but they have managed to turn hip. A Team Manila product user proclaims her nationalism and pride and the Pinoy way of life without being preachy,” she says.

“If you read [our work], you’ll see it is local,” Jowee says. “It comes from our culture. The Manila experience. Even our name. Everything boils down to where we come from. If our design gets anthologized in a German publication (such as Die Gestalten Verlag’s Tres Logos), and people see our name, then they will understand that there is something going on in Manila,” he says.

Jowee thinks that the graphic design’s future and development does not hinge on graphic design at all, but on belief in Filipino culture. As designers, they see that their work is their humble share in nation-building.

“Believing that our culture is unique is important. We must celebrate it. Everything that your talent can do to uplift the image of our country and society, whether you are a young musician, illustrator or artist or whatever, you can contribute, then just do it. That’s what we did for graphic design.”

They also believe that everybody has the capacity to do what they have done. “We were just regular students and had bad grades in high school. But our drive and passion remains the same. It turned out well because there are many people that our projects have influenced and touched. It’s hard work and there are lots of headaches, but at the end of the day you see you have contributed something – and it is a wonderful feeling,” Jowee adds.

Much like Tibor Kalman, who also loved the vernacular, Team Manila understands that great graphic design is useless if it does not bring about some kind of change – not just in the artistic community where the designers dwell, but the greater audience their work could reach, be it local and international.

Perhaps it is this vision that will guarantee their works’ permanence in the history of Philippine graphic design. A designer’s style might come and go, but it is the message that is important. After all, substance is the only quality that remains.

TEAM MANILA
146B Jupiter Street, Makati
City, Manila
Tel (2) 896 4668
www.teammanilalifestyle.com


Irwin Cruz is a former associate editor of Colors magazine
PHOTOGRAPHY: SCOTT WOODWARD AND WALTER C. VILLA