It’s called Start Here and their concept is simple and straightforward.

START HERE is open to artists from all over the world who want to help the survivors of Typhoon Ondoy in the Philippines and inspire the rest of the world through art.

The hope is that we can eventually set up an exhibit where we can sell the artworks with the proceeds donated to Ondoy relief efforts, rebuilding programs and calamity risk management programs.

They’re currently collecting artworks until November 26. Works range from photographs to doodles to graphically designed work to paintings. What I’m also excited about (and will most likely join) is their free, one-day event, “Sketch-A-Thon”.

WE HAVE CREATIVE MEANS

I’m inviting all Inksquad members to check out Start Here and their works. It’s another way we can DO SOMETHING. In fact, tinaaraneta also submitted her design there. Or, perhaps I’ll see you guys at the Sketch-A-Thon!

WHO ARE THEY HELPING?

Lorra emailed me news that got me dancing:

First of all, I’d like to thank you and the rest of the Inksquad team for pointing us to WE Philippines. I learned about them through the Inksquad blog and we’re happy to say that we’ve finally found the organization that we want to tap to help the people affected by the typhoons.

(Lorra and Elbert, I hope your talks with WE Philippines are fruitful.)

Squad members! Let me know if any of you join, okay? Best of luck and much love guys.

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Click to get started on Start Here.

Read about our Ondoy-Pepeng shirt drive.

It started when Mom asked me how my trip was going, hoping Bangkok had better weather than rainy Manila. She said it was pouring non-stop at home. In my 20+ years in Magallanes Village, I only experienced flooding once and it remained in the garage, never entering the house. Thinking this wasn’t any different, I brushed it away as something that would quickly subside.

But Mom’s next messages were alarmingly more distraught: “water levels are rising really fast…” Worry settling in, I turned on the TV in my hotel room and watched as my country got drenched, divided, and – to my horror – drowned.

Our street instantly turned into a ginormous public pool. That’s our neighbor across us. Photo by my brother, Enzo.

I frantically asked how my family was. “Water up to fourth stair; we’re all on the second floor; have some crackers for food… we saved what we could.”

During the flood: water went up to the fourth stair. Photo by my brother, Enzo.

Besides our helpers, I was the only one with a room on the first floor. My overly-active brain started imagining the worst. My computer! My graphic novels! My film rolls! My journals! My pictures! All mine, mine, mine. Me, me, me. Until I had the most important realization: I could lose my family. And I was miles away.

SHIT.

I told my Mom: “Plan easy escape route. Unbar fire exits. Ration food. Keep me updated.” I texted Ramon that our house was flooded and to check on my family now and then. But texting and praying was all I could do. At one point, I heard myself whisper, as if not fully accepting it: “I’m sorry I’m not there.”

On the morning of the 27th, Mom texted that the water level was down. They were able to cook food and the house was in ruins. Mon texted too, saying that he just came from my house to help and added “I’m sure you know the situation.” He went off to help in other relief operations thereafter. Several friends (most of whom I haven’t heard from in awhile) texted and called saying they heard about Magallanes and asked how I was. A lot of calls for volunteers were sent too. Wow, that bad huh? I thought.

After the flood: furniture everywhere! Photo by my brother, Enzo.

My room. Photo by my brother, Enzo.

I got back at 4am on the 28th, two days after the storm. I entered the house and it was everything we’ve seen on TV: damp, dark, stinky. CHAOS. I enter my room first, at a loss at what else to do, and I don’t recognize anything from my previous set-up. Funnily, I thought I was Alice entering a Wonderland where shoes were on chairs and chairs were on tables; where pictures were runny; where paintings and artworks were wet and soggy; where stuffed doggies rested on electric fans. Only this Wonderland wasn’t as fun and nothing like the Cheshire Cat was disappearing.

When everyone woke, I find out the full story: the four cars parked in our garages were full of water and needed to be towed and repaired; our electric wires were zapped; bags and bags of wet clothes, curtains, and sheets needed to be sorted and washed; more food needed to be bought; the whole house needed restoration. Our lives came to a forced stop to start a new one.

Mon helped and even tried to dry The Inksquad business cards, peeling them apart, one by one.

Our new front yard design. Exquisitely done with a built-in electric fan, plus a 3-tier sculpture of water jugs!

Tired from travel, I didn’t have time for a breather. I plunged from the plane to post-Ondoy. I didn’t bother to unpack, I had no place to put my clothes.

My unpacked luggage from Bangkok.

For a week and a half, I lived off my luggage and borrowed clothes from my brothers. It was tiring work, even though I arrived at a relatively “clean” stage of the situation. I could only imagine what it was like to sort through everything right after the flood. I could only imagine what other people in worse situations were going through.

While throwing out runny photos and unreadable letters, I looked around and the tears eventually came. I was — to put it simply — heartbroken. My treasures were nothing but useless piles of muddy glop. One of my most loved pieces — my signed Stardust graphic novel by Neil Gaiman (I’ve had it for about 10 years) — was beyond saving. I guess my dream of stalking him in another country is now a must.

It was difficult to submerge myself in house restoration work then work on TIS stuff then teach my art classes. I felt displaced, distant. I helped out with relief operations to channel my pent-up energy elsewhere and change my scenery. I tried talking it out with my co-teachers. But the weird feelings remained. Even as I write this, a lot of emotions are stirred within me, not fully knowing what I should do about them. Maybe TIS Ondoy shirt-drive will help keep me sane.

I concluded several things, all of which I’m sure everyone who experienced the flood could verify. One: how easily humans attach themselves to material things. It takes awhile to “extend” yourself through a computer, or maybe a letter, or a book, or clothes. But it can disappear from you in seconds. How feeble of us to foolishly relate to an inanimate object, knowing full well they become trash eventually. Two: how powerful we humans are with the ability to create and recreate. As I threw the bulk of my memorabilia, I thought: Damn, no more memories. I caught myself and shook my head, feeling silly: I’ll create new ones then. My artworks are all gone, but that just means I’m challenged to make better ones.

Soggy warped artworks and photos. Threw most of them.

Three: A good friend couldn’t have put it better, “It’s a good thing your family is water proof, albeit soggy.”

We love to document our lives. We hoard, we store. We keep and own outlandish objects, desperate to leave a physical trail of ourselves behind. But when it’s our time to leave, it’s our time to leave. No possessions are brought to the grave. The only truly lasting piece of us are lodged in the hearts you’ve encountered and touched.

Ondoy was a physical and emotional cleansing for me. And, for that, I am actually thankful the storm came because a facet of life was made more real to me: Simplify your living, you don’t need the fluff.

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You can check out my Picasa album for more photos. Or see my brother’s raw videos: Floodventure 1 and Floodventure 2

Image from Peace Love and Revolution.

The following is directly pasted from their Facebook fan page.

During the week that the Typhoon Ondoy ravaged the Philippines, local artists and designers were called upon to create posters to inspire people to help out. Through social media, the posters spread like wildfire and resulted in a deluge of aid for the victims. The Design Downpour poster movement reinforced the belief that the creative use of images enables people and awakens in them a community spirit comparable only to People Power. The message was clear: one need not be a superhero to contribute significantly, that to lend a hand is in fact a privilege.

And so the seed took root. Why confine that oneness to just that moment of catastrophe? Because if one gets down to it, the Philippines is still very much mired in turmoil of a different kind, the size of which cannot be measured by the dark clouds that hover above it. Hence the birth of the Philippine Design Movement is actually another shoutout to designers, artists and even writers to do exactly what they did during Ondoy but on a grander, more continual scale. The movement dares them to imagine what a steady stream of positive, nation-building images can do for the Philippine society.

To be part of the movement is to take on the big responsibility and privilege of creatively inspiring Filipinos to be dissatisfied with the status quo and to work towards greater freedom, not freedom as anarchy but instead as a possibility to live better lives. The movement asks that the sensibilities, distinctions and complex semantics that swirl around separating the art forms be deliberately blurred. It is an invitation to come together as weathermen and collaborators for change. It is more than just trainspotting– it is a serious, culturally-aware and socially-intellectual movement that aims to make its concepts and collaborations highly accessible to the masses. Think Japan, Bangkok and especially Cuba where the art movement influenced by the works of, say, Eduardo Abela and Alberto Korda became social critiques of their times and society. With the tandem of the technological advances and the democratization of art and design in the country during the last decade, never before has such a phenomenal chance to make a difference been presented to local artists and designers.

The Philippine Design Movement is not a rebellion. It is free of any scheme and political overtones. It doesn’t want to provoke a massive argument that ultimately does nothing but create more factions. What it wants is to alter the whole basis of the conversation. It wants to be an ongoing thing where most everything is related: passion, work, family, society, country, life. The movement aims to be a hub of creativity and interactivity, of content and communication. But most importantly to be a space for the exchange and outlet of ideas that can generate, multiply and breed in Filipinos a culture of intentionally elevated pride and heightened nationalism on the premise that art, design and commentary are potent and can very well change the Filipino’s mindset and in turn result in the upgrade of his choices and values.

Art in all its forms is apparently the best language and the Philippines can be an art of identity and metamorphosis. The Philippine Design Movement aims to set the pace.

As always, we invite you to put even more meaning in your art. That’s what TIS is about – bringing the power to the people. As the days go by and I see institutions we’re supposed to depend on fail, and private organizations and normal people deliver, that it’s in our hands. I’m afraid to say that it probably always has been, but I, personally, had been too blind to see it.

It didn’t occur to us what TIS could do for the victims. I had friends whose houses were destroyed, and in fact, Trina’s first floor got flooded. She lost many things.

It was not until Tina Araneta submitted Heroes in our Midst when something sparked. Why not let this be TIS’ contribution?

As of this writing, the shirt is still undergoing scoring to make sure you guys actually support it. That’s what TIS is about! Freedom. Choice. Democracy.

What’s written below are plans for when/if the shirt wins.

Donate 250 per shirt bought

We first decided to give away P200 per shirt sold. We are not some big company that can stay afloat if we gave away everything (P490). There are costs to cover: artist prize, delivery, cost of shirts, production, etc. However, last night, Tina decided to forego her artist prize of P3000 so that money could stay in the cycle and even more could be given to victims. Because of her gesture, we will be donating P250 per shirt bought. And yes, that includes free delivery in Metro Manila!

Spread the word

Just like this site, if more people know about this and buy it, then more money will be donated. For example, if 100 shirts are sold, Tina and TIS will collectively donate P25,000. We hope to get you guys aboard! If you like it, vote! If it wins, buy and spread the word!

We’ll blog about it

So you guys are in on the action, we will blog about it. Tina has access to the sales statistics, and on December 15 (this may change, but we’ll let you know), we will write a check for the total proceeds (so far) and deposit it together with Tina.

To whom shall we donate?

UPDATE Oct 19 2009 5:26pm: Our beneficiary is WE Philippines. A friend of ours, Trina Santos from WE Philippines, sent us a message saying:

we have been collecting donations and buying goods (depending on the areas we are sending to need) and packing them (in blankets, sheets, pillow cases – no to plastic!) and distributing them in areas that are badly affected but to small for Red Cross to have bases in. last thurs we loaded a SEAIR plane (had the seats removed!) to send relief stuff to baguio where our team + volunteers there (including tita ria morales!) hiked into parts of baguio and benguet to give out relief packs — because there are a LOT of areas that are only reachable if you hike to them…

Vote for the design here. Please leave comments!

If you live outside the Philippines and you want to have some shirts shipped to you, you can find out the shipment cost this way:

How to find out the shipping cost

1. See our courier’s shipment rates
2. In the International Shipping section, go to the section right below destination guide
3. Find the destination country’s zone. For example, the US is 5.
4. Go to the International Shipping’s destination guide to see how much it will cost to ship there. 1kg, depending on the sizes of the shirts, can fit anywhere between 2-6 shirts.
5. Get the shipping cost, then add the cost of the shirts.

Weights:

Example:

Placing your order

Just go through adding the products to your cart the normal way, but checkout via bank deposit or GCash. We’ll contact you for further details.

Isn’t there a better way?

It is more complicated than we’d like. There don’t seem to be any couriers in the Philippines that allow our website to connect to their computers and ask how much delivery will cost. This would have been much better!

One Design PH is a design blog that talks about Filipino designs and designers and related topics, like advertising and typography.

One intriguing picture is of the redesign of the Philipino Peso bills:

You’ll find a lot of other clever stuff there too. That isn’t surprising – since TIS was started since we believe in the creative talent of the Filipino. That talent truly is world-renowned!

To learn a little more about TIS, read up on our feature in Entrepreneur magazine. Make sure you read the whole article.

Literally 15 minutes before I decided to write this blog post, I found out about Blog Action Day 2009. Blog Action Day 2009 hopes to spark the awareness of blog authors and their readers about climate change.

Furthermore, I also happened to post about The Inksquad’s efforts when it comes to waste a few hours ago. Although not directly related to climate change, waste, and the root of it – excessive production and consumption – does have something to do with climate change.

As I mentioned in that post the staff is part of Generation Y. We’re fed up with the garbage, the pollution, and the disrespect for nature and the balance we have to keep.

I’m naturally skeptic. I ask questions. I usually investigate to my full capacity (or until my interest wanes) before I believe in something and stand by it. Thus, at this point in time, I do not believe I’m being affected by climate change. There is no single instance in time to say, “Yes, those storms were brought upon by climate change.”

So, I’m going to break the rules a bit. As stated in their blog post, we’re supposed to write about just that – how climate change affects us and our community. It’s not. As far as I’m concerned, Ondoy and Pepeng were just strong storms that are comparable to storms that happened decades ago.

Why in the world am I posting this article then? Because climate change is going to affect in greater apparency our children, and their children to come. I don’t want to make the same mistake previous generations made. I don’t want to give in to societal pressures and continue doing things the way they have been – which is highly polluting.

Why am I posting it through Inksquad then? The Inksquad reflects many beliefs and visions I and the rest of the staff has for Filipinos, intertwined with the tremendous potential for the possibilities the Internet can provide. Somewhere in the top 5 of those beliefs you’ll find care for the environment. Living amidst concrete walls, plastic chairs, and composite wood, we humans tend to forget just how reliant we are on nature. We’re making it a point that The Inksquad doesn’t forget that.

Seeing a friend’s post on Facebook (Thanks Jali!), I was compelled to write about trash, and how the staff, through TIS, tries to make a difference.

Attached to her post was this image:

Image taken from this blog.

Our Efforts

1. With a string made of paper with a calling card for our packaging, you won’t be getting any shopping bags from us.

2. Internal documents are all scratch paper are ugly. Yes, behind them are things totally unrelated to TIS. Even my sister’s old home work. She even made funny of us! But, who cares? :)

Problems

Of course, things aren’t perfect. We still end up using plastic when we send our shirts through Xend or Air21. They probably won’t listen to a small outfit like us, but I hope they have plans for greener parcels.

Been wanting to see the tees before buying? Or do you simply want to dive in all those lovely designs?

If you’re coming, do let us know by confirming via Facebook.

Entrance fee: PHP 100.00 *

To show our appreciation for your showing up, you’ll get P100 off your purchase for showing us your bazaar ticket. That’s just about a 20% discount. Seriously!

If done effectively, you can have pretty cool looking artwork. You have to be careful though, because if it’s not given much thought, it can easily look like news print. Unless, of course, you’re doing a vintage-style shirt. This would be the perfect effect to use.

Here’s a tutorial on how to go about it.