Women’s obsession with shoes and bags have been here for eons. Don’t ask me how it started, it must’ve been programmed into my genes when I was born.

Fast forward to today and I find myself smitten with so many locally crafted fashion accessories, one of them being FabManila.

Imagine my surprise when they contacted us for a FaceOff!

I first saw them during the YabangPinoy Bazaar 2009 and kept leaving our TIS booth to ogle at their many bag products. But what stole my heart right away was their awesome, folding, cloth pencil case.

Come on! Tell me that’s NOT cool. If you’re a pen freak like me, those pencil cases are perfect for your collection. I’ve raved about them to countless others.

They have an eye (can I say, gift?) to meld gorgeous design + functionality so beautifully. Really. Just take a gander at their products. You’ll find the best textile prints on high quality material and good color palettes, all on utilitarian bags.

(Victorian print lunch boxes)

(Old school folding lunch packs)

(Vintage luggages!)

Since the FabManila girls are so keen on good design, they’ve asked us to invite the TIS community to design their next bag series.

I’m sure you guys are up to this challenge. (Just think: you might see a stranger walk past you with your bag design!) It’s gonna be a limited edition collection with intense local flavor.

Do you feel like joining in? Comment away folks.

- – - – -

See the FabManila FaceOff page.

Head over to FabManila for a good dose of bag lust or simply for design inspiration.

Thanks for sharing, Dayo.

Visit the PGDA site.

Anna’s Human Anatomy was picked by the PdP staff among the Top 5 most voted. Her design wins her Php3,000 in cash and Php500 in PdP GCs. She gets her own Artist Profile at the Punchdrunk Panda website and will see her artwork in stores around the Metro!

Awesome work, bananafish. You deserve it! (Check out her other works, she’s quite talented.)

Visit Punchdrunk Panda to keep updated on the sleeve’s release.

Frustrated, annoyed, furious — you name it.

It’s 4am, couple of hours since some FaceOff results have gotten in, and I’m still seething with anger and I won’t keep quiet about it.

We call ourselves a design democracy, yet something the TIS staff had feared actually happened: someone tried to get away with gaining the system (i.e. cheat) just to come out the winner. There are certain measures the TIS staff uses to determine these things, but — in all honesty — it’s a situation that’s virtually impossible to detect even by the smartest program codes. At least this incidence is keeping us on our toes. More research and stricter measures will be done to avoid these occurrences.

I hate to make political references, but it feels like how elections go in the Philippines: dirty and absolute bullcrap. We complain at how our society’s crumbling? Here’s a small sampling of why we’re going down the drain.

Votes have been cast and a winner will be pronounced. We (TIS staff or any FaceOff hosts) will not break promises we make according to any contest mechanics. However, suffice it to say that whomever we feel deserved to win will win.

I wanna acknowledge everyone who joined the FaceOffs and kept their call for votes clean and ethical. You guys are BRILLIANT. Don’t think your works aren’t good, despite vote turn-out. This is, after all, a community where we all push each other to grow and better our art.

We all need to lose some and win some in this race, but it can be done in good fun.

- – - – -

Let’s keep this civilized: I don’t want you guys to post your guesses (as to who or what FaceOff it is). If it’s obvious, then let it be. Don’t give any leads, don’t stoop to immature levels. What I do want you guys to do, is post your personal thoughts on this. Give us feedback, tips/recommendations on how you think the staff or the community can avoid these things. As always, we want and need your input for this community to work. Comment away people.

Punchdrunk Panda

Punchdrunk Panda douses the PC vs Mac rivalry flames and unites every laptop enthusiast with their funkified laptop sleeves.

Get your design slapped on a sleeve and you’ll get:

• Php 3,000 in cash
• Php 500 in PdP GCs
• Your own Artist Profile in their site
• Your artwork in stores around the Metro! (visit their site for their list of sleeve retailers)

Deadline for subs: June 15, 2010.

U92.FM

Speaking of laptops, there’s one at stake with U92.fm’s recently launched Face-Off! U92 (92.3FM) is Metro Manila’s all-new, all-hit radio station that serves listeners with a hefty dose of Top 40 programming 24-7 daily. They’ve an impressive line-up of DJs: Sarah Meier, KC Montero, Jimmy Muna, Eri Neeman, Sib Sibulo, Cesca Litton, Pia Magalona, Vicky Herrera, Joshua Yu, Ramon Bautista, Tado, DJ Angel, Rye Armamento, Patti Malay, Carisse Escueta, Mike Potenciano, Lindy and Marc Abaya. (Whew.)

Join their Face-Off and you’ll get:

• MSI V Series Notebook
• Live radio guesting on one of U92’s shows
• A feature on the station’s website
• See the U92 jocks wear your design as well as other U92 listeners. (They’re serious about mass producing the shirts.)

Deadline for subs: June 25, 2010.

Kurv Industries

KURV is TRIBU’s answer to streetwear and alternative lifestyle. And they say: “F*** the straight line, follow the KURV.” WOOHOO!

1st Place

• 1st Place will receive a shirt featuring their design
• 1st place will receive cash prize and a GIFT CERTIFICATE from KURV Industries

2nd Place

• 2nd Place will receive a shirt featuring their design
• 2nd Place will receive cash prize and a GIFT CERTIFICATE from KURV Industries

Viewers Choice

• Winner of the Viewers Choice award will receive a shirt featuring their design
• Winner of the Viewers Choice will receive Gift Certificates from KURV & TRIBU

Deadline for subs: June 30, 2010.

Enough to get your wheels turning? Start submitting your stuff, folks. Take a crack at these Face-Offs!

Visit their contest pages:

Punchdrunk Panda’s Face-Off.

U92’s Face-Off.

Kurv’s Face-Off.

- – - – -

Does your organization/group want your own Face-Off? Email us, staff@theinksquad.com.

Cristiano Siqueira’s portraits balance vector precision, texture presentation, and a hint of background story. I like his movement in his pen/brush strokes.

And, while vector isn’t new to most of us, I think most artists can get some tips from his clean but dynamic work.

My favorites?

Dots usage on this give you that “scientific” feel for this physicist’s portrait. Subtle back story, don’t you think? Sweet lines on his nose/mouth area. The upper lip was done so simply and it works for me!

Hair flow and entanglement is a tried and tested formula in vector art, though maybe used a little too much for my taste. Still, I’ll post this here cause he infused it really well with his excellent typography.

I particularly like the side highlights of this next one. Sometimes leaving uncolored spaces generate a lot of impact.

Cris’ composition rivals that of portrait photographers. Nicely done. Take note of his color palettes, too. He keeps it minimal, from 2 to 4 colors. That makes it easy on the eye to focus on one point.

What’re your thoughts on his style? If you guys have portfolios you want to share with me, send me a link! Would love to feature you here.

Chrina interviews Trina (hard to say, eh?) while we were at the Boho Festival.

Watch the video over here!

(I had to take a screenshot instead, since the embed code wasn’t working right. BOO.)

The Inks featured in the vid were miyawtala’s Peacebol and kwinsi’s Evolution of Rock.

Trina’s performance art group, My Masterpiece, was also featured.

For those that didn’t drop by, you missed out on serious fire dancing, street art performances, fun flash mobbing at HighStreet (the guards got to us soon) and Mon’s excellent shirt-folding skills.

“TWEET!”, goes the call of the online wild. And with all the Twittermania going on, it’s only natural that Twitter fan art have popped up.

Those of you who have been Tweeters since it was up have probably seen the famous Twitter Fail Whale.

What is it? Here: “[The Fail Whale] is employed during periods of downtime by the social networking service Twitter.com… . When Twitter gets overloaded, users see the ‘Fail Whale’ error message.”

Here’s some of the FailWhale fan art.

My personal favorite?

(Would love to try that out!)

Blue drinks aside, the artist behind the FW phenomenon is Yiying Lu, whose artwork is far from shabby.

Her website splash page already gives you a peek at her fun, colorful, clean geometric style.

More of her printwork.

Plus, her take on packaging doggie shampoos.

Yiying’s work reminds me of Scandinavian interior design company Isak or, slightly farther, Ikea’s children collection.

And, with all that Twitter talk, I leave you with my latest amusement, THE TWIBIRD!

Don’t you wish you could have him as a pet???

- – - – - -

Check out Yiying Lu’s website.

Read more about the success of FailWhale and some fan art here.

Want a Twi-Bird icon? Go here!

MediaMagnet

The good folks at MediaMagnet contacted us, saying they wanted The Inksquad featured for their March edition of BizBeat. As a result, we got plastered on plasma screens throughout the Metro!

They featured the Inks: Crystal Skullz by iQuitt, Food Trip! by miyawtala, League of Extraordinary by kungfuze, Sneaker Lines by kwinsi, and Stop Gummibear Cruelty by smoking. Plus, Ramon was seen wearing ilabuyo! by isip.

Here’s the clip they showed. I love how they animated Galgathor. No music, since it’s meant for casual viewing in designated shops.

<object width="700" height="464"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=10713798&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=10713798&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="700" height="464"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/10713798">MediaMagnet: BizBeat feature</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user2305701">The Inksquad</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Thanks to MediaMagnet for this clip and to Trisha Uy.

Erratum: The URL to our website is not “inksquad.com” but theinksquad.com.

Smile Magazine

A ton of you here already know Smile Magazine, popularly known as the inflight magazine of Cebu Pacific. They’re also available in coffee shops nationwide.

They featured The Inksquad for their April issue. Seen here are the Inks: Crystal Skullz by iQuitt, Food Trip! by miyawtala, Sneaker Lines by kwinsi, and Stop Gummibear Cruelty by smoking. (Talk about double feature, guys. Congratulations!)

Thanks to Jil Sembrano and Charmaine Baylon of Smile Magazine.

Some of you may have already seen the beautiful Morning Elegance stop-motion video.

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I watched this video at least 1 gajillion times over, the first time I saw it last year. The textures and movements were so — I don’t know why but the word that comes to mind is — precious.

Plus, Lavie’s lyrics makes me wanna dress in white, dye my hair strawberry blonde and curl it, then travel via MRT the whole day and pretend I’m that girl he’s singing about in “the train”.

Okay, enough girly talk.

My point is: the vid definitely deserved the 2010 Grammy Award nomination for “Best Short Form Music Video”. Too bad it didn’t win. I would’ve rooted for it all the way, thanks to Oren’s genius music composition and great stills from photographer Eyal Landesman.

They’ve taken it to the next level and made an online gallery/online shop of all 2,096 photos they took. As of this post, 1,891 photos have been bought and sent worldwide.

If I had some $250 to spare, I’d go for:

Photo #1874

Photo #1930

Which frame would you pick?

See the Her Morning Elegance Gallery to view or purchase one of the photos.

Though not all candy, PES uses mundane things and turn them into scrumptious feasts. Makes me hungry.

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More yummy stuff from PES here.

I wanted to know — among you folk here that are into the visual arts — has anyone ever tried stop motion vids? Leave a comment or a link to your vids so I can add them to my bevy of awesome things to share here.

I hope you all had a good Holy Week vacation!

Open your eyes, Trina!

Thanks, Cel Encarnacion, for the photos!

- – - – -

See what The Inksquad + The Out of Body Special has brewing for TIS folk and OBS fans.

More detais in our latest newsletter.

Since we put up The Inksquad a year ago, a lot has happened. Some plans went down the drain, others were enormous victories for us. All of which happened with the community running the show, 24/7.

Right now, we’ve reached another milestone.

Face-Off

Since we’ve already got the voting system down and other community features, we thought: why not open this up to others?

Starting today, people will be able to hold thematic, time-limited contests through The Inksquad. We’re calling them “Face-Offs”, where contest participants go head to head armed with their design wits, all for a themed-contest created by a third-party organization/group.

After all, crowd wisdom is too good to keep it to ourselves.

Crowd Wisdom: WTH are you talking about?

Ever heard that “two heads are better than one?” That’s exactly what crowd wisdom is: it’s the collective intelligence of the masses put together under one roof for one goal. If done properly, it becomes indispensible. It not only takes a popular vote (just like a democracy), but it most likely ends with the best possible results.

Crowd wisdom is what The Inksquad was built for. It’s what we believe in: you run the show.

Now we’re opening this up for other people to experience this (very) cool thing. How? Here are some scenarios:

• Bands can come up with artwork for pretty much whatever they want: album covers, merchandise (shirts, pins, stickers).
• Bands can engage their fans in a way that they never have before. Not only will the fans be able to create the what artwork to come up with, but they will get to choose, up to a certain level, what will get printed.
• Companies can come up with designs for products they want to sell, and be fairly sure about how well it will sell, since the crowd chose it.
• NGOs can get help in an almost infinite scale by opening their doors online.
• Designers who join can get their name out there, whether they get Inked or not, without commitment. We have a lot of artists that see The Inksquad as a creative outlet.
• Designers can hone their skills, collaborate with co-creatives, and learn way more than they would have it they flew solo.

Too good to be true?

We won’t lie: working with a crowd is not simple.

Understandably, this may be difficult for most people. It takes being open to letting things go. Maybe more difficult for (especially large) companies that are used to controlling everything. There are a lot of things to consider and to watch out for.

To help you, the staff will be extending their assistance and experience to anyone who’s willing to get into it. The way this will work is most likely different from what you’re used to, but it comes with great rewards:

• People are more engaged – voters, commenters, designers. Because of this interactivity, it’s more likely that these people will spread the word.
• Since the community votes, the winning design/s will sell better, since it’s a crowd-pleaser.
• Participants submit designs by choice. Because of this, the artwork is generally of higher standards.

It’s up in the air

We’re tossing this up and seeing where it’ll take us. At the very least, it’ll open up awesome and fruitful partnerships with all sorts of groups.

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you think community created stuff has potential here in the Philippines?

- – -

See the first ever Face-Off happen with The Out of Body Special.

Interested in holding your own Face-Off? Send us an email at staff@theinksquad.com.

Digital paintings mimic the textures and styles of traditional art, sans the messy paints.

Pelfusion compiled some digital paintings. I’d like to share some faves.

The paintings are mostly in the Fantasy genre, except for some Robert Pattinson fan art. (I’m no Twilighter, but I love the B&W treatment and soft brush strokes for his hair.)

Nice impasto work.

Great lighting on Pandora. Makes you forgive her for opening that lethal box.

Watercolor has always been a favorite.

See the rest at Pelfusion.com.

If you find any favorites, tell me?

I’m just really astounded at their work. Their music ain’t bad either. :)

<object width="400" height="225"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9752986&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9752986&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="225"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/9752986">70 Million by Hold Your Horses !</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user2732566">L'Ogre</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Logging In and Out

Before, when you’d login or sign up using third party accounts (Google, Yahoo, etc), you would most likely end up in the login page. We’ve changed that so you would end up where you came from. If the site gets confused and doesn’t know where to send you back, you’ll go to the home page.

From Uservoice to Get Satisfaction

We will still be implementing the stuff found on Uservoice but we decided to transfer to Get Satisfaction for now. You’ll notice that the feedback tab on the left opens up another kind of feedback popup.

We changed it because we didn’t want things to be confusing for you.

• A lot wanted to just contact us but ended up putting things under “suggestions”.
• There isn’t a lot of activity in Uservoice

With Get Satisfaction, you have four options to choose from: Idea, Praise, Question, Problem. We’re going to keep Get Satisfaction for a while, and see how you react.

See our Uservoice page and our Get Satisfaction page.

What do you think? Are things clearer for you? Please leave comments below!

See all new reprinted girls shirts >>

• Ideas are arranged by the time it was updated. Before, ideas were arranged by the time they were first put up. It made updated and older ideas harder to find because they were buried by the new ideas. Now, when an artist updates the idea by putting a new version, it will rise back to the top for the public to see and comment. This will only work for changes done from now on.
• We now report royalty payments in artist’s sales pages. That means when we give you your royalties, we list that down on your sales page so you and the staff can both keep track of payments easily. You have an Ink on sale? Check out your sales page.
• Reviews in the home page now shows the ones you’ve written. It has replaced the testimonials section. We wanted an easier way to put reviews up online, and we thought this was the best and most transparent way. Go on, write one.

Signing out!

Our friend Therese shared this over Facebook.

YOU NEED TO SEE IT.

NOW!

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Ritzh was featured on Computer Arts Magazine.

And he was even kind enough to plug us!

We salute you Ritzh! Keep up the good work.

Earlier this afternoon, someone that looked slightly familiar to me walked up to our booth at the Juan Pride Bazaar.

“You must be Quincy”, I said to the guy. He replied “yes”. After chatting a bit, we took photos with him and his trophies!

Winners, wearers, voters, or even people that signed up on the website are most welcome to visit us during our bazaars and events.

It’s a little crazy, but we just finished GiftLab’s bazaar last night…

… and tomorrow morning we’re off to Juan Pride Bazaar in Ateneo.

Wish us luck, and hope to see you there!

An image from The Daily Monster

This article in Smashing Magazine contains interviews of different artists that have drawn something everyday (or tried to).

Read the whole article and do it. I encourage creating art beyond the shirt design category too!

This is until January 5, 2010 only.

Be sure you check the box “This is a gift” when you check out your order.

BUT WAIT! There are a few things you have to keep in mind:

• There are a few out of delivery areas where our courier can’t deliver the goods (like war-stricken or highly restricted areas). We will refund your full payment if your delivery falls under this category. Find out in advance if your area can’t be reached, by calling Xend Express.
• If for any reason delivery price goes beyond what our courier claims, then we may choose to refund you fully. Or you have the option to pay for the extra cost.

Merry Ho Ho Ho!

I base this on the numerous reactions we had during the Global Pinoy Bazaar two weekends ago and the Assumption Bazaar just yesterday. These were our tickets to pass the virtual barrier and step into a physical space wherein people can see, feel, smell the shirts; ask about the designs and designers; get to know the glorified printers (the staff); and see how big this thing really is.

One of the common reactions was: “Your designs are so cool!”, to which we would say, “Thanks, but we didn’t design them.” Then they give us this funny look and I could almost see their thought bubble: “Pirated ba ’to?”

(Our new shirt tags.)

We explain our belief that anyone can design and the designs are done by anyone and everyone who joins the site and participates. We tell them about the voting system, the artist cash prize and royalties, and printing the designers’ names on each shirt for credit. “If you like the design, thank the designer.” We also tell them it’s not a new business model, but we believed in it so much that we wanted it here in the Philippines. Everytime we got the point across, people’s eyes would widen in – I would hope – amazement.

What made the experience more fun was hearing passersby say things like: “Uy! I know that site!” , “I’ve seen that shirt!”, “That’s my friend’s design!” or “I saw my friend wearing that shirt!”

One of the more memorable ones were the two girls who came by and instantly snatched up a League of Extraordinary shirt. One of them said, “This is by my friend Dani-Anne We found out Dani-Anne was a colleague and a talented graphic designer at their company. Coincidentally, Mon and I were wearing her shirt design that day (he copied me cause he thinks I’m cool) and I told her it was one of our favorites. I was hoping Dani-Anne could pass by so that we could meet her, but apparently she lived pretty far. Oh well, next time! (Right, Dani?)

We had so many quality conversations: from talking about business in general, partnerships with others, and just plain weather talk. I slightly lost my voice from talking so much, but I liked it.

(Carmen and Julian from Muscovado Shirts bought their own TIS tees!)

At Yabang Pinoy, Mon and I constantly spoke with Carmen and Julian from Muscovado Shirts (talented folk whom I hope would put their brilliant stuff here), our booth neighbors from Filed! (their organizers sold like hotcakes), Jenny and Luis from Tunic Project, a blogger who bought a shirt and took photos with us, plus countless others. I even got to meet Lorra and Elbert from Start Here. The bulk of our conversations were with customers, though. I can say we acknowledged each one, giving our time and effort in getting to know them (if they weren’t in a hurry) and having them jot down their emails so we could follow up with them and their orders.

The staff assessed the bazaar weekends and came to a conclusion: We couldn’t have sold if we dictated what shirts to print and sell. It was a constant surprise to see a design (we honestly thought would flop) sell a lot, and vice versa. This put truth into the whole concept of community-created content. You guys designed, you guys chose. Without your say, The Inksquad won’t move. Personally, we are forever grateful to everyone who contributes here.

- – - – - -

For the Inked designers, check your sales pages this week. Updates on your shirt sales should be completed by Friday.

Our next bazaar is The Great Holiday Bazaar on December 5-6 at the Rockwell Tent! Drop by and say hi!

<object width="700" height="525"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7748847&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7748847&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="700" height="525"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/7748847">WYD EP. 9 – THE INKSQUAD</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user2391306">WYD1</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

We want to thank WYD and everyone on this site that made this possible. :)

See the behind the scenes photos as well!

Funny designs? Filipino designs? Funny Filipino designs? Trees, nature, music related? Go nuts and comment!

I’m pretty sure you will be commenting on Facebook, Twitter, and all around, so the staff will do our best to compile them here.

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.

- – -
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.

- – -

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.

<a href="http://www.bloggerskapihan.com/?p=141"><img title="Blog Action Day 2009 Pilipinas" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3489/3992612044_5a154d68a2.jpg" alt="" width="180" height="150"/></a>

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 fun 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!

Some stuff the folks at Global Pinoy said

Yabang Pinoy, the pioneering Filipino Pride movement behind shouting proud Filipinos, entrepreneurs and consumers alike, is also behind the success of Global Pinoy Bazaar, an annual assembly of individuals passionate about being Filipino and the potential of Filipino products. On its fifth year, Yabang Pinoy promises the biggest and best yet, at the Global Pinoy Bazaar 2009. 

On November 14 and 15, 2009, just a hop and a skip away from Christmas, that most important season in any Filipino’s year, Yabang Pinoy invites its advocates and volunteers to once again demonstrate a true Consumer Revolution with Global Pinoy Bazaar 2009 at the Rockwell Tent, Makati City. It is time once more to champion quality Filipino products made with pride, and as citizens, take part in nation-building, so that the Philippines may take its place among the world’s biggest and greatest economies. Much like two years ago, Filipino entrepreneurs, sporting Filipino concepts and ideas and promising to maximize local materials and labor, will again launch limited edition products revolving around the theme of Indigenous Pop designs inspired by local icons, stories, materials, cultures, and traditions. Do something different for your Christmas shopping list this year: Support Pinoy, Shop Pinoy! 

To know more about the Global Pinoy Bazaar 2009 and the Yabang Pinoy movement and be a part of this Filipino Consumer Revolution, visit yabangpinoy.com.

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.

Here’s an online freely editable Google Document of the list of places where you can drop goods.

Here’s another list of people that need help, and a map to boot.

Please stay safe. Don’t take unnecessary risks. We shouldn’t add to the people that need saving. However, if you’re nearby you can help update this list, give food, whatever.

I follow @GuyKawasaki on Twitter and he posted about Anatomical Diagrams of Mythical Japanese Monsters.

I would love to see nicely done designs of shirts with our own rich set of Filipino mythical monsters (with their anatomies or not).

@isip, you can’t deny he was the inspiration for your design!

He told us you can contact him for his royalty fee.

Because of this, we extended the voting period of The Eye.

Please recast your votes. We apologize for this and will take steps to now allow this bug to occur again.

Thanks.

As a kid, I was deathly afraid of monsters. Since the appearance of Trogdor The Burninator and Monsters Inc, I’ve overcome my fear of monsters.

Here’s another video tastefully done that will help you get over your fear of monsters.

<object width="600" height="345"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4828084&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4828084&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="600" height="345"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/4828084">Monsters: 091 Tourists</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/volstok">Volstok Telefunken</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

I’m embarrassed to say that I first watched Trogdor about 6 years ago.

My ABC affair has been with me since WordStar was the shiznit of all word processors. (If you start computing the years, I shall smack you with the force of Galgathor.)

Typography is an art. And, like most art forms, it’s been a playground for type-heads like me. If people spend hours Twittering and Facebooking, my fingers dawdle away on font sites and typography blogs.

It takes me hours, I tell you.

HOURS.

I can’t tell you that I’ve studied typography. My education is limited to terms picked up through my graphic and layout works. I have no historical references to how Times New Roman grew to be the serif font it is today. Or how the fracking heck Comic Sans evolved to be the favored font among preschool teachers. All I have is this heart-thumping sensation I get when I see a new font by an awesome type designer. My heart flutters as layouts flash before me. Oh, the possibilities.

My type addiction became so bad that I started playing “Guess That Font” with myself. My eye would scan billboards to magazines to company logos and I’d start saying font names in my head. It was during those games that I blurted out: “I can’t believe they used crappy Lucida Handwriting!” My friend turns around bewildered and says: “You actually memorize fonts?”

My uneducated type-love was enough to get me chuckling to this video from College Humor.

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.collegehumor.com/moogaloop/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1823766&fullscreen=1" width="640" height="360" ><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><param name="AllowScriptAccess" value="true"/><param name="movie" quality="best" value="http://www.collegehumor.com/moogaloop/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1823766&fullscreen=1"/><embed src="http://www.collegehumor.com/moogaloop/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1823766&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="640" height="360" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object><div style="padding:5px 0; text-align:center; width:640px;">See more <a href="http://www.collegehumor.com/videos">funny videos</a> and <a href="http://www.collegehumor.com/pictures">funny pictures</a> at <a href="http://www.collegehumor.com/">CollegeHumor</a>.</div>

Typography is quite the versatile artform. We merge so many things in the arts like paintings and music, dance and photography. Type is fertile ground for those mergers. TIS (The Inksquad) artists are awesome illustrators, but my hope for everyone is to try out typographical designs. It’s a style that you might find yourself inclined to. Like we said before, good design doesn’t always equal color explosions. That goes the same for graphics. If you’ve got a message or an affinity with a word plus a visually appealing way of presenting it, typography design is the way to go. Let me show you what I mean.

Ampersands need some <3 <3 <3 too. Via Typenuts.

Awesome fluid work from Mario Feliciano via Typenuts.

I love it when people play around with simple elements, like this letter. Colors and formatting are such wonders. From Typography.com.

Why not make a book out of typography? Brighten the Corners

And perhaps my most treasured piece of all, an orgasmic type-video by the talented “Sebastian Lange”. (Watch in high def please! It’s worth it.)

<object width="400" height="225"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3302330&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3302330&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="225"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/3302330">Flickermood 2.0</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user412958">Sebastian Lange</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

That video makes me weep everytime.

All this typography talk was nudged out of me because of a contest that my co-teaching artists from My Masterpiece Multi-arts Center came up with. Kat, a member of the team, cooked up The Splots Project. It’s where all the teachers post their brain farts, plus where we post stuff from our contest series. We have open contests for fun, just to get the juices flowing. The winner gets to host the next contest and is recorded on video. (Because self-humiliation is the best prize ever!)

One of the recent contests had something to do with Typography. Here was my entry.

Guess who turned out to be the winner?

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/h1Dv3oo45G0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/h1Dv3oo45G0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Now that I can no longer save face, I leave you with a video on what major font geeks have come up with. Enjoy the mind-blowingnessity!

<object width="400" height="230"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5664292&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5664292&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="230"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/5664292">Fontplore Showreel</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/mphasize">Mphasize</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

- – - – -

P.S. I wrote this with frustration. After 4 hours of creating this post, my fingers decided to press ctrl+R. Brilliance is my middle initial. NOT is my last name.

P.P.S. Check out Ramon’s post on Typedia.

The Inksquad has moved its avatar system to Gravatar.

What is that? It’s a website where you sign up, set your email/s, and upload at least one photo. All websites that use Gravatar will be able to show the avatars you upload there.

It’s that simple! What’s cool is when you update Gravatar, it will show that change everywhere as well.

To make the move as easy on you as possible, if you have already uploaded an avatar here on the website, then that is what is displayed. If there is no avatar (or you delete your current one), then one from Gravatar will be shown.

Typedia is a Wikipedia for typefaces.

What more can I say? :)

August went by quickly. The Ber months have arrived. Yet we at The Inksquad relish the August rush that came with a glossy magazine feature.

The cover of the August issue.

In the Table of Contents. (Yes we scrounge around for the littlest details.)

Page 1: Inks featured – Cryztal Skullz by iQuitt, ilabuyo! by isip, Random Thoughts by ritzh. And here’s the first fugly mugshot of the staff.

Page 2: Another staff mugshot, with only a TIS tee as saving grace.

Read the whole article here, PDF style.

JC Medina, you rock our (stinky) socks. OneBigMwah!

- – - – -

Erratum: Article says we started 2007, when in fact we started late 2008.

About 5 months back we decided to print our own shirts. This allowed us to be more meticulous about the prints (quality control) and to print a smaller volume of shirts to avoid unnecessary stocks. As a start up, we neither have an abundance of money nor space and therefore have to be extra careful on how and what we spend our time and money on.

Time

While shirt printing is really good fun, it definitely eats up your time, especially if you’re making a 5 to 7 color print. With our current work space, it can take about 3 hours to make a set of 10 shirts of several colors. Furthermore, we wish to distribute our time efficiently – reserving time to document and systematize other things: customer service, sales, and future fun plans for The Inksquad.

Quality

If there’s an inevitable percentage of error for every color, having more colors in a print increases the chances of shirt rejection. This affects the quality we can offer you. And since we’re very particular with print quality (it’s your art!), we thought it would be a wise move to try and limit design colors for now.

What about the current Inks?

We’ll definitely continue the production of current Inks. This decision of decreasing the number of colors will affect Ideas and Submissions created after the posting of this entry. Why? Well, we don’t want you to have to change or scrap any WIP you may have. Of course, if you think you can lessen the colors, you’re most welcome to try.

What about Creativity?

If you could only see us now, we’re grinning at you like the Cheshire Cat. To this we say: this will be a huge opportunity for all of us to flex our design muscles and work with colors given to us. A good design is not synonymous to a spectrum of colors. (Though, arguably, there are designs that work well if done colorfully.) But, in fact, a lot of really great shirt designs out there can — and have been — limited to even just one color! We claim ourselves to be creative? Then let’s try this new color limit! A few won’t hurt. :)

So here’s the new Inking Guide.

As always, tell us what you think, whether it’s a no or a go for you or if you’ve got any questions. Your feedback is gold to us and is vital for the success of the Squad. We’re always open to what everyone feels. So go ahead and speak up!

Envato is the landing page for creatives. From there, I surfed around and saw other pretty cool websites.

If you’re looking for some inspiration, check out Creattica. The designs there are simple but pretty awesome.

Trying to further your skills? Tutsplus is the website in that collection that has all sorts of tutorials.

Share what you think by joining the discussion.

Flash is really nice for vector drawings. I’m sure Illustrator has a lot more features, however, Flash is really simple and easy to learn.

Basic tutorials:

• Like before, Lynda has a lot of useful Flash tutorials. They even have this animation tutorial that allows you to create Cartoon Network type cartoons!
• Vector Illustration from Sketch should be something that you will run into often.

Advanced stuff:

• GoToAndLearn – Scripting and animation

Personally, when I vectorize something, I get a picture or a scanned drawing and trace it in Flash. It’s that simple!

What’s cool is you’re bound to learn how to animate as well. :) So go ahead and try it! Again, please post anything you’ve found useful.

Update August 31, 2009: found another tutorial drawing cartoon face.

By no means is this the definitive guide to getting back on creative track, but here are some tips that a well-known photographer, Chase Jarvis, has come up with over his years of working.

Before I enumerate them, I want you to know why I chose them. During the times I did design-based based work (I worked as a photographer, Flash animator & developer), I realized that when you look for tutorials, you usually have something in mind you want to accomplish.

However, since I want you to know more than just vector art (for the shirt we print here), I’ll be posting whatever I find interested. Remember, if you have something in mind, just search for it!

• Vector tutorial. Tip: vectorize something you haven’t seen vectorized before.
• Web 2.0 icons has gained loads of popularity over the past 5 years because of the cool websites that have sprung up.
• Here are some miscellaneous tutorials
  • Photoshop Support
  • 56 Absolutely Brilliant and Intriguing Photoshop Video Tutorials
  • Lynda has a lot of good tutorials, not just Photoshop. I’ve used these to jumpstart many of the things I know, including Ruby on Rails (what I used to build this site).

Other tips that aren’t exactly related but will help:

• Use an online bookmarking service like delicious. It becomes very useful when you bookmark something, then easily search for it with their Firefox add on. If your files get deleted, you don’t have to worry about it.
• Learn how to be effective when doing searches in Google. My favorite is using the ~ character to tell Google to use a word similar to that. Ex: ~man could be also “boy” or “guy” or “male”.

If you have any that you’d like to share, please comment!

I have to assume that you guys don’t know what I’m talking about, so here are some photos I found through Google. I’ve also some of my own to post. I also had a video but it was too blurry so I decided not to make you dizzy.

Enjoy!

It’s something that the host of the server has to fix on their end. I’ve contacted them already but the problem has come back up. Rest assured, we’re looking for a way to permanently fix this. If it keeps happening, The Inksquad will move to a new server.

Sorry for any hassles you guys come across. Hold on to those designs – we’re very excited to see them.

UPDATE: Okay, that was quick! The issue has been resolved, so far. Let’s see if it happens again.

As you may know, I love stats.

Here’s a sight to see:

We do block off IE6 though, that’s probably why IE visitorship is what it is. It’s good to see more secure browsers take the reigns though.

Although ColorCombos is mainly for designing websites, it is still useful when designing anything else – like t-shirts!

The main reason for moving was that sometimes, people that uploaded images got an error – because the server ran out of memory to resize the files.

We have twice the amount of memory now so that should not happen.

Thanks for dropping by!

Give a standing ovation to vintage, 8bitjedi, koolkid, kwinsi and veda!

You get 50% OFF on your next purchase people! (Thanks for counting the Galgathors. Isn’t he cute?) We’ve emailed you your coupon numbers. If you haven’t received any, let us know.

Now you know you could go for stand up comedy, if you find yourself jobless.

WAIT! Only 5 people??!

Yeah, I know we said 10, but not many answers tickled our fancy. So we’re raising the stakes to tickle YOUR fancy.

Make us laugh with your wit and we’re giving 5 more people el 50% descuento… AND A FREE INKSQUAD SHIRT. Yummy yummy priiiiizeeeeees…

Tell your bored friends! They might get it and share their winnings ;)

The next batch of answers will be accepted until July 31.

“I love that shirt!” exclaimed one kid from the local delegation. The Spanish and Norwegian leaders also expressed their delight.

It’s moments like these that make my work in The Inksquad even more meaningful – when I get to proudly wear our artists’ designs. I feel even more proud when foreigners see the great talent and skills the local artists possess.

Keep it up folks!

The peace organization I’m referring to is called CISV – it’s committed to bringing peace and understanding through the children by encouraging them to form friendships with people all over the world.

I won’t be posting results of all questions, however, you’ll find the most interesting answers. :)

How’d you hear about The Inksquad?

It seems that even with all our messages and walking around wearing Inksquad shirts, publications are the most effective way to get people to visit the site. This shows us that we need to spread the word via traditional media.

Time It Took To Know What This Was All About

The long question: If you were a new visitor for the newly designed site (current one), how long did it take you to find out what we were all about?

That shows that we can work on explaining a little more to people what this is all about. To many Filipinos, this concept is new, and it’s one of our goals that our site is simple to use and understand.

Did you know that you could share pages?

Not a lot knew about the share buttons. It’s a sign that we have to make this more obvious. Maybe you guys have ideas?

Did you know that you could stalk ideas, submissions, and blog posts?

Stalking is very important to us, and it keeps people updated. Since then, we’ve changed stalking to be opt-out instead when people comment. That means if they don’t want to stalk the thing they’re commenting about, they uncheck the box right below. Maybe you guys have ideas about this?

What RSS feeds are you subscribed to?

RSS Feeds are a nice way to get updates that aren’t “In your face”, however, this seems to be a technology that is slow to pickup. We’ll continue to promote this any way we can. :)

How accessible is The Inksquad Staff?

We need to be super-accessible for people. We won’t be happy til we get a score of 5, and even then, we believe that improving our service should never end! What other ways would you like to reach us?

I went through some left over photos from our recent shoot and thought I’d do something better with my time. After smooshing the pics together and doodling a bit, I was reminiscing my delirious highschool days. (Ahhh, youth. I’m glad I’m still have it.)

So, to keep with my (youthful) school theme, let’s put our brains to use and…

SPOT THE GALGATHOR!

Post a reply (or email trina@theinksquad.com, if you’re shy) saying (1) what school you are or were from, (2) your Galgathor count, and (3) describe to me what each Galgathor is doing. Be creative and you’re in for a tee-treat! We’re giving out 50% DISCOUNT TO 10 PEOPLE with the craziest answers. And if you’re answer is picked, these are the tees you’ll be enjoying at 50% off, except The Inksquad shirt.

Man, it’s too easy!

Post your replies or email trina@theinksquad.com on or before June 24, Thursday.

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(See the full incriminating image here)

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UPDATE! And the verdict is….. http://theinksquad.com/articles/20-you-gotsit

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UPDATE! 04 August 2009
Thanks for playing guys! Congratulations to all who got the 50 off coupons. Remember that you have until December 2009, so take advantage of it! Shop away!

Most of the time, I don’t succeed because I don’t try. And seeing you guys putting your Ideas up, even if you think others will find them silly, begets success itself.

This type of attitude has manifested in many ways around me the past couple of years, because I’ve come to believe in these few points:

1. Talk about what it is your into, even if you’re shy, because opportunities will open up.
2. Teach others what you know, especially if you think you don’t know enough, because teaching will make you better, and will make others grateful toward you
3. Just like the opposite of love isn’t hate, but boredom, the opposite of success isn’t failure, but staying stagnant. Our brains will decay when we don’t do anything because we’re gripped with fear.

Again, congrats and goodluck! I enjoy surfing the site even more than I did before because of all the activity.

Columnist Paolo Reyes from Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Super section featured The Inksquad last April 25, 2009. That got the staff all giddy. (Thanks, Paolo!)

A salute to the squad members featured: Carlo Dultra, Quincy Gonzales, and Ronald Samson. The feature wouldn’t have existed without your works.

Shout outs to Jeff Baldemoro and Micah Hawkins who were part of the intially chosen artists to be featured.

Big hugs to our models as well: Noelle Hilario, Denise Luchangco, Pat Martires, and Rio Ortiz. You make us look good.

Page 1

(View the original size)

Page 2

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Update: You can also view the online version.

For this to work you need to place an order under GCash or Bank Deposit, but don’t pay yet. We have to see how much it will cost to ship it to you. We will notify you when we’re ready for payment and how much more it will be. :)

In short, just place the order and wait for our email for further instructions.

Thanks for bearing with us!

UPDATE: Are you outside the Philippines? If so, check out our other blog post, Shipping Outside The Philippines.

If you do, you can send us feedback on the left. Thanks!

WE PICK YOU. YES, YOU!

It may be April Fool’s Day, but we’re not kidding around. There’s a bodacious number of Ideas being shared at The Inksquad. Unfortunately, some Ideas never even make it to the voting round. Sometimes artists don’t submit their works for voting or, if they do, the design doesn’t pass the initial screening.

The staff gets immensely sad when a design remains an Idea, possibly never ever to be seen on a shirt. And that’s why we decided to launch our Staff Picks.

We think there’s a lot of awesome stuff here that are too good to pass up. Every month, starting this April, the staff will choose at least one design to Ink.

There’s no need to submit. No need for voting!

If you have an Idea up in the Share section, that automatically makes you a candidate.

Artists of the chosen designs will not get the initial cash prize like those who get voted on by the community. But they still get their names printed on all shirts and receive the same royalties from total sales.

To jumpstart it, we’re choosing 3 designs for this month. And YOU could own one of them.

Wait for it!

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<em>As usual, give us some feedback. We love knowing you read our posts! And, if you would like to enlighten us even more, take our quickie survey.</em>

UPDATE: We ran into a couple of stops for this April’s Staff Picks. But don’t worry: they’re coming up this month. :)

A question that kept coming up also amongst us Staffers was, “What if someone wanted to a contact the user for some potential work?” We didn’t want to display the email outright, so we made a simple way for viewers to message the users via their profile. They will receive it in their email inbox.

Disable It, If you Want

In your account, uncheck “Allow users to message me via my profile” if you don’t want to receive messages.

Send It

Sending messages is a two step process. Just click on the link on their profile, then…

Type your message and send! The message will be sent to the profile owner’s email inbox.

When I watched this talk, I thought that it would be nice to share this with the community.

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One way to spread your Idea? Click on the share buttons!

In a world that is afraid of the life that artists end up in, I think this is something many artists can relate to and will find inspiring.

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I wrote about getting your Idea out there in my previous post. Everytime a member shares their Idea, we give them a pat on the back. It takes guts to show your work in public and opening yourself up to critique. Kudos to those who have shared. It gets really exciting to see a new Idea: people comment, the artist comments back, and there’s a small creative conversation that gets going. But it doesn’t last very long. Oftentimes, I see the activity die out. The artist doesn’t check on comments anymore or, if they do, they don’t implement changes to their work as suggested by others. Or, if there were no comments to begin with, the artist is discouraged. Pretty soon, they forget about their Idea. This is how many Ideas remain on our Share page.

“You mean uploading my Idea in Share isn’t enough?,” you ask. First of all, I can’t believe you even asked that. Second, yes, it is absolutely positively not enough. I will say that again: it is absolutely positively not enough. You’ve a long way to go, young padawan.

As an antidote to stationary Ideas, there are several features built into The Inksquad to help evolve your work. Let’s get the feather duster and start sweeping off the soot, shall we?

1) Become a Stalker

With the new site design came this new feature of auto-stalking your own Idea. That means every designer is notified whenever a comment is posted on their work. Use these to evolve your designs (I’ll talk more about evolving in number 2). However, since stalking is new, the Ideas uploaded before this feature was added is not automatically stalked by their owners. In other words, designers who have uploaded Ideas before don’t get notified of new comments. This was ultimately because we didn’t want comments to flood your inboxes all of a sudden. If you were one of the previous Idea owners, I highly suggest that you revisit your Idea, and click on “Stalk this”.

You can easily “Stop Stalking” when you want to.

2) Evolve Your Idea

When you upload an Idea, you can upload several versions.

This is how people see the changes you make from the original version.

You can apply suggestions that the community gives or improve the design based on your creative whim. Whichever the case, these “versions” help you better your work.

3) Tell People

It’s useless if no one knows about your Idea. So post it up on your social networks. It’s quite easy. Just click on any of the social network buttons found below your name.

Ask your whole contact list to check out your work. You can also do the same once your design is up for voting. Speaking of voting…

4) Turn your Idea into a Submission

Uploading an Idea does not automatically put it under voting. It’s only when you formally Submit it does it become a possible candidate. (The staff screens designs based on several reasons. Our design pack says it all.) If you’re confident of your shirt design and think it doesn’t need any more improvement, go ahead and submit it, by clicking on the “Submit this for voting” button beside your name.

Are there any cobwebs left? Let me know, I can help.

I have encountered way too many folks that say: “Oh, I’d love to design/draw/paint/sing/act, but I just don’t have the time.” Or, “I’ve always wanted to do that but (insert absurd self-excuse here).”

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawd.

Stop it already.

All those excuses dig you in deeper in that creative rut of yours. Just get out of it. If you think you’ve no time, you actually do. If you’ve time to change your Facebook status almost 24/7, post up photos in Multiply, lurk around the net snooping on your ex(es) or that frenemy of yours, then you’ve got the time to sit your butt down and draw. Or paint. Or read that book that’s slowly rotting on your table.

If you want to do it, you’ll make time to do it.

The Inksquad was built with the purpose of giving artists a venue to stretch your creativity, no holds barred. In here, graphic tees are the medium for your mind’s work. Nowadays, these shirts aren’t seen as mere merchandise. Graphic designed shirts work as a canvas for artists to get their names and their statements out there. It epitomizes mobile art.

Some people might think shirts limit their design. That kind of thinking is another rut-ful way of looking at things. I see it more as another challenging platform. The same way a blank canvas’ size or a page of your sketch book limits you, this wearable cloth structure gives you parameters wherein you can experiment. Playgrounds always have their fences.

It took you about 5 minutes to read this post. See? I told you you had time, if you really wanted to have time. Those 5 minutes could’ve been used to sit down and daydream about a brilliant shirt design.

And you’re still here…?

Take a hint! Stop reading. Start designing.

Server

For our back-end, we use Ruby on Rails. It’s a relatively new framework, but it’s really fun to use. Before this site I had never built any large website that would require many users to sign up. Just goes to show how rewarding it is to learn RoR (Ruby on Rails).

Static Files

Static files are the pictures (among other stuff). The photos and attachments are stored in Amazon Web Services’ S3. It gives us some breathing room on the server that runs Ruby on Rails.

Funky Popups: Lightbox

Those popups that show pictures with awesome animation is super cool (how redundant). It’s called lightbox. Well, what else can I say? ;)

Operating System

Over the past couple of years I’ve become an open source junkie. I used to be a Windows user but now I run Ubuntu at home, and Ubuntu on The Inksquad server.

Hosting Service

This website runs on a VPS (Virtual Private Server) on the service SilverRack. They’re a quite affordable no-frills solution. For smaller websites though, you might want to checkout HostingRails (Disclaimer: that’s my personal affliate link ;) )

Others

It’s no fair that we only talk about the technology we use on the server, but the offline stuff too!

Drop.io

We use drop.io to exchange files internally.

Google Docs

We use Google Docs to host our documents.

Text Editing

I use Vim – super geeky but well worth it.

Fuel

Add a cup of Barako cappuccino and stir.

Cover of Meg’s March 2009 issue

Le Article. (Galgathor on page 12, baby!)

Here, you can read The Inksquad write-up by Pipay Reyes. (Thanks Pipay! Thanks Meg!)

This gives us a momento of the first site design. Sniff. Oh well. On to greater things!

Loving Your Work

Being the Top Geek in The Inksquad staff, building the website was no joke. Yes, I admit, it was fun, but it takes a lot of hard work and back and forth with the designer. While building though, especially when you become proud of what you’re building, you tend to feel that people will just show up. Again, you fall into that old adage with which this post started.

Getting Others Involved

Now that the new, more usable, more design and artist focused website is up, we will be spreading the word about The Inksquad. I believe that the quality of Filipino created graphic tees can be increased greatly at no huge cost to the buyer of the shirts. Through collaboration, sharing ideas, artists can create quality works that will stun the rest of the world.

But I want this all for myself!

The beautiful thing about this site, unlike a physical store, is that the more people visit, the better it gets. The more comments are given, the more people vote, the more artists submit, the better the website gets because the better the content gets.

Word of Mouth

Bringing eyeballs to the site, we’ve learned, takes good ol’ marketing. In the next months, we will be trying to get in any medium we can to spread about The Inksquad. One way to spread the word, by word of mouth, is very effective but will need our members’ help.

Your Help

This would be my turn to personally ask you, our readers and website members, to help spread the word – help us make The Inksquad better. Tell others about it. Give more feed back. Subscribe to the feeds so you don’t have to manually check back all the time.

Why not? It’s as simple as sharing a page, asking your friends to vote for you, telling your friends to buy your shirt, encouraging classmates to put their designs online. Who doesn’t want a bigger and better community? :) Don’t let The Inksquad fall into the problem I faced when building the site. We still gotta spread the word about your artworks!

Easier Navigation

Those who had submitted know that it was more than difficult trying to figure out what to do when you want to submit something. We’ve made it way clearer. If you don’t know what we’re referring to, maybe it’s time you submit ;)