The Hold Up Is This:

Hello beautiful, wonderful people who still believe in this blog. As you read this, you’re probably thinking, “where all these blog post this bitch been talkin bout since summer?¿?”

Well, this post is here to report that my time off from school has been really great (sloth life-wise), that working on anything has been feeling more like a chore and a dreadful kinda feeling. I know I promised I’d be working on a lot of personal projects as soon as I get out of school (don’t get me wrong, I have started some already; more of that later), but I can’t get enough of the slacker life at the moment. It’s been a damn long time since I woke up in the morning without the paralysing scare of deadlines and the need of perfection and approval and… I just really wanna savour the lax pace until it lasts (but also because the feeling of not having to do anything is addictive, especially after the whole college/uni thing LOL).

SO:

Right now I’m taking baby steps again towards productivity. I just had two rolls processed, another one just about to, a relatively big flower arrangement to dry and frame, and a few branding design projects here and there. But I must confess that I haven’t been focusing much on them as I had initially planned. As it turns out, a lot of my time has been (and is still being) consumed by taking care of Comet, our new baby (puppy) in the family. Not that I have any complaints about it; it’s actually my favourite thing in the world right now. But the fact that that is, it hasn’t been exactly my most productive days, as of recent. But I realised, I needed to learn how to balance my life and work, just like a kickass mother would. And so here I am writing a blogpost to hopefully jump start my productivity.

I know there are things that I promised to post here and I haven’t really followed through, and so the fact that you’re still here, reading this now, is very very VERY much appreciated. I mean, if I were you, I wouldn’t really buy the words this lady right here is writing lol. And that’s why I wanna thank you for being so wonderful and believing in this blog. I wish I could give something back to you like those people who give those giveaways and whatnot, buuuut, alas. HAHAHA. For now I’ll be trying my best to post all my pending blog post regularly, and hopefully it becomes a habit that never dies (even after I cop a good job by next year hehehehe).

Singapore 2017

2018 and yet another long-overdue post LOL. Let’s face it: no matter how I’ll try to make my new years resolution’s to post more stuff (and more often) here, I’ll still end up posting late stuff (or at least just until I finish with uni) hahahaha

OK anywayyyy: last year I was able to visit Singapore for the first time with my family. I had so much fun and just wanted to share photos from the roll here.

If I’m gonna be completely honest here, we actually wasted one whole day because I was throwing up in our hotel bathroom the moment we landed (my stupid ass ate so much whilst wearing my high waisted jeans, and combine that with turbulence and a bunch of other stuff—sigh. IDEK.🤦‍♀️)

Subways and train rides are a personal fave of mine when travelling. That’s probably because of the dystopian-themed urban living here in the Philippines, and I always loved seeing at least a little bit of what the daily grind’s like in other countries. (Hey, but for what it’s worth, what we may lack in the urban setting, we make for paradise-worthy beaches and getaways🌴🍹)

We toured around the city a little (which I did not get so much picture of, sorry), saw some museums, food strips, etc. But one of the things my sister and I were excited for was the Central Perk cafe. And as die-hard Friends fanatics, WE. LOVED. EVERY. THING. ABOUT IT.

I also may or may not have taken photos of all their signages because well why the hell not lol.

The food was great, as was their menu theme (dishes were all Friends-themed so we kinda geeked out and decided everything must be good lol). There’s also a mini studio display patterned to the show’s set design. UGH one of my fave stops in SG, defs.

My next fav place we went to was Gardens By The Bay’s Flower Dome. I’m basically obsessed with anything within the parameters of flora and fauna, and this place gave me all my flora dreams (I have yet to travel to places with flower fields and whatnot, but for now, this was it lol). This place had every flowers and plants my sorry lil bum couldn’t afford to see on a regular basis.

There’s also this pretty cool set up with a yellow truck that looked like it crashed on a pumpkin patch. V v dreamy

Last but not the least: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS!!!

This was the first time I’ve ever been to one of those top theme park names in the world (I know, it’s sad), and not one cell in my body was disappointed. I think this was my fave of all the places we visited in SG. All the rides, the attractions—everything! Ah, I was so alive in the Far Far Away section because ya know ya girl’s #TeamShrek (pls don’t judge lol).

Aside from the rides and all (of course), I couldn’t help but notice these faux window displays along the New York area. I didn’t get to take more pics because I was too busy having fun AAAND mostly because I was saving some shots because I was running out of films lol.

Anyway. I wish we had more time there than we had (actually, if we’re wishing for things, I’d wish for me to not have that stupid hyperacidity and maybe not wear my high-waisted pants to the plane so we won’t miss one whole day in the hotel hahahaaha ha ha ha). Idk, maybe if I save enough money I’ll get to visiting again.

(And yes. Their airport has a freakin sunflower garden and so much more…)

Mobius

I realised I haven’t posted anything here yet with my graphic design work since August of last year. I guess I’ll start with this.

I got the chance to design Asch’s debut album cover art, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. Confession: it’s been a long time dream of mine do be able to design an album cover, but I always figured it would come in the latter years of my career. So when I was asked to do this gig, I had to actually process the surprise the universe just threw at me lol.

The main idea was based on the Mobius Strip: a surface with one continuous side formed by joining the ends of a rectangular strip after twisting one end through 180°. Asch had this concept of non-duality type of theme in his album: where the concept was that everything is interconnected, while at the same time still retaining their individuality. This was a concept that the Mobius strip has successfully translated to a visual form, so I thought to use the mobius strip itself as the main illustration.

The color choice were Asch’s preferences, as well as the scribbles on top, being that was a recurring element in their brand as a band. The lines on the Mobius strip I initially planned was to keep everything with lines and strokes, but then in turned out to look like a music bar, which was pretty cool.

I opted for a minimalistic feel to the design since their music is very smooth, chill, and clean, while still straightforwardly presenting a metaphorical theme in his songs.

I was also fortunate to design some stuff for their marketing collaterals for the album launch event (posters, videos, etc.). We stuck with the mobius strip design, but we altered the hues to make different versions for some collaterals.

It was a long process but I kinda did feel like I was in the production with them until the end, than just an assigned graphic designer assigned to do collaterals in one point of the prod. Anyways, it was really fun and I’m very grateful for the opportunity!

Check out Asch’s music here!