In line with the celebration of Design Week Philippines, the Department of Trade and Industry’s Design Center of the Philippines (DTI-Design Center) partners with key organizations and events all over the Metro Manila in its aim to gather the creative community and support the advancement of the creative services sector of the country.
With the tagline “Design Tribes,” Design Week Philippines kicked off last 14 April 2018 in Intramuros and will run until 22 April 2018.
“Building connections and communities has always been at the core of Design Week Philippines,” said DTI Design Center Executive Director Rhea O. Matute. “This is why we create a movement by engaging partners and partner events to show the diverse ways of celebrating Design Week Philippines, and eventually make design and creativity a way of life in the Philippines,” she added.
Design Center has established collaboration with 41 partners, 32 events in 16 venues all over the Metro Manila. Matute emphasized that partnerships help amplify and promote new destinations and hubs that can play significant roles in enabling communities, especially the youth.
“We are looking at the youth, the millennials and the Gen Z, as the next generation of minds that will create positive and progressive disruptions in society. What they do, can do, and will do will definitely shape and influence lifestyles, products, services, and industries in the coming years. What Design Week and the Department of Trade and Industry, through its Design Center, can do for them is to highlight new engagement platforms, nurture a network of creative professionals, and host events where they can gather, learn from one another, and build on each other’s ideas,” Matute shares.
Design Week Philippines promises a nine-day of borderless creative festivity with series of design talks, design tours, hands-on workshops, exhibitions, art booths, live performances, outdoor film showing, weekend market and a lot more that will ensure participants’ and visitors’ engagement in design and creativity.
INTRAMUROS: Design Week Inside the Walled City
In previous editions, Design Week Philippines launched the historical Walled City of Intramuros as a creative environment, and has since supported the Intramuros Administration in its initiatives to revive it. Design Week also taps the district as a home for its event components such as Design Talks, Design Tours and Creative Workshops to revitalize the historical and cultural assets of the environment and inject it with creative endeavors to encourage development of new ideas.
Creative Workshops
For this edition, Design Week is working with the National Commission of Culture and the Arts (NCCA) in mounting several hands-on creative workshops and art booths for everyone in Plaza Moriones in Intramuros, Manila.
Scheduled on 21 April 2018, workshops for the following are open for everyone: Poetry Making, Smartphone Film Making, Kite Making and Kite Flying Activity, and Face Painting. Meanwhile, on the 22nd April, a Travel Journaling workshop with Abbey Sy is scheduled.
Design Tours
This edition’s Design Tours spotlight history and iconic landmarks with the iMake History Fortress Architecture exhibit in Fort Santiago, and the Destileria Limtuaco beside the LPU Gymnasium as its destination stops.
The iMake History exhibit features scale models of iconic landmarks within the walls of Intramuros made with Legos. Formerly accessible only to the Limtuaco family’s friends and guests, Destileria Limtuaco, the oldest distillery in the Philippines, opens it museum to the public.
For those who want honest conversations on creative journeys, this edition’s Design Talks is for you! With the theme “Design to Thrive,” a morning session of lightning talks, panel discussions and Q&A will tackle personal and organizational stories of failures turned into triumphs and accomplishments that are now part of a growing creative economy. Guest speakers are Jodinand Aguillon, Executive Director of Pineapple Lab; Leonora Cabili, founder of Filip+Inna; Dan Matutina, founder of Plus63 Design Co.; and Ar. Arts Serrano, founder of One Zero Design Co. The conversations aim to inspire professionals and aspirants from the sphere of business, design, art, and other industries to enhance their way of thinking towards to a positive change.
Extramuros: Design Week beyond the Walls
Supported by a powerhouse lineup of agencies, brands, companies, and collectives, Design Week extends its creative festivity outside of Intramuros to Metro Manila’s thriving creative hubs, with partner events happening in Makati, Pasay, BGC, Pasig, Muntinlupa, and Quezon City.
It partners with Manila FAME happening at the World Trade Center from 19-21 April; Nesta’s Creative Enterprise Programme with British Council of the Philippines on 17-19 April; Hollowblock Presents: OTTOMONDI with Pineapple Lab, 14 April 2018, Pineapple Lab; Glug Creative Socials with ASpace on 18 April 2018; EUREKA SERIES: POBLACION RE-IMAGINED on 19 April 2018 with Acceler8 Coworking; and South Arts Festival on 22 April 2018.
Design Week also partnered with 98B COLLABoratory, situated in Escolta, a neighboring district of Intramuros, for its Future Market. With its goal of putting soul and spirit into commerce, the Future Market caters to creative individuals and artists to sustain their art practice and to experimenting startups and entrepreneurs to enable them to practice and transition towards a more stable and sustainable commercial setting.
For the complete list of partner events and details on Design Week, follow DTI – Design Center of the Philippines’ Facebook page.
