More Fun in the Philippines!

What can you say about the new Philippine tourism slogan “It’s more fun in the Philippines”? The Twitterverse (or Facebook-ers) certainly seems to support it when the hash tag #ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines became the top trending topic in twitter worldwide.

Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez said the campaign is simple and truthful and answers the simple question, “Why should I go to the Philippines?”

#1 for fun Philippines" is the slogan geared for local audiences, while the “It’s more fun in the Philippines" tag is for the international branding.

Personally, I think this is a smart move by the Department of Tourism and BBDO Guerrero / Proximity Philippines in going to social networking channels to promote the new brand since Filipinos essentially live and breath social media.

I also feel that the new slogan reflects our country as it is. It showcases everything is and should be fun in the Philippines. Just like the easily adaptable slogan, Filipinos are known to be resilient, tough and happy most of the time. So let’s hope for the best that this catches on!

Design. It’s more fun in the Philippines!

How about you? share your thoughts in the comments below.

http://itsmorefuninthephilippines.com/

Addendum:

To those saying that this was ripped off from a Switzerland ad, Can we just stop with the nitpicking and whining of it allegedly copying, stealing, plagiarizing a 60-year old magazine ad?.

Whining. Is it more fun in the Philippines?

Everything is not original people. Somehow, somewhere, everything came from some other existing form, product and idea. What matters is how we execute and make it our own as a country. Besides, the words involved are common everyday English terms themselves. It’s like saying you can’t build another touchscreen phone just because Apple patented it.

“The Secret To Creativity Is Knowing How To Hide Your Sources.” – Albert Einstein

Same goes with design. 

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Interview with Lawrence Villanueva of Booster Designs

Before the year ends, I got a chance to interview Lawrence Villanueva of Booster Designs to ask some short questions about his work and his career as a graphic designer, specially his cools artworks over at Threadless. I featured his work I Be Au Sm last time when it won $2,000 in cash together with a Zune HD and Xbox 360.

Read on for the full interview.

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New Smart Logo: Colorful Pimples

SMART has just introduced their all-new logo that is far cry from the one it replaces. Gone are the diagonal lines which were part of the original logo. The new type retains the uniqueness of the letter A but now stands upright and has that organic and smooth feel to it. I can’t say I love the new typeface specially the juvenile looking S - but as with other logos, maybe it just grows on over time. They could’ve made the new logo lower-case (like the AT&T rebrand) but they didn’t and I’m wondering what it would’ve looked like if they did.

I have always been a SMART subscriber since owning a mobile phone before the turn of the century. Back then they had that memorable TV ad with a business guy smashing prices and other on-screen graphics with a baseball bat. That was the old Smart, just new in the game, crazy mad, and trailing late behind Globe on the GSM race.

The SMART of today is different. It now has its claws on almost all major aspects of communication. From landline (PLDT), mobile phones, broadband, VoIP, and enterprise solutions. It has been lording over once leader, Globe, for a number of years now and is in talks of gobbling up another major player, Sun Cellular, which I believe is still pending NTC decision already finalized.

The type used on the video looks good, looks like Nokia's Pure font with a touch of Intel’s Neo sans.

The logo change may be a part of their corporate and branding strategy come 2012 moving forward as they embrace fully the mobile age - considering that late 2010 to early 2011 was the period that smartphones outpaced PC sales for the first time, adding to that are those who are dumping their dumb phones and moving on to smartphones.

The new logo is quirky, bubbly (dots) and off-beat. It does reflect the young mobile generation that thrives on Facebook and Twitter. Its colorful dots also symbolizes the diverse services the company is into, like atoms floating in one ecosystem. It looks as if the logo had teens and young adults in mind (perhaps seen by the pimple breakout above)

Since this is a fresh and young rebranding, I really can’t judge it as it is right now because so far, all I’ve seen is the logo and the video above. But what’s up with the bouncing/stationary braille-looking dots? I can’t help but see the Smart Araneta Coliseum sign now as one big, sesame seed-laden, hamburger. Yum.

Thanks for all your tips!

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Artist vs Designer

I recently had a conversation with my best friend regarding the difference of being an Artist and a Designer. I haven’t gave it much deeper thought honestly but she asked me if I also consider myself an Artist, I thought about it for a while and explained my own definition of both profession/passion.

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PBS Off Book: Typography by Designers

Type is everywhere. Every print publication, website, movie, advertisement and public message involves the creation or selection of a fitting typeface. Online, a rich and artistic typographical culture exists, where typefaces are created and graphic design seeps in to every image.

Produced by Kornhaber Brown

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Everett Katigbak

Everett Katigbak is a Filipino-American artist, designer and musician. He presently works at Facebook as a Communication Designer. Before joining the social media giant, he was an exhibition designer at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. He also taught letterpress printing (like poster printing) at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California.

He’ll be speaking at the Brand New Conference at San Francisco this September 16th.

http://typochondriac.com/

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