its Manila Design Week and i was looking forward to seeing what Manila/Philippine design has evolved into. and why should i bother? because design is inescapable. and quite frankly, it rocks.
so given the setup: the culturally diverse halo-halo(mix) archipelago called the Philippines, you'd think that with the plethora of culture/language, the range of ethnicity, the complexity of third-world island living - you'd really think theres more than enough material to work with and perhaps even just a smidgen of that would reflect in today's top of the top Manila/Philippine Design. but no, instead i find something i can easily google or StumbleUpon or buy straight out from a foreign mag stand.
what do i know about design to make such a complaint? i know its powerful and it communicates and if what i'm seeing is what everybody else gets to see, which seems to be nothing more than a mirroring of something from helsinki or some kind of indie-ish street art attempt, then maybe we aren't really communicating much at all. maybe we're just trying to be cool.
its only the 3rd day of Manila Design Week and theres more in store. i just secretly wish for Filipino designers, those who will speak and influence in behalf of the rest of us, i wish we'd begin to break free from that colonial mold and actually create from the abundance, from all thats available here, now, local, personal, real.
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