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If you have heard of Charice, you get plus points in my book. If you like her, we can be best friends! However, if you HAVEN’T heard of Charice, then I’m glad you’re reading this. For those who came to this site expecting a design-related post (as this is a design site after all), I promise you this IS design-related.

In a nutshell, Charice is a singing sensation from the Philippines. When she was 7 years old, she started joining small singing contests so they can have food on their table. She joined an estimated 80+ singing contests and won most of them. Then when she was fifteen, she was invited to sing on a Korean TV show and the video of that performance generated millions of hits until Ellen Degeneres called (watch the video of that powerful, jawdropping performance here). Charice flew to America for the first time to sing on Ellen and received the first two standing ovations of her life. THEN Oprah Winfrey called. Charice sang on Oprah, blew the roof off of Harpo studios, and Oprah was so impressed with Charice that when Charice was on a plane about to take off for the Philippines, Oprah actually STOPPED the plane to bring her back to her office. Charice, with Oprah’s help, has since sung or performed with Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, Michael Buble, and Josh Groban, among others. Charice has been on Oprah THREE times and a FOURTH appearance is coming up on Tuesday, MAY 11th (with current hot topic Justin Bieber), to release her self-titled international debut album. Not bad for a little barrio girl from a third-world country who used to sing for her supper!

If I were to show someone who has never heard of Charice just ONE video of her singing, this would be it. Please indulge me and watch. You’re still reading this, anyway. Charice was sixteen years old in this video (she’ll be eighteen by the time you read this– May 10th (tomorrow) is her birthday):

Those who know me in real life are probably as surprised as I was when I became a huge, huge fan of Charice last year. I have never in my life been a “fan” of any celebrity and a singer at that! I don’t even consider myself a music lover. So it was a huge surprise for me when I “discovered” Charice and got so “addicted” that I would spend the whole night and the whole day watching videos of her singing on YouTube. As in literally the entire day, I would be on YouTube watching Charice videos.  The first few months into the “fandom”, I spent more time on YouTube than I have for all the years YouTube has been in existence. It was so unlike me. (Fortunately, I don’t go on YouTube as much anymore. The comments are so idiotic and also, I’ve run out of Charice vids to watch as I’ve watched them all)

How big of a fan am I, exactly? Well, I have all her music. Since July of last year I’ve watched all her new videos that come out on YouTube.  I read all articles and news about her. I go to her concerts and gigs whenever I can. I’ve met her in person. I visit fan sites , chat with other fans, and I help out as moderator on one of her fan forums. My being a fan has actually come to the point where I MAKE FAN ART FOR HER.

See, I told you this was design-related.

Lying awake in bed the first night after I “discovered” her, incredulous from the realization that I, formerly a practical, sane, level-headed person, was turning into a fan(atic), I was thinking I wanted to help her by designing her official or fan-made website. I woke up the next day, went online, and saw she already had an official website manned by her record label (and well-designed at that) and dozens of other fan sites. So scratch that, let’s make fan art instead.

Making fan art is actually a great way for me to merge two of my interests together: Charice and design. It’s a chance to promote Charice, flex my design muscles, and have fun all at the same time.

This is my most recent Charice fan art (see my other fan art here). Charice appreciates it and told me she’s going to use it as her wallpaper. And you can, too.
Download 1440 x 900 | 1600 x 1200

Also watch the sped-up video of how I put this together.

Charice is an amazing artist and an awesome person to boot. You may already be hearing her song PYRAMID feat. Iyaz on the radio. If you haven’t yet (which cave are you living in?), you will soon. Her debut album comes out in stores and online on May 11th– same day as her Oprah guesting. She’ll also be on QVC on May 11th (8 pm), performing LIVE with her mentor, legendary music producer David Foster, so be sure to tune in and call in to order her CD.

For more of Charice, you can visit the following:
YouTube – http://youtube.com/user/charice
Myspace – http://www.myspace.com/charice
Twitter – http://twitter.com/officialcharice
Official website – http://charicemusic.com

Tags: album, andrea bocelli, art, celine dion, charice, charice pempengco, charise, charisse, david archuleta, david foster, debut, Design, ellen, ellen degeneres, fan, iyaz, josh groban, justin bieber, may 11, michael buble, note to god, oprah, oprah winfrey, pempengco, philippines, pyramid, singer, song, viral, youtube
Posted in Blog on on Sunday, May 9th, 2010 at 3:16 am | 6 Comments »

Not THIS Silva… no, not me, but my cousin Roxanne. She got married to Rudolph, her high school sweetheart of 13 years (they had an on-off and sometimes long-distance relationship) two weekends ago and I, being one of her secondary sponsors (AND her cousin!), was only happy to help with wedding-related designs she needed. Now I don’t offer wedding design as part of my services for clients. That’s reserved for only my closest friends and family, at no charge. If you want to save a bundle on design costs for your wedding, you might want to start dating my male relatives as early as now. Hahahaha! :)

Aside from the Save the Date wedding e-card, I also designed my cousin’s wedding invitations. They didn’t want anything overly-girly and invites that were too formal-looking (embossed Bickham/Edwardian Script fonts, anyone?) , so this is what I came up with.

Due to restrictions on invitation printing, I was allowed only two colors to work with– dark brown and orange. The plant motif on the side is a modified free Photoshop brush/vector image. The invitations were printed for free by one of the bridesmaids whose family owns a printing press. Don’t you just love free stuff! It came out like this:

The invites came in this envelope bound by a satin ribbon with the wedding seal (which I also designed). The wedding’s color motif is green and orange.

Inside, the envelope expands to reveal the wedding details and a pocket containing the entourage list, map, and RSVP info.

Here’s a close up of the wedding logo/seal I designed which was used for various wedding collaterals like souvenir gift tags and wine labels.

The table setting with a wine bottle providing the table number.

The wedding seal and plant/foliage used on the wedding invitations also made their way to the couple’s photobooth pictures. They rented out an instant photobooth for the night where you can have your pictures printed out right on the spot.

My cousins and I (left, in orange dress) goofing off at the photobooth. Pose and Print also printed a large tarpaulin backdrop with my wedding logo design for the background.

Last but not least, I also made a five-minute audio-visual presentation (AVP) with the couple’s pictures which was played at the reception. Some screencaps:

The wedding was a big success. Every little thing was planned and coordinated down to the littlest detail which made for a truly beautiful celebration. Congratulations to Roxanne and Rudolph!

Rudolph and Roxanne – November 8, 2009
Photographed by Atty. Raymond Fortun – http://raymond42n.multiply.com

Tags: avp, Design, envelope, invitation, label, logo, marriage, motion graphics, photobooth, seal, table setting, template, wedding, wine
Posted in Blog on on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 5:23 pm | 6 Comments »

I’m back from my cousin’s wedding weekend! Before I share the stuff I designed for their wedding though (I’ll save that for my next post), I first have to tell you that CJ from Missy Posh has a Q&A feature on me up on her blog! Check it out.

CJ also asked to take a peek at my studio/work area for her readers. Now remember the bazaar I joined last September? To tell you the truth, I hadn’t cleaned up the studio since! I had strips of paper lying around, stray spiral coils on the floor, supplies unceremoniously dumped on my table. You can’t see what color the tabletop is anymore, seriously.

Well, my cousin was coming over our house to work on last-minute wedding details and CJ needed pictures of the studio so I set to work cleaning and straightening up the studio. I have a couple of pictures up on my Q&A interview but I don’t want to have my clean-up effort go to waste so I’m posting the other pics here. This clean state may not last long as I have another bazaar coming up in December to mess up the place again.

My work table – this is where computer stuff gets done. My laptop, drawing tablet, printer, and DIY lightbox (that white box thing at the end).

This just might be my most prized material possession– my 15″ Macbook Pro. It’s two years old and I bought it myself with my own salary back when I was still working a toxic day job. Below it is my month-old Wacom Intuos 4 drawing tablet, given by someone (who doesn’t want to be named) as an advanced gift for me on my birthday (I turned twenty-something last week).

My craft table. I cut, fold, trim, glue, assemble on this table. On it is my guillotine paper trimmer, bundles of paper for my notebooks awaiting covers, and a couple of pencil holders. Behind it is a drafting table and a green supply cabinet plastered with pictures of Ryan Philippe, Prince William, and various magazine cutouts– relics from my teenage days.

None of us in my family are engineers or architects but my dad likes to have various, useless furniture made and this drafting table is among the rare pieces he had done which we actually have a use for. Its surface covered with a huge cutting mat, this is where I cut large sheets of bristol board into smaller pieces for my notebook covers. The table’s downward slope also makes it an ideal place to work my slide punch (left). The contraption on the right is my wire binding equipment.

A peek inside the green supply cabinet. Some of my papers, packaging supplies, and art materials. Hanging from the door is my small collection of kawaii Japanese/Korean erasers.

Various kawaii erasers shaped like food. Looks good enough to eat!

One of my cabinet shelves. This one has various art supplies from blocks of polymer clay (bottom left) to padding glue, markers, paint, paint trays, brushes…

An orange candy can on my craft table doubles as a pencil holder… so does my Donuts tumbler which holds my scissors and paintbrushes. Behind it is a stuffed dog named Whitey hanging out on the couch.

Thank you CJ for the Q&A opportunity! :) Looking for more artist workspaces? I’m always interested to see how other artists work. Check out Workspaces on ShareSomeCandy for design/creative inspiration and major eye candy!

Tags: artist, Design, feature, interview, photo, studio, tour, work area, workspace
Posted in Blog on on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 4:21 pm | 6 Comments »

My cousin is getting married and the entire family is off to Tagaytay for the weekend, with relatives from Hawaii and San Diego flying in for the wedding. I made a bunch of wedding collaterals for my cousin including her wedding invites, tags, audio-visual presentation (which I haven’t finished at the time of writing– eek), wine labels, photobooth templates, and this Save the Date wedding e-card.

My cousin and her fiance are high school sweethearts and they took forever (10+ years, I think?) to get married, hence the copy. Below is the original photo I worked with (taken by one of the bride’s friends). It’s a very nice photo so all I had to do was make it extra pretty (that’s not a very designer-ish term).

Didja notice I photoshopped the bride’s arm in the final image? Hahaha… Okay, I’m not supposed to tell you that…

I’ll post the wedding stuff I designed for them next week, after I get back from their wedding weekend!

Tags: caleruega, Design, e-card, marriage, photo editing, save the date, tagaytay, wedding
Posted in Blog on on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 10:28 pm | 3 Comments »

Ever since I started selling online through Etsy (2008), I’ve made more online purchases in the past year than I have for all the years I’ve been on the Internet. Which isn’t saying much as I really don’t do much shopping online to start with. But with a Paypal account (a requisite to having an Etsy seller account), I might have to rethink that last statement.

I got this in the mail a few days ago.

It’s a test swatch of one of my designs printed on fabric by Spoonflower, a fabric-printing company in the US. I don’t do any stitching so I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea to order fabric, but it’s fabric I designed so the $7 (including shipping) I spent for a small swatch of 8 x 8 square of fabric is justified, right? Right? The design turned out well, in my biased opinion. The person from Spoonflower who wrapped up my order must’ve thought so as well as he/she scribbled “Cute!” on the packaging. Now, what to do with that test swatch…

Another thing that arrived recently is a batch of 250 double-sided business cards I designed for a doctor who had just recently started his practice. When Dr. Daniel Diaz approached me to design his cards for him, he gave me full rein. Right away I knew I wanted to design something that wasn’t boring, cluttered with text (those clinic and appointment schedules!), and adorned with a caduceus, as most business cards for doctors are. I presented Dr. Diaz with some studies, my favorite being the one below:

I went for a simple approach, working primarily with clean, flat colors and layout (instead of graphics/images) as the design focus of the card. Dr. Diaz’s clients were mostly old people who will not care for big and bold screaming graphics and frankly, that doesn’t really go well with one in the medical profession.

Dr. Diaz liked my studies but his fellow doctors (whom he consulted for a second opinion– haha) thought they were too advertising industry-ish. “Doctors,” Dr. Diaz sighed. “They’re so boring.” In the end, we went with a much more simple design that really went back to the basics of what a business card is: a piece of card you hand out to people so they can contact you. This is what we ended up with:

Simple, basic, and will really stand out among the slew of caduceus-laden business cards a patient might have courtesy of other doctors. These were printed by overnightprints.com (I also used them for my own business cards), a service I highly recommend if only for the quality of their printing and their thick cardstock. Their delivery is kind of slow though, so only use them if you’re not against a time-sensitive deadline.

Dr. Diaz was thrilled over how his cards turned out. Hopefully this gets him more clients for his med practice! If you’re in Cebu city, feel free to contact him via the info in the above images for an appointment.

Tags: business card, clean, Design, doctor, medical, minimalist, overnight prints, simple
Posted in Blog on on Saturday, July 18th, 2009 at 2:07 pm | 4 Comments »