Beyond Shores: Designing the Future at Design Week Philippines

Design Week Philippines 2024 kicked off with a week-long series of workshops, fairs, and talks themed “Unearthing Islandness,” featuring a discussion on “The State of Philippine Design.” A panel of Filipino designers, creatives, and researchers led the discussion, examining the influence of design on social issues that affect the daily lives of Filipinos across both private and public sectors, as well as in rural and urban areas.

Award-Winning Designers Álvaro Catalán de Ocón and Leeroy New Explore Sustainability at Design Week Philippines closing

The much-anticipated Design Talk on Woven Stories, will take center stage at the culmination of Design Week Philippines 2024 on 19 October, at the Tanghalang lgnacio Gomez, CCP Black Box Theater. As part of this exploration, Woven Stories will highlight two distinguished speakers: Álvaro Catalán de Ocón, an award-winning Spanish designer known for his innovative sustainable projects, and Leeroy New, a celebrated Filipino multidisciplinary artist whose works champion cultural preservation.

Designing with Identity: Unearthing the Filipino roots at Design Week Philippines

Can design empower regions and uplift communities to shape a sustainable future? Designers and anthropologists tackled these questions as they gathered at the opening event of Design Week Philippines on October 12 in Yuchengco Museum to explore how Filipino creativity, guided by the theme "Unearthing Islandness," can lean on indigenous philosophies and generational knowledge to reframe sustainability, heritage, and innovation in the country's design landscape.

Tides of Tradition: Design Week Philippines 2024 reignites Filipino creativity

The Philippines’ rich history spans centuries of traversing between the land and the sea. Amid busy lifestyles, there is a deep calling within us to reconnect with the ancestral knowledge of our heritage. To celebrate this beckoning, the Design Center of the Philippines is hosting its thirteenth iteration of Design Week, with events nationwide. From October 12 to 19, explore various talks, workshops, and tours that encourage Filipino creativity on an unprecedented scale.

International Design Conference 2024 Re-evaluates the Meaning of Design

The recent International Design Conference 2024 (IDC 2024), organized by the Design Center of the Philippines, focused on the idea of elevating design to become a transformative tool for industries and cultures. They wanted to discuss design as something that goes beyond economics and commerce; rather, they want to showcase design as something that serves the people.

IDC 2024’s ‘Design Beyond Desire’ mandates a future of hope, AI, community, and being responsible stewards of the earth

The International Design Conference (IDC), the Philippines’ leading platform for design innovation since 2017, assembled some of the creative industry’s brightest and most curious minds at the Maybank Performing Arts Theater last September 20, 2024. The theme, “Design Beyond Desire,” stimulated thought-provoking conversations and brought forth ideas challenging the status quo.

Design Beyond Desire: International Design Conference Returns to Shape a Life-Centered Future

The DTI-Design Center of the Philippines hosted the 8th International Design Conference on 20 September 2024, at the Maybank Performing Arts Theater in BGC, Taguig City. This annual flagship event, held in celebration of Design Consciousness Week and as a co-branded event of the Philippine Creative Industries Month, both held in September, served as the country’s premier platform for design innovation and global knowledge exchange.

Craft and Compassion: Good Design Award Philippines 2024 Winners

Winners were awarded today, June 29, 2024, at The Globe Tower, Fort Bonifacio Global City. A trophy based on an original artwork of the Design Center’s Inaugural Director and Philippine National Artist Arturo R. Luz was presented to the awardees along with the Good Design Award Philippines seal, a lasting symbol of excellence and quality guarantee. Winners (except White Citation awardee) also automatically qualify for the final round of Japan’s Good Design Award (G Mark) in August, a 70-year program from which Good Design Award Philippines drew inspiration. They also get featured at the official website gallery and in the biennial yearbook, along with a professional photo shoot and video production to showcase their story and product. Read on and meet this edition’s awardees!

British Council strengthens commitment, identifies Philippines as ‘super-priority' for 2024

The British Council in the Philippines proudly celebrated 45 years of unwavering commitment to fostering educational and cultural ties between the UK and the Philippines. A milestone event took place last February 16 at The Blue Leaf Events Pavilion in Taguig City. With the theme, "Committed Connections," the British Council brought together partners, grantees, scholars and stakeholders to commemorate the enduring partnerships and relationships it has cultivated over the decades.

Women arise: Join this year’s Adobo SheCreative Network Conference to learn more about forging a sustainable future for creativity

Experience the synergy of creativity and collaboration at the adobo SheCreative Conference 2024: Forging A Sustainable Future for Creativity, where ‘Women Arise’ to share a sustainable future for the creative world. This pivotal event is brought to you in collaboration with esteemed partners such as Future Proof, RMN, Cignal TV, Shangri-La The Fort, PANA, ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, and Asia Society Philippines who are as dedicated to innovation as our speakers and attendees.

Globe Partners with Design Center of the Philippines for Good Design Award 2024

Globe has forged a partnership with the Design Center of the Philippines, an attached agency of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), to recognize exemplary design and systems that enrich the quality of human life. Globe is collaborating with the DTI agency for the Good Design Award Philippines, a biennial event that spotlights work that seamlessly blends form, function, and innovation, all while embodying the Filipino value of malasakit or compassion. This criteria underscore the award's commitment to aesthetics, usability, and designs that resonate with empathy and social responsibility.

Beyond 50 years of Philippine design

It was several Thursdays ago when like-minded neighbors agreed for us to brave the traffic from Ortigas Center to the heart of Manila. We had been tipped off on an exhibit at the National Museum of Fine Arts—the Design Center of the Philippines’ “50 Years of Philippine Design and Beyond,” which opened mid-December. To our surprise, our early afternoon jaunt on an off-day was shared with similar resolve by hundreds of uniformed students who kept flocking to the venue. Of course their primary goal was to lay eyes, likely for the first time, on the storied “Spoliarium.” Their next focus of interest was Carlos “Botong” Francisco’s mural panels depicting Manila’s history at the former Senate Hall.

Use of 'pinyapel' pulp pushed as alternate to plastics

Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda on Monday pushed for the use of agricultural waste and overlooked resources, including “pinyapel” (paper made from discarded pineapple leaves), to protect the environment. Legarda led the formal opening of the four-day “Pinyapel Special Setting Exhibit” at the Senate building in Pasay City on Monday in celebration of Zero Waste Month. "It's crucial to underscore pinyapel's commitment to closing the waste loop through its quadruple bottom line approach to circular design, deeply rooted in the malasakit (concern) principle of the Design Center of the Philippines, an ethos that embraces compassionate environmental stewardship and sense of accountability towards protecting and preserving the country’s ecosystems," she said in her speech.

Design Center PH to uplift pineapple sector

Maria Rita Matute, Design Center of the Philippines executive director, said on Monday that Pinyapel was created with the goal of sustainable innovation, also exploring the potential of agricultural waste and overlooked resources as raw materials for various product applications. Matute said the Pinyapel initiative includes the establishment of a pineapple pulp mill with the capacity to recycle 20 metric tons of pineapple waste per day.

Design Center of the Philippines reports its economic contribution for the year 2023

Design Center of the Philippines has reported that in the year 2023, it has commercialized 446 innovative products, assisted 421 MSMEs, activated 85 creative hubs, and created policies for the country’s design sector which supports 705,000 jobs that contribute to 1.8% of the national employment and generating PhP1.2 trillion in Gross Value Added (GVA), equivalent to 6.6% of the national GVA.

Design Center Philippines Unveils “50 Years of Philippine Design and Beyond” Exhibit

“An important thing to note is that this is not an exhibit of the Design Center of the Philippines (DCP). This is an exhibit of Philippine design,” underlines exhibit curator Marian Pastor Roces during the media walkthrough of the “50 Years of Philippine Design and Beyond” exhibit. While the event marks DCP’s 50th founding anniversary, the exhibit goes beyond by providing the public a visual timeline of local creativity milestones from the 1970s, and how all these “redirected the relationship between creativity and commerce” in the country and beyond, according to Roces.