WM Wins 2!

World Mission Magazine won the prestigious Catholic Mass Media Awards the first time it entered the competition in 2007. (A month later we announced the win in the cover for the Nov-Dec issue. See above)

Just this evening WM Editor, Father Joe Rebelo sent me an SMS announcing that WM won Best Community Magazine and Best In Special Feature, beating the well-funded Philippine Daily Inquirer in the category.

This is an amazing accomplishment considering the magazine's nonexistent editorial budget. It relies on pro bono contributions from writers and photographers. For almost four years now, I volunteer on art-directing and co-designing it with Victor Garcia (yep, that's Victor's hands in the cover above, photographed by Marlon Lacanilao) and the collaboration gave us opportunities to exercise conceptual covers approach which will never see the light of day in a commercial, mainstream title. It is such a joy working closely with Father Joe and Father Dave Domingues, Brother Fabio and the very supportive Comboni Missionaries.

Congratulations to all the generous writers and photographers (yep, Art, that includes you) who keep on donating talent, effort and dedication to promote an independent, smart alternative voice in the sea of mediocrity crowding the newsstands!

Silverboys + Silvergirl

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Jason of Unisilver gave us one confounding challenge: Create a very simple photography-based set of creatives for the mass-centric accessory brand using characters to be channeled by signed celebrity endorsers and make the finished images look expensive.

We scratched our heads and stared at each other. How do you visually reposition a mass brand into something that looked premium when everyone from Boronggan, Samar to Aparri to Jolo knows that in terms of price range you are dealing with something that is not exactly,uhh, Tiffany?! To top it all we will be working with mass darlings Kim Chiu, Gerald Anderson, Sam Milby and hiphop artist Jay R.

Regular mortals would have backed out from the project but we are deeply masochistic so we said Yes and sealed our doom.

No, not really.

On the contrary we had nifty time collaborating with Jason and his boss, tossing in ideas, narrowing the choices of character sketches, discarding story boards, and sorting out props to go with each layout. Also we had the most crazy fun dodging death by crossing the insane streets of Binondo during meetings. Clint, running out of time for costume pull out decided to take matters into his own hands and sew some stuff himself to be used for the shoot. Yes, he whined and moaned but saw to it that every single strand of silver chains snaking around Jay R's well-toned body and Kim's elegant neck are all seamlessly put together.


Art and Marlon also went overboard by creating more variations than what was agreed upon. All in all we had a terrific time working together except for that episode when the entire shoot was interrupted by a starlet who was shooting in the adjacent studio. She wandered in our sitting and yakked like a parrot on speed. No, I'm kidding about the parrot on speed bit, but you get the gist. :P
Since Art didn't give me the DVD containing the polished layouts I am posting here the rough iterations of Unisilver's new creatives now seen on billboards, bus wraps, in-store displays and print materials all over the country.

And no, JayR didn't catch pneumonia for being shirtless four hours straight.

More variations HERE.
Credits:

Photography : Art Abraham
Styling, props and costumes : Clint Catalan
Hair & Makeup : Benji of Hairshaft
Post production + Graphics : Marlon Lacanilao
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Worm Wants YOU

Art Director and (now mad) designer Clint Catalan is looking for models for his Fabric event and subsequent campaign for his WORMS line. I will be co-conceptualizing/art directing this campaign to be shot by Art Abraham. Worms is more of a statement project rather than a commercial one so let it be established upfront that models will not be paid in cash. (All collaborators for this project will be working pro bono, myself included.) "So, can you justify why would i strip for you, losers?" you say.

Simple.

Aspiring "Models" will be guaranteed fashion exposure via Worm's segment to be staged in Embassy Fly on 06 November 2008.

The four outstanding picks will be the centerpiece of a conceptual photo shoot for the WORMS campaign which will be distributed in print (magazines, dailies) and viral (blogs, online networking sites, forums etc). Think high-caliber photography for your model's folio/book. You will be given top-notch creatives and photography which you can use in whatever application you deem appropriate.

WORMS is looking for edgy 'character' faces (boring boy/girl-next-door faces will be ignored. kidding.) Multi-ethnic ones preferred.

Interested parties are encouraged to send head shots (or links to your sites) via Clint's sites here and here.

Thanks. see you at the studio!

How To Disrobe A Rock Star

Frantically digging through boxes of DVDs for a set of files I needed, I unintentionally fished out the CD containing my very first assignment for NoFear underwear. It featured Kjwan front man Marc Abaya whom we collaborated earlier for Dana's in-mag creative integration program. So I might as well post them here in black and white version.

Dana wanted a very sexy shoot and right from the start we plotted for the images to be iconic, sensual and edgy.

More of Marc here.

Photography : Arthur Abraham

Hair & Make up: Cris and Marlon of Hairshaft
Tattoo/Styling : Clint Catalan
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Lawnmowers

Between takes for Dana's editorial integration project with Uno Magazine I decided to take a few extra snaps for the respective Books of models Isabel and Lance. Both gamely rolled in grass populated by ants and dog shit. As we always joked around the set, no amount of shit should stop you from getting good snaps. Disagreements will be automatically ignored. Photography : Arthur Abraham / Styling : KC Leyco /Models: Isabel @ Chameleon and Lance @ Mercator / Hair : Ricky Diokno @ Kiehl's / Makeup:

More Here
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Lace up, Giddy up

Pony is going to be very active visually this coming few weeks. We collaborated with them for a portrait pictorial for the band, Hale. I'm posting here the raw stuff as teasers.

And here's a take from another shoot involving Jake C. I am sure his rabid fanbase will shred us apart for deglamorizing the Methatione hearthrob. Brace yourselves, Arthur, KC and Jean! I'll be in hiding starting today. Haha.

Photography : Arthur Abraham
Styling : KC Leyco
Post production : Chris Azana
Hair & Makeup : To be credited later
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The Sexier Side Of Fearlessness

Already installed is our team's billboard project for NoFear Underwear. This is the first installment. (Grabbed this from KC's site.)

Hope to see the "threesome" version later. Hehe.


Erika, Dana in her (duster chic hahaha), Fabio, KC, Mariana and Tring.

Sicko

Back to back shoot in collaboration with four shoe brands plus helping out in art directing an editorial shoot for a progressive men's magazine have taken their toll. It was a blast though and we all had a funtastic time. (will post pics of the shoot later). Right now I'm too depleted and sick enough to rain check on an invitation for a Friday night gimik. Bummer. Instead of guzzling on beer I am home uploading stuff on multiply, which, the way I look at it is just three stoplights away from pure loser-hood. Haha. Stupid body pains. Argh. But let's see what I have unearthed among the unsorted/unfinished clutter of possible folio materials.

More of this here.

More of this here.

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Sensual Connection

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Other pics in the series
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Find Me The Frigging Cello!

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Poor Dana and Tring had to scramble around to find the cello for the Kjwan shoot in collaboration with No Fear.



They swore NEVER to work with me again!
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Ely

For the album launch of the first Pupil album, Pony Footwear commissioned me to come up with a conceptual presentation of the band, the album and the shoes. These photos were later magnified as ceiling to floor window displays in record bars.



The rest here

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Elitism For Every Joe

Previous RDeA Campaigns









Moar here!

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Frozen

More in Multiply

A Fashionable Mess

Elan Modeling Agency relaunched itself some years back and collaborated with people in the industry: fashion, beauty, creative, editorial and photography. Cecile, Elan's managing director agreed on my request to work with the high master advertising photography, Francis Abraham. Instead of just shooting models for the exhibit I suggested we develop three anchor "statement" photography about the modeling and fashion of the time. Francis, the virtuoso that he is nailed the lighting and we stayed until three in the morning to finish the shoot. (interesting side note: You gotta give it to avant-garde fashion designer Alcs Porras because these gowns are not 'real' gowns. Alcs and Cecile draped these random raw fabrics and some de-constructed tops around the models and you couldn't tell the difference!)

Grandness

I was teasing Jaycah that when it's her turn to get married I'll take time off to make her wedding photos much grander than RJ's because we will have plenty of time to prepare. What I had in mind was this photo we took of Maike Evers hanging in the chandelier of Shangri-La hotel that we shot for an editorial assignment.

Covering The Mission

Until I received the CD compilation of covers I did for World Mission Magazine I haven't realized that I have been volunteering for four years now. It started in 2005 after mass in EDSA Shrine when Father Dave Dominguez was promoting the magazine for new subscriptions. There I was in the front pew, looking at the copy he's holding thinking how hideously designed it was. So I approached him after mass, volunteered to redesign the identity and grid structure, art direct its covers and strip it down visually for some commercial appeal without losing its serious editorial tone. I am glad that it's then newly-installed Editor, Father Jose Rebelo (from Portugal), was open to experiments and gave me opportunity to pursue insane cover ideas (one of which sparked heated debates among the religious community, passionately arguing why one cover isn't theologically appropriate. It's the picture of communion host being held by chopsticks to go I was planning for the Asian Congress and Jesus' presence in Asia.) Now I'm browsing through four years worth of covers and I am so glad having summoned the nerve to approach Father Dave after that fateful mass. I have met a lot of dedicated people while volunteering on the magazine and have enjoined two of our office designer and (just very recently) our photography director to do volunteer work for the magazine, too. Considering nonexistent art and design budget it's some sort of miracle that we continue to pull off a well-presented issue month after month. And it's such a creative exhilaration every time we get hold of the freshly-minted copies.

(This is the first of the series of creative work I'll be posting regularly. This how the magazine looked like before the redesign. The editor insisted of bringing back the red border that was used and dropped a decade ago.)