UP Padyak wheels

The UP student most likely gets 5-6 classes every semester. Every class could be held in another building that could be about ten frickin’ minutes away. If you’re lazy and have plenty of money, you ride the Ikot jeep. If not (like me), you walk (and could look as sweaty as if you jogged by the time you arrive at the next building).

Now to get to places, you can also ride the UP Padyak bike!

In the line of the global warming and UP centennial spirits, my university and some very generous UP Mountaineers alumni started promoting environment-friendly ways of getting to-and-fro places through wheeling it in with the  The UP Padyak Project. 

A student can rent a bike for an entire semester to use around the campus, and park them in “parking lots” in the most popular buildings/places people usually hang out like, like the picture above taken from the FC-AS walk.

Not only do you get a cool-looking bike as a new biker-lessee, you also get to feel buff-ness, and the environmental goodness seeping in you throughout the sem! Get to burn fat and burn money elsewhere, while parading awesome artwork, and saving Mother Nature! (And spreading the UP spirit too!)

Eeergh. If only I don’t wear skirts all the time, I’m gonna go padyak for UP!

Feel the breeze and spread the happy colors! Support the UP Padyak project in the next UP semesters (or suggest the same project in your college!)

Interested? Visit their official site, and Multiply account now :D

Typography in Printed Signs

Ever since my brother introduced me to typography in design, I’ve become overly-sensitive and obsessive in using it.

I revere people who use serifs and sans-serifs with sensibility. Just as what any brilliant design can do to, merely the use of good typography can project such personality and description to the actual content they represent. Imagine just what the right selection of fonts can do to make output more effective. Maybe if more communicators and audiences are well-versed in it, then our country shouldn’t be suffering from much media/information misunderstanding ^^;

Blessed with the freedom to volunteer for tasks in our preparation for my college department’s Second Communication Research Student Conference, I immediately took up one that involved creating some of the printed signs. And theFranklin Gothic type series, already my sans-serif favorite, became my muse for the day!

Supercute Katipunan Doggy Graffiti

BK Bunny Toyz!

New Burger King Kiddy Meal toys! Woot! Secret Bunny Toyz Figure!

I will actually eat burgers if I get a toy! ^_______^ Ahoho!

We’re becoming mighty copy-catty now, aren’t we?

LOOKS FAMILIAR?

Seems to me that our local magazine You by Hinge Inquirer Publications might have gotten a tad too inspired by US-based Nylon magazine, creative direction-wise.

A page from Nylon mag:

This is a page shot from You by Hinge Inquirer Publications:

You’d think they come from the same magazine, noh? I can see it in the typefaces, the color schemes, the decorative squiggly lines, the picture crops, the content..

It’s ok to mimic the design geniuses ’so you can learn to do it their way‘ and all.. but I think it’s too much.

Mimicking/copying is like this “sickness” we have in the country: remember Krispy Kreme, and Krispy Krepe in Libis? Starbucks and Starbuko?

Trace it back and the copy-culture goes way back: i.e. laziness as Jose Rizal quipped in one of his essays, to the ideal “American” life in the US occupation. 

Filipinos are brilliant people, we’re just plagued with laziness like Rizal said. But IMO that’s no excuse, especially if you’re given the chance to art direct a magazine with a publisher, much more for if it’s a first issue where you can experiment and finally be more creative on the job.. 

I’m feeling a little critical not because I have bias towards foreign magazines– I go to international media because it makes up for what I can’t find in ours, content and visual-wise. 

I believe Filipinos can come up with our own magazine concepts and content.. and better ones even! Sure franchised titles and “looks” have almost instant audiences upon their release, but I think local titles can accomplish as much if they adopt effective marketing strategies.

(BTW I’m saying these things on the basis of subjective observations. I’m not aware of any empirical data whether foreign magazine franchise sell better than local.)

I hope there’ll be more Philippine-produced media which can compete and even defeat the Western styles we “love”–  and hopefully not packaged as spin-offs from foreign titles.

Pocky vs Jack ‘N Jill Chocolate Sticks

Pocky pocky pocky! Pocky pocky pocky po-ki-ki-ki-ki! (see video here)

Pocky is a famed, classic chocolate-covered stick Japanese snack. In my “J-pop days”, I used to buy this after seeing my favorite Japanese singers or actresses endorse it in the cutest or subliminally-raunchy ways. Heck, there’s even a full song dedicated to solely Pocky (I’m sure there’s more).

We have a local “Pocky” here in the Philippines too: Jack-n-Jill’s Chocolate Sticks:

 

If I compare the two versions of the chocolate-covered stick snack based on some selling traits, you’ll see how much they reflect the cultures that produce them:

Pricing: Circa year 2000, Pocky is available but expensive here in the Philippines. The original Japanese import costed P80/box; Jack-n-Jill’s Chocolate Sticks, a similar chocolate-coated stick snack, was only around P15! Today, Pocky is manufactured in Malaysia, and costs only P30. Chocolate Sticks are sold at around P20.

Availability: In the Philippines, you’ll usually find both Pocky and Chocolate Sticks in the bigger groceries in urban areas. Pocky in the imported food aisle, Chocolate Sticks with the biscuits. In Japan, I assume that Pocky is available everywhere (see Marketing–Pocky people has got to do justice to its incredible publicity campaigns after all).

Food Presentation: Pocky’s sticks with its chocolate coating are unusually smooth, thin, and clean. I usually stare at it long and hard before I eat one because it looks so painstakingly-crafted, like incense sticks. There’s an inch space without chocolate coating for ergonomic purposes, so the chocolate won’t smudge on your fingers. The locally-made Jack-n-Jill’s Chocolate Sticks are lumpy and thick (2-3 Pocky sticks width). Completely chocolate-covered, too (means for cheaper food production).

Sounds: Both make delicious cracking sounds when you bite them. Only Pocky’s sound is crispier and fuller; Chocolate Sticks produces a mini-cacophony with its falling bread crumbs.

Packaging: Pocky retained its red box and yellow-brown food product, with its smart white typography. It’s a classic! I’m such a fan of Pocky’s packaging because of its use of “classic” packaging theory: effective use of colors to stimulate hunger, activity, “fun”, and a legible, non-trendy typeface. I buy Pocky sometimes for the sake of keeping the box.

Chocolate Sticks also has a classic packaging: they’ve got their character Jack-n-Jill pose as… Indians. I don’t know the story behind this but I think it’s cute. If you know about it, please share it to us via comment box ^_^ Chocolate Sticks uses the back portions of their box packaging as “activity” corners. We get free pop-up cardboard toys or puzzles, printed at the back of the box.

Marketing: Pocky marketing is flamboyant and somewhat extravagant. Their TV commercials always feature their current “it” girls and themes (as you’ll see from the video links at the top of the entry). They do heavy cross- and multi-media promotions, done in the quirky Japanese-pop style of advertising: LSS-worthy theme songs, concerts, building-length billboards, product placements in anime/manga/series/shows, freebies, in-show plugs, prints, prints, prints.. you name it. These accumulated marketing efforts have integrated the Pocky brand into Japanese Pop culture itself!

And there’s Chocolate Sticks still kinda relying on its mere visibility on grocery shelves. They have some promo prints in newspapers and product catalogues—but does your average Pinoy kid (assumed target buyers) read those? Only the moms, sure, because they’re the ones who do the shopping but surely we can do more to sell it to Filipinos? Their company isn’t aggressively marketing the product at all. I can compare it because I’ve seen other local companies like Oishi sell by adopting creative and target-sensitive campaigns.

 

Since we’re in the Philippines, selling either choco-sticks boils down to the Pinoy taste and the product’s affordability and availability. Pocky is not marketed here at all– rabid Japanese-pop Pinoy fans consists most of Pocky’s patrons in my observation. Chocolate Sticks are sold in sari-sari stores a decade ago– they’ve established a quiet but steady Indian-faced existence in our merienda snack shelves. I bought Chocolate Sticks as a kid and I knew of no dear Pocky in my life back then. Now that’s a major point! 

But then again, who’s keeping tabs? I hardly buy sweet snacks anymore. If I do, I buy because of the packaging. For me, if the packaging is inspirational for creative work, then I’ll choose you.

What’s your take then? Pocky or Chocolate Sticks? :P