Native Creative: Delo Dayondon

"Really awesome person" were the first words I had heard about Delo Dayondon from our mutual friend who had introduced us. And after getting to know him, I found out that "really awesome" couldn't be any further from the truth. The 28-year-old graphic-designer-slash-triathlete-slash-photographer-slash-blogger possesses a can-do attitude that seems to permeate into all of his endeavors - the most recent of which being his participation in a half-Ironman challenge a few weeks ago in Kona. Blending his loves for graphic design and athleticism, Delo even designed his training group's "Race with Passion" t-shirt, which they all wore during the 70.3 mile challenge.

Who better than an Ironman to inspire up-and-coming local graphic designers to persevere towards their dreams? Read on to find out about this talented Native Creative... 

NC: What do you do and where do you do it?

DD: I'm one of two Advertising Art Directors at PacificBasin Communications (an AIO Hawaii company) where I process and create display advertisements for our growing magazine publications. Outside of my "9 to 5", I also take on freelance design and photography projects under my own company, Delography.

NC: How'd you get to this point as a designer?

DD: Perseverance and a leap of faith. I graduated with a BBA in Marketing degree from UH and worked briefly at a large advertising agency before moving over to magazine publication. I worked both on the client services and sales side before realizing that my true passion lies in the arts. I dabbled with graphic design/photography as hobby so when a position opened up in our creative department, I jumped at the chance and got the job! Having no formal art/design training, the first few months were rough having to learn a lot of things on the job. Fortunately, I'm blessed to be surrounded by so many talented and nurturing co-workers and mentors who are responsible for helping me to become the designer that I am today.

NC: Describe a typical day in the life.

DD: Ads, ads, and more ads! PacificBasin Communications is Hawaii's largest magazine publishing company with diverse brands including a city, business, shelter, and family magazine (to name a few), so there's hardly a typical day. We basically work in cycles depending on which magazine is due to the printer next, and with just two of us processing ads for all titles, we have to work at a fast and furious pace. A typical day consists of processing ad materials that have been submitted by the clients, ads that have ran in the past, and working with our sales team to build new ads for clients that rely on our creative services.

NC: What's the best thing and worst thing about your job?

DD: The best thing about my job is being able to make a living doing what I love. Not many people can say that, and I feel very blessed to have art as a part of my daily life. It's definitely a huge part of what keeps me balanced and sane. The worst thing about my job is that it can sometimes be a thankless job. I don't think people quite understand the nature of our job and the amount of effort that we pour over our work.

NC: What's your favorite place and/or tool to create?


DD: The great thing about creativity and ideas is that it can come from the most unusual places and at the most unusual time. Any place where can clear my mind and allow me to focus on my thoughts is the most ideal. For me, it's usually when I'm out for a run or a bike ride usually somewhere along the beach or mountain like Ala Moana Beach Park or Tantalus. My favorite tool would have to be my iPhone4. It has everything I need - music to drive my mood, apps to jot down notes and ideas, and of course the Internet to do research and stay connected.

NC: What's one piece of advice you'd give to someone interested in doing graphic design here locally?

DD: Surround yourself with great mentors and learn all you can from them. These are the people that will give you honest, constructive feedback, encourage you to challenge yourself, and most importantly, believe in your skills and talent.

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For more and inspiration and info on Delo, checkout his Delography website and also his One 40 Point 6 blog, which documents his journey towards the Ironman Triathlon. 

Happenings: Feeding the Future

Okay, not directly related to design, but a good happening nonetheless - This Sunday The Hawaii Independent, in collaboration with Yelp and Whole Foods, is putting on "Feeding the Future", a panel discussion on the future of our local food system. The event is taking place at Fresh Cafe from 12 noon until 3 pm.

The panelists, representing key figures in Hawaii's food system, will discuss the challenges and opportunities facing local farms, the next generation of local restauranteurs, and specific calls to action to Hawaii’s people.

Related to design however is this lovely event flyer/infographic, which depicts what a food-focused community in Hawaii might look like. It contains among other things sidewalk cafes, food trucks, active fishponds, farms, and sidewalk fruit trees. Beautiful! The illustration was done by recent UH graphic program design graduate, Jeffrey Gress.

Native Creative: Farida Ong of Evening Invitation

February 28, 2011

Farida: I was messing around and I made this lil bag out of rabbit fur…Let me know ur thoughts :)

Me: Cute! How big is it?

Farida: It’s teeny abt 10 in width and 6 in height…

March 1, 2011

Farida: Grey wabbit

Me: I love it in grey!

March 2, 2011

Farida: I added on etsy today lol crossed fingers

Me: Ooh! Fishloaves? I’ll search for you!

Farida: Oh no I called the line Evening Invitation

And this is how I first learned of Evening Invitation – through a series of text messages over the span of three days :P

Farida Ong is just amazing like that. I won’t see the girl for a week, and in those seven days she’ll tell me she’s worked as a stylist on an ad hoc photoshoot with some of Hawaii’s most talented designers, photographers, and models…or created an entire lookbook for a friend who wanted to try a new style of dress…or as in this case, designed and crafted her very own rabbit handbag line.

Indeed the more you get to know her, the more you realize that there is a fashion mastermind behind Farida's unassuming demeanor. In her early twenties, Farida worked for many years in New York's fashion industry, at companies such as Fendi and Audemars Piguet. After moving back to Hawaii in late 2009, she opened a fashion and vintage wares boutique at Samsung Plaza called Fishloaves. When her lease was up, Farida took the shop online, where you can currently find her at www.fishloavesinc.com. And it was only a few months after establishing Fishloaves' online home when she began working on her Evening Invitation project.

I was originally going to write that "Farida's most recent endeavor is creating five new Evening Invitation handbags to be featured in Matt Bruening's upcoming Summer 2011 fashion show."  But I've recently come to find out that she's also making a variety of unisex jewelry pieces for the show, which will be added to the Evening Invitation line. (See, what'd I tell you about this girl being amazing!)

Momoko Metzker in a MB jumpsuit w/ EI "Cloak & Dagger" bag (via Farida's iPhone)

Be sure to keep up with Farida and Evening Invitation at the Matt Bruening and Andy South Summer 2011 Fashion Show, this Friday at Nextdoor. The event will also be feature Alt/Air, Clones of the Queen, and Sicktyte performing live. You can get more info and purchase tickets at the Nextdoor website.

 

The Box Jelly, Coworking, and Hawaii's Creative Rennaissance

As much as I fill my cubicle with personal photos, post-it doodles, and plushies, there’s still something so blah about coming to an office day in and day out. I secretly dream of the day my blog takes off, allowing me to join the ranks of all those cool people you see at Starbucks and Fresh Café, laptop in tow, working on a client’s website design or sealing a business deal via Skype.

Now Honolulu's freelancers, independent contractors, and other mobile-office types have a new workspace to call their own – The Box Jelly, Hawaii’s very first coworking space! If you’re unfamiliar with the coworking movement, the term refers to a new way of working, in which people of different companies/industries work independently, but in a shared physical space. The way it works is that a person pays an hourly, daily, or weekly rate to have use of a temporary workspace.

The Box Jelly’s soft opening was this Monday, and I was determined to pay them a visit to find out first-hand what this whole #HICoworking movement is all about. (Thanks to @johngarcia for opening my eyes!) Upon stepping into Fishcake, where the pop-up coworking space is temporary located for about a month, I was promptly greeted by Hasan, who is The Box Jelly's Community Curator and one of the five Chaminade University-graduates / entrepreneurs behind this initiative.  

After getting the grand tour of the space and hearing more about how The Box Jelly came to be, I had to ask Hasaan, “Why would people come to here do their work, as opposed to, say, a coffeeshop?” He replied that unlike a coffee shop, the Box Jelly caters to your working needs. The space comes complete with your basic office requirements, which includes four shared work tables, a printer/scanner, a whiteboard, and of course COFFEE (or tea, if you prefer).

A little bit into the evening, my friend Jennel came to join me, and not too long after that, Rechung, another one of The Box Jelly owners, dropped by too. And that’s when the magic happened. What stemmed from talking about their business venture led into all sorts of creatively stimulating discussion. We talked about inspiration, logo ideas, Seven Pounds, brain monkeys, personal projects, Talk Story Sessions...and by the time I had to leave for dinner, we culminated in agreement that YES, there is definitely a Creative Renaissance on its way here in Hawaii, and that its growth lies on the shoulders of the creative risk-takers of our generation who believe that there's something more for us out there, should we choose to seize it.

I had left the space feeling great, not only because I had gotten some blog-work done, but also because I was INSPIRED – inspired from meeting new people, hearing new ideas, having good conversation, and feeling that sense of camaraderie among people of different backgrounds, but all who, as Hasan put it, can “see our better selves.”

And in that lies the value of the space. Sure you can get coffee, wi-fi, and a table and chair at coffeeshop. But what a coffeeshop can’t provide you is the opportunity to find your better self through the creative energy and collaboration that The Box Jelly and the Coworking Movement seek to draw out of us.

 . . .

The Box Jelly coworking pop-up space is currently located at Fishcake (307 Kamani Street). For more information, visit their webpage, like them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter.

Sleepy Dreamer Fashion Design Classes

Attention, aspiring fashion designers!

Word on the street (a.k.a. from hapa | hale's always-wonderful Aloha Friday Scoop) is that Rebecca Waldron (a.k.a. Sleepy Dreamer) - a local accessory, fashion, and graphic designer and blogger - will be teaching a four-week fashion design class starting this coming Wednesday, June 15. Classes will run from 6 - 9 pm at BYU-Hawaii in Laie.

According to her blog, "Students will learn the process of taking your designs from trend concept to actual design to physical product within each season. Students will choose their favorite brand (or create their own) and design a small line of clothing/accessories. In the process we will learn all the terms and other important details. We will touch on other aspects of the action sports industry including graphic design, sales, marketing and production and what steps you need to take to get jobs like these."

 

Aaaand, check out this delicious flyer for the classes! Doesn't it make you want to go EVEN MORE??

 

 

 

Interisland Terminal x Sig Zane Designs "ITO: Interisland Travelwrights" | Piano & Bubbles Event

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to checkout the ITO: Interisland Terminal exhibition/pop-up shop put on by Interisland Terminal and Sig, Nalani, and Kuha`o Zane of famed aloha wear company Sig Zane Designs. Sunday's "Piano & Bubbles" event was an opportunity for people to hear the three each talk about their creative processes and inspirations, first in the exhibition/shop space and then at Nobu where we, as Kuha`o put it, "popped bottles" of champagne, which stimulated more creative discussion ;)

Kuha`o talked about one of his most "magical" projects - designing the cover for Lorna Lim's "Polinahe" album and subsequently winning the Hoku Award for Best Graphics last year. For the graphic designer, these magical projects are ones in which there are such a strong inspiration and chemistry between him and his client or team that the product comes almost instantaneously - a process which he compared to Jay-Z's ability to listen to a track for only a few minutes before getting in the booth and spitting his amazing lyrics.

Sig shared images from his daily life that have inspired his designs, such as the hairy Kamehameha Butterfly and the Kalapana lava flow (which is actually is only two days older than Kuha`o).  He compared his creative process to a hula chant. After performing and repeating the chant for many years, its words soon enough manifest themselves in a new light. For Sig, the same thing can be said of his daily experiences, which eventually take on a new life and interpretation in his prints.

Nalani talked about the migration of the golden manta ray, which inspired her "Kai a Lupe" (Sea of Kites) installation piece, as well as about other meaningful places and family heirlooms that continue to "ground" her. She also had a brief discussion of how we can understand Hawaiian art, which will all display a "power source" in either the piko (navel or center), as in the case of a Hawaiian quilt, or the po`o (head), as in the case of a warrior helmet. If the power source is not a physical form, the artist will give it a name and/or a song. This speaks to the Hawaiian belief that all things, animate or inanimate, possess a spirit.

What I appreciated about this event is that it gave the viewer so much more than his or her own personal interpretation of the art and clothing. We really got to find out what goes behind the work that have made Sig Zane Designs the success that it is, and also got to see the intimate dynamic between the father-mother-son team. Throughout their presentations, Sig would take a jab at Kuha`o over who caught a bigger papi`o and Nalani would ask Sig for the English translation of a particular Hawaiian word and reply, "Thank you, dear." It were those tiny moments that for me were some of the best parts of the evening. 

Nalani mentioned at the end of her talk that it is their team's ability to tap into their "ancestral memory" (which manifests itself as dreams, symbols, or deja vu) that gives Sig Zane Designs its "edge". I think that edge was definitely apparent on Sunday, and I am glad to have been able to witness it live.

The limited-edition print (here in blue/black), designed for the event by Sig, Nalani, and Kuha`o

ITO: Interisland Travelwrights is on display at the Waikiki Parc Hotel from 11 am to 7 pm until Sunday, June 12, and there are a couple more events where you can listen to the Zane `Ohana talk about their work. For more information, visit the Interisland Terminal webpage here.

In4mation Continues To Represent for Hawaii

Local streetwear brand In4mation continues to represent for Hawaii in big ways. They've recently shared on their blog two epic stories...

A few days ago, MTV News aired a clip of an interview with rapper Lil' Wayne talking about his latest single "How To Love". In the interview, Wayne was sporting In4mation's AYA Hi Hat, designed by Creative Director and Mililani-native Rhandy Tambio. You can pickup your own for only $32 at your nearest In4mation shop. (The dreads you'll have to figure out how to get on your own.)


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In other recent news, In4mation has teamed up with Casio's G-Shock to create the "One Love" watch, which was released in-store and online last Friday. This timepiece is actually the brand's fifth collaboration with Casio.

“In4mation is excited to continue their ongoing relationship with G-Shock by introducing a new collaborative model for Summer 2011,” said Tambio. “For our fifth watch, we introduce a new colorway revolving around the island lifestyle and reggae culture. Reggae is a big influence worldwide especially in Hawaii. It carries a striving positive movement. The colors hold a strong meaning with Red standing for the blood we shed, gold reflecting the richness of the Green land we all live upon, trying to share and spread one common goal of living in harmony, One love. Also the title of a legendary reggae song to unite the people.”

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For more In4mation information, checkout their website or Facebook page.