Thursday, April 03, 2008 Microsoft presents new product through graffiti
GRAFFITI artists in Cebu will now have a new medium for artwork as Bite Magazine, together with Microsoft, will hold a live digital art contest on Friday.
Graffiti Expressions 2008, which starts 9 p.m. at the Loft, will pool together amateur and professional digital artists who will take part in the contest and submit works based on the graffiti style.
But instead of a big canvass, the participants will use the Microsoft Expression Design under the Expression Studio software package to generate their work.
The 30 participants were also given prior training sessions on the use of the application last Saturday, although a total of 60 people attended the training since it was open to the public.
David Harris, the inspiration behind Bite Magazine, said that the activity will also serve as an opportunity for Cebuanos to experience live graffiti art.
Aside from live digital art, there will also be on the spot designing and decorating of Converse shoes and Levi’s 501 Jeans and Blood Red. Converse and Levi’s display pre-decorated shoes and jeans at their boutiques in Ayala Center Cebu until April 4. The items will then be auctioned off.
This year’s designers and decorators of the shoes and jeans include accessories designer Golda Marthe King; top photographer Jon Unson; director and production designer Remton Zuazola; Hilton hotelier Manni Osmeña; music artist Cattski;
Sportsman and sportswriter John D. Pages; jewelry designers Cheryl Barnes and Butch Carungay; free-lance footwear designer Paco Raterta; reigning 2008 Miss Cebu Sian Maynard; sculptor and abstract artist Ritchie Quijano; stylist Mark Masa; entrepreneur Tom Barlow; fashion designer Edwin Ao; RCTV personality Alexis Yap; make up artist Romero Vergara; artist and designer Jethro Estimo; and Cebu-based German artist and designer Andreas Lochner.
All designs will have to be central to the environmental theme as this year’s auction proceeds will be donated to Greenpeace Cebu.
Microsoft marketing manager George Parilla said the firm took part in the activity to improve people’s awareness on the Expressions package.
The application was already launched last year but there are not too many end users yet, he said. He added, though, that there are already some companies in Cebu that have foreign clients who require them to use the Expressions Studio.
Parilla also said that Microsoft also wants to promote the software as a medium for art and that the digital artists can “create a user interface for business or personal life.”
Bite Magazine organized a similar activity last year, dubbed Graffiti Bites, where eight pre-decorated Converse shoes were auctioned off. The event raised P39,000 for the Bike4U Foundation. (DME)
