Tuesday, November 25, 2008 Where the HeART is By Jun Velez, Art Director
(Some people may dispute that, so let me just say we are all in that good-looking-face category. For doesn’t it show on the face when you wear your heart on the sleeve?)
Though artists would rather be in the background, unnoticed—like a good design that is never intrusive, never steals the limelight from the news or feature—for this anniversary special, they gamely stepped forward like the cast in a play during curtain call.
Officially, I’m what my boss Atty. Pachico A. Seares calls the resident designer, but for this article, I choose to wear the writer’s hat. Hence, the occasional third person reference to my fellow mouse-pusher, Wacom pen illustrator, keyboard-hitting, Internet googler editorial artists.
REWARD
Artists leave portions of themselves with every visual form they create (lay-out, graphics, illustration, etc.) and that see print in the paper, much like paint parting from the brush and clinging to a clean canvass.
For an artist such is reward enough. And to be compensated for what he or she loves to do is doubly rewarding.
When your work is noticed, recognized or complimented for helping make an article readable and enticing to the reader, that’s affirmation that really warms the heart.
It gets tempting sometimes to do a David Carson for whom graphic design can be free from the burden of function, leaving just meaning and form alone for consideration in the design process. But that wouldn’t be in keeping with the collaborative spirit of the newspaper.
HISTORY
Founded in 1996, the Sun.Star Art Department is the brainchild of no less than Sun.Star president Jesus “Sonny” Garcia Jr. Its history, sense of purpose and direction are intertwined with Sun.Star’s own search for visual identity.
The newspaper is neither a tabloid nor a broadsheet, though tabloid in size and broadsheet in content.
To find the appropriate design for the paper was the challenge given to the Art Department when Sun.Star purchased new printing machines in 2006.
The company president gave an order to let the Art Department come up with a new design for the paper that would be worthy of the new color presses.
The result is Sun.Star’s present look: it marries the tabloid and the broadsheet forms into one compact design.
IDENTITY
What you do is inseparable from who you are—if your heart is in what you do. And for us, editorial artists, our heart is surely in what we do and where we do it.
And to illustrate that point, here are portraits of Sun.Star’s editorial artists in their own words and visual effects.
Every issue is a puzzle you solve. I learn a lot from what I design.
I like the workplace. Di kaayo kalat, di sab kaayo hapsay. More like my room.
Alegre. We’re like a family and the people I work with are very creative and artistic.
Kent Ynot, 25
Graphic Designer,
Shopping Bag, Zup,
Superbalita, Sun.Star
Silliman University
Despite the pressure, maka-express ka ra sa imong creativity.
Lingaw, alegre.
As a new editorial artist, I need to study more and get guidance from my co-artists.
Rogelio Cabug-os, 26
Cartoonist
Southern Leyte State University
The job is interesting. It’s a learning experience every day.
I’m at home here like being in my own world with people of similar interests. Everybody talks about art. I’ve learned a lot.
Kirstie Fuentes, 24
Graphic Designer,
Live!
USC
I like my work. The night shift fits my schedule. I’ve won several awards through my work and I got to travel as part of the prize.
The working environment is great, too. We have a harmonious working relationship. More like family.
Rio Villegas, 30
Cartoonist
Graphic Designer,
Kids r Us,
Superbalita, Sun.Star
University of Bohol
Work has been great! The people I work with have been my mentors. Every day I learn new things. I’m looking forward to learning more.
I love it here. Lively. Wa’y nagmika! We laugh most of the time.
Joanna Quilantang, 21
Graphic Designer,
Show
University of San Carlos (USC)
What I like about what I do is the chance it gives me to contemplate on philosophical questions (which find their expression in art) in order to find an answer to a design problem.
It’s not a job. You don’t count the hours you put into it. It is said that life is what happens to you when you are busy planning what to do with your life.
In Art, the creative and artistic spirit is home.
Jun Velez, 38
Art Director
USC
Design work in Sun.Star has been very interesting and challenging.
Through design, I gained a sense of discipline and responsibility not only to the readers but also to myself.
