THIS has been my 36th year as a judge for Sinulog contests. What a privilege!
Since 1981, the assignments have been varied. Parade participation, floats, higantes, on-site decors, and visual merchandising.
So, when my mobile phone lit up and said Dolly Suzara, project director of Sinulog Foundation, I knew another year had come to do the rounds of malls, schools, business companies, government buildings, banks, apartelles and department stores.
For over 10 years now, I’ve been lucky enough to get the contest categories of On-Site Decor, and of Visual Merchandising, my preferred categories.
Preferred, because judging time is earlier, either the Thursday or Friday before the procession.
Thus, we avoid the huge crowds every which way on Saturday and Sunday. Also, the entries are few enough so judging is done in about two hours.
After our third year as judge, we know exactly what to look for, and what, hopefully, not to see.
For On-Site Décor, criteria are creativity/artistry (30 percent), originality/ingenuity (25 percent), relevance to Sinulog (20 percent), discreet use of advertisements (10 percent), and visual impact (15 percent).
For Visual Merchandising, criteria are creativity/artistry (30 percent), relevance to Sinulog (30 percent), originality (30 percent), and visual impact (10 percent).
Some entries are regular participants year in, year out. So, it’s inarguably not for lack of information or guidelines that they score low in the criterion on discreet use of advertisements.
Fortunately for them, the maximum score for this factor is 10 percent. Ah, but there’s the rub. Knowing they could not dive too low in this area, they’d rather flagrantly flaunt their wares to push sales.
The Metro Gaisano Colon entry, for instance, has not improved through the years. Once again, its display window put together a Sto. Niño statue and two mannequins towering over him, flanking him on both sides, and gazing far away.
No story line nor redeeming theme whatsoever is even offered to make sense of why these statues were together on
the same platform.
The Gaisano Capital South made use of native fans and bilaos in lively colors. The only sour note--its logo was so conspicuous it looked incongruous. Subtlety would have blended it seamlessly with the entire design.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas entry paled in comparison to its entries in previous years.
Thankfully, worth a good look was Elizabeth Mall’s entry of astronauts in outer space and the Sto. Niño’s keeping watch over them and the entire galaxy. How reassuring!