A DAVAO City-based fashion and lifestyle designer has vowed to help the local creative industry further following his latest feat.
Emi Alexander Englis is one of the 15 designers and creative hub leaders from all over the country who made it to the Creative Innovators Programme this year of the British Council and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), through the Design Center of the Philippines (DCP).
The initiative, which is implemented in partnership with the Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC), Apl.de.Ap Foundation, and Thames International, aims to contribute to more sustainable and impact-led creative hubs that can better support the Philippines’ creative industries, thereby creating more inclusive cities and communities. In a nutshell, the program drives the synergy among creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship for social impact.
The selected Fellows, through their creative hubs, will support and help grow hundreds of creative entrepreneurs, designers, and artists from all over the Philippines and abroad.
“Being the only hub from Mindanao, chosen to be part of the CIP fellowship, I realized that I have a big responsibility on my shoulder to carry on the vision of realizing the potential and impact multi-disciplinary creative entrepreneurship has in education,” said Englis, who heads the Philippine Women’s College of Davao’s Artisanal Heritage Studies and Creative Enterprise Center (AHSCEC).
While emphasizing that in PWC-Davao “innovation is our tradition,”’Englis noted that AHSCEC will already “institutionalize creative entrepreneurship and create an exciting direction rooted in our local culture, heritage and identity.” This will strengthen their existing frameworks, which include Institutional Management Enterprise and Integrated Creative Arts, which is mandatory to all programs.
When asked how he intends to integrate his newly-acquired knowledge and skills, Englis quipped, “I have this engaging profession as a fashion and lifestyle designer, entrepreneur, and very importantly a multidisciplinary design educator. Networking support and collaboration are two of the most exciting activities of AHSCEC.”
“We have long been doing this with several projects and partnerships with DTI 11, Mindanao Trade Expo Foundation, Davao Fashion and Design Council Foundation, Inc. Only when we put our efforts together as a school can we scale up the impact,” he said.
Englis further noted that this latest development would definitely create an impact on the industry. He revealed that the concept and context of the creative research and design studio production, which AHSCEC is adapting, have evolved immensely from applied inspiration to product design, development and innovation grounded on creativity, heritage and identity.
“Fashion projects this school year for one have levelled up to textile material surface development, embellishment innovation and the use of endemic raw materials as main components for make-up, for example. Creative research methods have also set its bar higher by focusing on impact evaluation and utilization. We can truly see here how the academe now is aligning with the dynamics of the industry,” he said.
Englis, being a visionary, as he has always been, shared that they will strive to become the best practicing creative entrepreneurship hub in the region. Not only that: he also committed to help others create theirs also in the context of their own culture, heritage and identity.
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