Does Design Speak?

CEBU, Philippines - Appreciating jewelry had never been my thing. I’m certainly female, but I’ve only ever weathered a pair of silver earrings. I’ve had a ring or two—but, they’ve been annoying and I’ve never worn them for longer than a month.

That afternoon after work hours, driving to attend Design Speak: Eye Candy, the Deconstruction of Bridge Jewelry Design had me a little apprehensive. I knew it would be good input since the event is organized by the Cebu Design Education Foundation or CDEF. Other than that, I didn’t know of any other reason for being there.

CDEF’s Design Speak—monthly gatherings geared towards broadening Cebu’s understanding of design—that night, was not at the usual Chiye Mori Design Library in Rivergate Commercial Complex. It was at G Gallery in AS Fortuna. The walls were 80% black, acoustics were decent, the crowd was somewhat sophisticated and the talk— a bit beyond my normal cup of coffee.

Just my first impressions.

I did like the chairs.

And… what in the world was Bridge Jewelry?

To be honest, much of the talk went through me, but the portion on inspiration stuck. Inspiration makes us human. I doubt if a dog could appreciate the Pyramids of Giza the way history’s great minds have fed off this marvel.

Dogs can inspire, but I’ve yet to witness a canine create an ‘Ode to my Master’. We have a penchant for creation; it’s an interesting characteristic. I found it amplified in Annie Chen’s works.

The corporeal quality of everything around us could justify expected interpretations and the spam-like existence of such turpitude. We all get inspired; it’s the synthesis of inspiration to creation that changed history in ways like Edouard Manet managed to pull off.

I’m saying that the Renaissance perfected mimesis, the bigger challenge for creative thinkers now is to go beyond what meets the eye.

As Annie Chen went on, I found myself drawn into her world. And it impressed me that she could synthesize inspiration into design that was perfectly of her own mind. Going beyond what meets the eye.

Despite my initial distaste for Jewelry Design; initially throwing it into my black box of prejudices, I’ve, once again been convinced. A previous Design Speak on Fashion ended with similar reconstructions.

The Design Speak on Bridge Jewelry, which, I later found, was jewelry bridging the gap between fine jewelry and fashion jewelry, certainly lifted a veil from my mind. As broadening a city’s creative horizons had been the goal, they’ll be glad to hear of at least one convert.

I’ll be looking forward to the next one: fashion, book, interior, architectural, graphic design. 

Design does speak. 

And there’s more CDEF has for the design community.