Conrado Velasco

When we think of design, we may regard it closer to functional things rather than those merely for display or what we imagine as art. One artist who has recently shown the extent of what he can do with his designs made me rethink design’s place in our lives. Conrado Velasco’s designs of things are both good to look at while at the same time make me question the way in which those things have been used. At this April’s Manila F.A.M.E. (Furnishing and Apparel Manufacturing Exchange), Velasco was the consultant designer whose drawings and ideas were executed by local manufacturers. I saw his exhibition when I entered the World Trade Center (WTC) along Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City and this inspired me to venture into the other exhibitors’ display areas.

Velasco runs the San Francisco-based Curve Studio, which according to his CD-Rom, is "a multi-discipline design consultancy embracing graphics, product development and photography." It "offers new visions of form, function, surface and content in the quest for elegant design solutions." Last year, he was invited by the then Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) director Ely Pinto-Mansor to be their consultant designer for the Manila F.A.M.E.. Velasco almost did not accept the project because there were differences in the organizers’ attitude towards design and the manner that the event was going to be represented. Eventually, he took it as a challenge where the situation is removed from the more supportive structures found at the US West Coast where he works.

In an interview with the Philippine STAR, Velasco warns about having a glossy picture of the situation in the US. He avers that "most firms lean toward a specialized, pigeon-holed approach to design." I learned a great deal from discussions with the him and his wife Nancy about the design, art and museum world in San Francisco and other parts of the US. The Velascos have been here since January while preparing for the exhibit and for the most part, gained fresh insights from their last visit years ago. His enthusiasm for the Philippines comes from his observations where "people appreciate designers who can work from multiple perspectives on a design problem."

Velasco also designed the posters and the graphics for the Manila F.A.M.E. This elicited other stories from him about fitful mediations which focus the organizers’ attention on a "look" rather than piecemeal, disjointed notions of design. Its theme, design + quality or d+q was found in every poster, banner and other signages. But its substance was particularly evident in Velasco’s display area, Palengke, one of the three sub-fairs at the WTC. He took to the core the promise for this year’s fame about providing a "comprehensive range of innovative designs and the freshest products."

Having completed a college education which encouraged an interdisciplinary approach to viewing things, I have since adopted a more integral manner of connecting tendencies and sources. It is refreshing to see someone like Velasco who goes out of his way to make this point. Like the urban air he breathes, his outlook is reflexive but not natural. He contrives things to make us see them his way. Except for one seat/bench, display and garden furniture, Velasco designed mostly receptacles such boxes, bowls and vases. His choice of manufacturers is evident in his attitude to d+q, selecting those that use common materials and open enough to stretch them out to produce certain effects.

For Velasco, creation and recreation are nearly identical as designing becomes play without losing sight of what he wants to do. He views the bahay kubo, the stilted house made of bamboo and marsh reed leaves or nipa, as a furniture since "it can be moved around like furniture." Some of the vases he designed had closed tips and he replaced their opening with holes at the base of their necks. Containers shaped like chubby, square dogs with a bone laid in front of them, made me think a pun may have been intended on boxer dogs. These also embody his ideas about recycling since the dog boxes are made of rolled pages of telephone directories. It not only gave them an interesting pattern but also an illusion that they may have been made with thin woven rattan. This sense of construction of objects or embellishing their surface is similarly found in the coco bead lamp that looked like they were woven baskets. The small, natural-colored beads are stringed and wrapped around a resin-based object. Only when I took a closer lookdid I notice that they were not basket weavings.

Velasco’s high standards of professionalism may have come from his experience in the competitive atmosphere of the retail fashion industry. In the early 1990s, he took up a creative position at the Gap clothing company and subsequently directed Gap International’s Visual Merchandising Group when it opened stores in London, Paris, Dusseldorf and Tokyo. One of the more noticeable aspects of Velasco’s designs are clean, simple and well-made objects that are akin to the image of the clothing company’s shops and advertisements. He says he has since taken on freelance projects involving product design while running "a thriving photography studio specializing in still-life products and portraiture."

While viewing his CD-Rom I noticed there were no half-measures about them or what he detests as a "puede na" attitude toward design. He believes that "having a good product design isn’t nearly enough. Companies are best served by dovetailing design with advanced research and development, strong visual merchandising, focused art direction, potent branding, high quality web presence and so on." Velasco thinks this is where he can make a difference.

For instance, some of the pieces he designed seem retro like the fiberglass vases made by Cielito based in Cebu. Their striking orange and yellow colors plus their shapes reminded me of 1960s designs but with a twist. Velasco’s approach to scale does not have the apologetic tone of that period where objects may seem brash in design and color but timid in scale. "This is all about a change in scale," he pointed out to me as we went around his exhibit. I might add an ironic look about things. Velasco explained that his general theme was to emphasize either the objects’ vertical or horizontal forms. The fiberglass vases have an accent on the horizontal form where Velasco widened their rotund bases.

Manifested by the large, stylized top he designed as a lamp made of mosaic resin, scale was not the sole focus of Velasco’s design. His aim for clarity involved even minding the way his Palengke or marketplace of ideas display area would look. Instead of opaque panel boards for instance, Velasco opted for white thin frames covered with sheer white fabric. This allowed unobstructed views of his space and outside of it. His pedestals also stress lightness as he designed them with thin metal frames with white matte tops. These have different heights and Velasco arranged them so that they form wavy flows of objects. Long strokes of wavy lines prevailed in exhibition design as well as in those on display, promoting the curve.

One of these is the "Kropek" chair (labelled by Velasco’s former mentor UP College of Fine Arts’ Roberto Chabet) is made of wicker and tubular metal legs. He designed it with this question in his mind: How do we sit? Besides scrolling the opposite edges of the woven wicker in an oblique way, he also tilts it slightly on one of its open sides.

As a point of contrast, Velasco also adopted squarish, angular shapes for some of his work such as his ironwork display furniture where a lone thick candle sits at the center. His fondness for oppositions ("newness/decay" or "light/dark") has also inspired him to embellish one side of it with a single upright branch of stylized malunggay leaves (an endemic, common tall shrub whose leaves and fruits are found in most Filipino dishes).

His designs’ simplicity was something new for manufacturers. They were uneasy after being so used to garnishing their basic forms and shapes with elaborate decorations that border on Spanish baroque details. I cannot help but compare this to the "beauty contest syndrome" where women who compete try to outdo each other by fussing over their looks so much they end up looking grotesque. In contests, whether in marketplaces or at the Araneta Coliseum, vanity elbows simplicity out.

In the course of organizing his Palengke, Velasco had to travel to different parts of the country to negotiate and discuss with manufacturers his designs. Their translation of his ideas gave him a perspective that encouraged him despite having had his share of anguish. During his stint here, he revealed that he was "inspired by the unique materials and audacity of Filipino design and designers." He is hoping to set up a design consultancy to assist Filipino manufacturers to take a more prominent place in the contemporary global marketplace.

It’s a shame that the organizers of this event do not publicize it beyond the usual circuit of manufacturers and traders. I would not have known about projects such as that of Velasco’s if I was not introduced to him by Finale Gallery’s Vita Sarenas during Chabet’s exhibition opening. Perhaps the reluctance to create a more open atmosphere comes from creating a less crowded space for buyers who came in droves on the Saturday I visited the WTC. But design should be almost everybody’s concern. This is especially true in an urban setting such as Manila where the notion of remedyo (the slapdash idea of making do) and tagpi-tagpi (piecemeal solutions to escalating problems) are some of the aesthetic (if at all) philosophies. Opening fairs like these and making them as accessible as Glorietta’s Fashion Week only with more quality, interesting designs and less brand-naming consciousness.

If the idea behind bringing in a design consultant to Manila F.A.M.E. is to infuse fresh ideas into local design, then the organizers have every right to feel redeemed. Velasco’s presence piqued many people’s awareness of the importance of well-conceptualized design. He also helped blur the arbitrary line between art and design, just like art and craft’s boundaries should be done away with. A revitalized appreciation of form, shape and scale is useful in terms of learning to look at and use things in an integral way. Asked what he thinks is the best design he has created or will create, he replied succinctly, "It’s the next one."

If you want to get in touch with the Manila F.A.M.E. Secretariat, call 832-01-77. You may e-mail them at info@citem.com.ph. Conrado Velasco can be contacted at curvestudio@hotmail.com.

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