08 Jun

COME, COME, COME TO THE FAIR!

Now’s your chance to get an exclusive 50% off on all Ferdinand merchandise at La Feria de Junio!

La Feria de Junio is a premier one-day event organized by Jonathan Apilado and Sindy Leoncio, at the Filipinas Heritage Library, Ayala Triangle in Makati on Friday, June 15th. It’s packed to the gills with a bunch of cool, unique items you can only find there, and a portion of all their profit goes to support Ferdinand! We’ll also have a booth, and as an email subscriber, you can get any of our goods at the generously discounted price of only 299php! That’s half off! All you need to do to qualify for the discount is give us your email address so we can make sure you’re signed up for our newsletter. We won’t use your email address for any nefarious purposes.

Check out that poster above. That was designed by one of our first one-on-one students, John Rey Canonio. I couldn’t be prouder. But we’d like to be able to teach many, many more artists, so all profits earned at the Ferdinand booth will go towards the construction of a school where we can teach full classrooms of students.

Hope to see you there!

If the HTML5 music player above doesn’t work for you, here’s a link to the actual mp3.


26 Nov

HURRY DOWN TODAY AND BUY THE DISCOUNT WAY

If the HTML5 music player above doesn’t work for you, here’s a link to the actual mp3.

We’re making big changes to our online store today. Our t-shirts are no longer priced at $29 USD (1,255 PHP), but at less than half that at only 599 PHP!

Notice I didn’t include a USD amount in the second price. In order to keep our prices low for the majority of our supporters, we’re only including shipping within the Philippines.

But we’ll still happily ship you our goods! Email store@ferdinandcc.org for our current international shipping rates, and to arrange your order!


Buying goods from our store not only helps make an art student’s dream come true, it helps them to feed and educate street children. We depend on purchases and donations from generous supporters like you, so they really make a difference.


04 Oct

NOW ACCEPTING STUDENT APPLICATIONS

Note: This blog post is much longer than usual. If you’d like, you can skip down to the announcement portion.

When I was in the third grade in Alaska, I wanted to be a world famous cruise ship designer by day, and a taxi driver by night. I would lie in my bunk bed drawing elaborate floor plans for imaginary cruise ships. Cruise ships with three-story libraries in them. Cruise ships with large chimney standpipes à la Titanic, and cruise ships with large riverboat paddle wheels on the back. On nights I was feeling extra ambitious, I’d craft up a Frankenship with both chimney standpipes and paddle wheels, practicality be damned.

And I thought that by now, surely, taxi cabs would be able to fly.

But here I am, turning 29 this month, a graphic designer by trade. I no longer live in Alaska; I now call the Philippines my home. So what happened?

In cruise ship parlance, it’s called…
Read More Inside…


19 Jun

JOSE RIZAL, 150 YEARS YOUNG TODAY!

José RizalJosé Rizal, noted Filipino linguist, novelist, poet, scientist, doctor, painter, educator, reformer and visionary thought leader, turns 150 years old today. One of the t-shirts in our new shop, designed by Filipino artist Dan Matutina (interviewed here), was inspired by Rizal’s quote, “Ang hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika, ay higit pang amoy sa mabahong isda.” (Translation: “He who does not love his own language is worse than an animal and smelly fish.“) Why not help us get our Center built by purchasing it?

Check out the shirt after the break, and read an English translation of Rizal’s final poem, Mi Ultimo Adios (My Last Farewell).
Read More Inside…


14 Jun

OUR ONLINE STORE HAS LAUNCHED!

Sharing this video helps us greatly. It’s also available at Vimeo and YouTube.

It’s my great pleasure to announce the launch of our online store! Currently we’ve got t-shirts up for sale, all lovingly designed and hand silkscreened in the Philippines. This has been a much greater undertaking than I originally imagined. Shipping products from the Philippines to other countries is more expensive than we’d like, but we’ve worked out a solution so that you can get our products at a reasonable price with the cost of shipping included. I’ll say that again: free international shipping on all items in the store!

To celebrate the launch of our online store, we created a little video with the help of some of our supporters and future students. Check it out, and then head to our store and buy some merch!

All proceeds will go towards the construction of our Center, to help artists who can’t afford college, and to feed and educate street children.
Read More Inside…


28 Feb

FILIPINO ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: KDLIG

This post is part of a series of posts on artists, designers and illustrators making their way in the Philippines.

I am melted candyKristy Anne Ligones, also known as KDLIG, is a master of vectors. When I first came upon her work, it was hard to believe that she didn’t just run her photos through an automatic vector tool. Except they were too good to have been created by a machine, too much care had been put into crafting portraits that accurately captured the personality of the subject. We’re pleased she took the time to answer some of our questions.

You’re originally from Cagayan de Oro, right? What were some of your favorite things about CDO?

Yup, CDO is my hometown. My favorite things would be the simplicity of the place; not that much garbage or traffic, and not too crowded either, unlike the giant cities. Though I consider Cebu as my second home and the city I love the most, CDO is still my comfort zone.

Read More Inside…


20 Dec

THE PERFECT LAST-MINUTE GIFT

Your name could be HERE

Happy Holidays! Starting today, until the end of January, we’re running a very special deal. If you donate $100 or more, you’ll get your name (or someone’s name of your choosing) on a wall of our finished building in 3D letters for everyone to see! That’s a savings of $150, but it’s for a limited time only. This is the perfect gift for the person in your life who has everything, or if you’re that person, it’s the perfect last-minute gift recommendation to ask for from family and friends.

If you’re like 99% of our supporters, you (a) realize the importance of what we’re doing, and (b) haven’t donated yet. Well, now’s the perfect time. You might think, this project is great, but enough other people will support it that it’ll launch without my help. But that’s what the others are thinking as well, and I’m here to tell you, without your help, it’s not possible. So please, donate today and you’ll help countless creative Filipinos achieve their dreams, get jobs, and escape poverty. You’ll also be helping homeless children living on the street get an education and a good meal. We can’t do it without your help.


Ferdinand Center for the Creative is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and is tax-deductible in the United States.


20 Oct

ALWYN CORTEZ, JULY 18, 1984 – OCTOBER 20, 2010

Alwyn

I post here far too seldom, but I had planned a happy, funny post for today.

This isn’t that post.

I just heard that Alwyn, our head of Kalye Ferdinand—our street child outreach program—died last night. Alwyn wasn’t just the head of Kalye Ferdinand—he was Kalye Ferdinand, through and through. And Kalye Ferdinand was him.

You may remember a previous post about Alwyn, when he first celebrated his birthday by throwing a party at Jollibee for children living on the streets.

Nothing made him happier than making street children happy. His whole life he had been poor, scraping by and trying to survive, so his heart was with the poor. Street children weren’t looked down upon by him, he didn’t serve up morality lessons or lecture them. They weren’t his subjects. They were his equals. And they loved him like nobody else. When Alwyn walked down the street, crowds of children would flock to him like he was a pop sensation. They idolized him.

Yesterday, I got an email from Alwyn, and in the deluge of messages that fill my inbox, I deemed it least important and didn’t reply to it in time. Sometime late last night, he was stabbed on the street in an apparent hold up.

God, I should have sent that email.

I can’t state how greatly I miss Alwyn. And I know he’s equally missed by every life he’s touched. All further progress by Kalye Ferdinand will be dedicated to the memory and honor of Alwyn V. Cortez.

Alwyn's birthday bash


19 Sep

FERDINAND FEATURED ON PROPINOY!

ProPinoy

I had the good fortune to be interviewed by the incredibly astute Niña Terol-Zialcita for ProPinoy. Her questions were great, and I’m proud of how the interview went. In fact, I think this interview may perhaps describe what Ferdinand is all about even better than our own website does.

Check it out to find out our views on education, the importance of design, and more!

Remember, you can help this project get off the ground by making a donation!


22 Aug

AUDIENCE SURVEY

surveyimg.gif

Months ago, we didn’t reach our goal on our Kickstarter fundraising campaign. It goes without saying that we want to succeed from here on out, but we realized something: we don’t know nearly enough about our supporters. What makes you guys tick? What do you want from us? What issues are important to you, and how can we become the kind of organization you find worth supporting?

Please fill out our survey, so we can know more about you. Our supporters are our most cherished asset—you guys rock—and we want to get to know you better. It’s only ten questions long, but it’ll help us a lot.

Thanks!

 


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