Dan Matutina
Hi. I’m Dan Matutina, an illustrator/designer from the Philippines. Most of my works contain simple lines, shapes and textures. While illustration & design is the strongest focus of my work, I also do a lot of web projects & experiments on the side. I’ve always been interested in what the web can do in terms of connecting and communicating to people. Aside from Design, I’ve always been fascinated with Science & Technology.
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Your illustrations are rich both in texture and ideas – do you take much inspiration from Filipino history?
For my illustrations, I get a lot of inspiration from Filipino folklore, handicrafts & festivals. The Filipino aesthetic is maximalist by nature, so I try to balance it out by getting inspiration from minimalist designers. I use a lot of textures to make my illustrations look organic albeit the use of basic, industrial-looking shapes.
Its so exciting to discover an agency like Idea!s – what are you and your team hoping to achieve?
At Idea!s, we try to make a difference through design. Idea!s is a social enterprise, specializing in social design & communications, offering our services in order to enhance the impact and outreach of social development organizations. We want to communicate to the world the great stuff cause-drivern organizations are doing, and encourage society to get involved in the actions — big and small.
Theres a beautiful poetic feel to Plus63.com – you seem to love experimenting with the web?
Yea. I <3 the web. It's a very interesting medium. For Plus63.com I wanted to create a place where people can view the different sights of the Philippines frame by frame. Kind of like a road trip in a browser, where people can simply look around and explore.
We're doing the next version of the site at the moment and it's pretty exciting. I have no idea when we'll be finished though.
Youve worked with PechaKucha – what are they like?
Aside from doing design stuff, we at Ideals have our own projects. One of those is Pecha Kucha Night Manila, a show and tell with an interesting 20×20 format. 20 slides, 20 seconds each slide. We’ve done 3 events and it has been fun. Right now, we’re participating in the Pecha Kucha Night “Postcards for Haiti” – an event involving all the Pecha Kucha Night cities in the world. It will be a compilation of positive, encouraging, and inspiring messages for Haiti.
One of the many terrific projects youre involved with is Plus63.net – whats the Filipino creative scene like and who excites you at the moment?
The Filipino creative scene right now is very vibrant. Both design veterans and new-bloods are churning out good works. Currently, I’m loving the works of Inksurge, Vgrafiks, Leeroy New, Mark Salvatus and Mall. Plus63.net exists to showcase the works of the different Filipino Creatives. It makes me happy when I receive emails from creatives getting gigs after being featured in the site.
“Balut” looks so scary! – have you eaten it before?
Haha. Yea, Balut is scary. I have eaten a few but Im not too fond of it. The “soup” inside the Balut is good though, the embryo not so much. I prefer Penoy. Balut is a hardboiled duck egg with partially developed duck embryo inside. Penoy on the other hand, has an infertile incubated duck egg. Ewww. Too graphic. Haha.
What new projects are you developing?
Besides Ideals work, Im doing a few commissioned illustration works & websites. I’m also in the process of creating a Plus63 Unconference — a small gathering of creatives. Instead of the usual “talkies”, participating speakers and presenters will share designs based on a brief given beforehand. It’s a problem-solving event of sorts.
Im also doing the forever project called Pickl, a web-based platform where people can pick words and images, store and share them. I don’t know if I’ll push through with it since it’s becoming obsolete. Hehe.
Lastly, I’m in the initial phase of making an installation based on “threaded” conversations people see on toilet walls, school armchairs & bus seats. We have a lot of those here: anonymous people debating and conversing by writing on the walls/tiles of public toilets.
Dan Matutina
Hi. I’m Dan Matutina, an illustrator/designer from the Philippines. Most of my works contain simple lines, shapes and textures. While illustration & design is the strongest focus of my work, I also do a lot of web projects & experiments on the side. I’ve always been interested in what the web can do in terms of connecting and communicating to people. Aside from Design, I’ve always been fascinated with Science & Technology.
Your illustrations are rich both in texture and ideas – do you take much inspiration from Filipino history?
For my illustrations, I get a lot of inspiration from Filipino folklore, handicrafts & festivals. The Filipino aesthetic is maximalist by nature, so I try to balance it out by getting inspiration from minimalist designers. I use a lot of textures to make my illustrations look organic albeit the use of basic, industrial-looking shapes.
Its so exciting to discover an agency like Idea!s – what are you and your team hoping to achieve?
At Idea!s, we try to make a difference through design. Idea!s is a social enterprise, specializing in social design & communications, offering our services in order to enhance the impact and outreach of social development organizations. We want to communicate to the world the great stuff cause-drivern organizations are doing, and encourage society to get involved in the actions — big and small.
Theres a beautiful poetic feel to Plus63.com – you seem to love experimenting with the web?
Yea. I <3 the web. It's a very interesting medium. For Plus63.com I wanted to create a place where people can view the different sights of the Philippines frame by frame. Kind of like a road trip in a browser, where people can simply look around and explore.
We're doing the next version of the site at the moment and it's pretty exciting. I have no idea when we'll be finished though.
Youve worked with PechaKucha – what are they like?
Aside from doing design stuff, we at Ideals have our own projects. One of those is Pecha Kucha Night Manila, a show and tell with an interesting 20×20 format. 20 slides, 20 seconds each slide. We’ve done 3 events and it has been fun. Right now, we’re participating in the Pecha Kucha Night “Postcards for Haiti” – an event involving all the Pecha Kucha Night cities in the world. It will be a compilation of positive, encouraging, and inspiring messages for Haiti.
One of the many terrific projects youre involved with is Plus63.net – whats the Filipino creative scene like and who excites you at the moment?
The Filipino creative scene right now is very vibrant. Both design veterans and new-bloods are churning out good works. Currently, I’m loving the works of Inksurge, Vgrafiks, Leeroy New, Mark Salvatus and Mall. Plus63.net exists to showcase the works of the different Filipino Creatives. It makes me happy when I receive emails from creatives getting gigs after being featured in the site.
“Balut” looks so scary! – have you eaten it before?
Haha. Yea, Balut is scary. I have eaten a few but Im not too fond of it. The “soup” inside the Balut is good though, the embryo not so much. I prefer Penoy. Balut is a hardboiled duck egg with partially developed duck embryo inside. Penoy on the other hand, has an infertile incubated duck egg. Ewww. Too graphic. Haha.
What new projects are you developing?
Besides Ideals work, Im doing a few commissioned illustration works & websites. I’m also in the process of creating a Plus63 Unconference — a small gathering of creatives. Instead of the usual “talkies”, participating speakers and presenters will share designs based on a brief given beforehand. It’s a problem-solving event of sorts.
Im also doing the forever project called Pickl, a web-based platform where people can pick words and images, store and share them. I don’t know if I’ll push through with it since it’s becoming obsolete. Hehe.
Lastly, I’m in the initial phase of making an installation based on “threaded” conversations people see on toilet walls, school armchairs & bus seats. We have a lot of those here: anonymous people debating and conversing by writing on the walls/tiles of public toilets.