New suit, new style, new year. Let's go!
Stay up,
~Cyph
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Eve of a new year
2010. It'll be bananas I'm sure! Quite excited about the adventures that I'll be having with the Baybayin movement/community. Last year of this time I was just getting my feet wet with scribbles and random acts of Baybayin vandalism. Now I'm knee deep and am about to make a cannon-ball splash onto the Baybayin and graphic design scene.
New suit, new style, new year. Let's go!
Stay up,
~Cyph
New suit, new style, new year. Let's go!
Stay up,
~Cyph
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Spoken Word Sunday: Intelect
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Translation Tuesday: "Ch-" Sounds
Welcome to the last Translation Tuesday episode of the year! My, what a journey 2009 has been... to compare my entire mindset, attitude, and Baybayin style in January to now, it's night and day! I learned alot, built with many people, and 2010 is only going to be bigger and better!
But first thing's first. Today's Translation Tuesday episode addresses how to achieve the "Ch-" sound, such as in "Chuck" or "Peaches"...
Again, thank you to all that have made 2009 so memorable and have supported the Baybayin movement! 2010, WE GOT THIS!
Stay up,
~cyph
But first thing's first. Today's Translation Tuesday episode addresses how to achieve the "Ch-" sound, such as in "Chuck" or "Peaches"...
Again, thank you to all that have made 2009 so memorable and have supported the Baybayin movement! 2010, WE GOT THIS!
Stay up,
~cyph
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Happy Humbugs
In this day and age of self awareness regarding consumerism, the echoes of colonization through Christianity, and general ideals that oppose the face value of Christmas, I can't help but still feel happy about the holiday season. I guess I can blame it on all on the great Christmas' that my parents could have afforded both my sister and I as children. I can blame it on the unity that my family had to congregate with the cousins and our ability to get along with each other, play, and give gifts. I can blame it on how much my family cares for one another with genuine smiles and cries.
But I am aware that it ain't all good in the hood. I know there are broken families that make being with them intolerable around this time of the year. I know there are people with no families to confide with throughout the whole year. I know there are those who can't afford to be a participant of the heightened consumerism culture for the holidays.
But I see you, brothers and sisters. I know you're there. For some, Christmas is the worse time of the year because it reminds them of what they don't have, much like Valentines is the worse for some because it reminds them of WHO they don't have. But stay strong, my brothers and sisters. You don't have to have a happy holiday just to be HAPPY. You're alive and breathing, and hopefully eating. I see you and I'm with you.
Happy holidays, stay up.
~Cyph
But I am aware that it ain't all good in the hood. I know there are broken families that make being with them intolerable around this time of the year. I know there are people with no families to confide with throughout the whole year. I know there are those who can't afford to be a participant of the heightened consumerism culture for the holidays.
But I see you, brothers and sisters. I know you're there. For some, Christmas is the worse time of the year because it reminds them of what they don't have, much like Valentines is the worse for some because it reminds them of WHO they don't have. But stay strong, my brothers and sisters. You don't have to have a happy holiday just to be HAPPY. You're alive and breathing, and hopefully eating. I see you and I'm with you.
Happy holidays, stay up.
~Cyph
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Translation Tuesday: Twin (Kambal)
This week's Translation Tuesday is quite different. It's been a while since I did a walkthrough-video of myself creating a Baybayin art piece, so when a client called in to render the word "Kambal" (Twin) into a Baybayin piece, I thought to kill two birds with one stone...
Props to my brother in rhyme, Stimey, for assisting with the videography! So, here's the text: According to Filipino mythology, the supreme being Bathala one day sent a lightning bolt to strike the largest bamboo plant on earth. This split bamboo plant gave two beings, the first man and first woman. The man was named "Malakas" (strong) and the woman "Maganda" (beautiful). I always thought that this symmetery and close relation with god, earth, nature, spirituality and this overall harmony in the Filipino creation story was quite interesting. The idea of natural compliments is the essence of the balanced equations that ties all sciences and theories together. So what about life? What about emotion? These questions are raised in this 24" x 36" poster...
The bamboo, representing the whole idea of Filipino spirituality finding compliments and harmony in nature are represented by the symmetrical patterns around the border, and the two large bamboo poles. Complimenting hues, orange and blue, are each tinting half of the poster. In the middle however, is a hodge podge of colors. I always felt that visually, colors can represent so much simply because there are so many depths to interpret, much like emotion. So, I wanted each dash of color to represent an emotion, and the essence of this ball of emotions is a soul. But if everything truly IS complimentary, and everything essentially has a twin, what is a twin to a soul? A soul mate? A kindred spirit? A best friend? I don't personally know, but whatever they call it, "Kambal" (Twin) seems to be one of those names by which we call such a beautiful pair. On the Baybayin characters I included repetitious strokes to further resonate the idea of "twin". And lastly, the characters in red, which as a color has historically been used for either love or war. Many poets have compared and contrasted the two, but they indeed compliment each other regardless of their extreme outcomes...
Perhaps we're on this planet to find our twin? Our soul mate? Our optimal genetic match? Surely, if the universe is self complimenting with matter to antimatter, 0 to 1, on to off, then perhaps it is our mission/destiny/fate to search for our twin. But to realize our choice as to who our twin is would be a lifelong adventure. If you're lucky enough to actually identify who your twin is, then love with loyalty and leave with honor.
Stay up,
Cyph
Props to my brother in rhyme, Stimey, for assisting with the videography! So, here's the text: According to Filipino mythology, the supreme being Bathala one day sent a lightning bolt to strike the largest bamboo plant on earth. This split bamboo plant gave two beings, the first man and first woman. The man was named "Malakas" (strong) and the woman "Maganda" (beautiful). I always thought that this symmetery and close relation with god, earth, nature, spirituality and this overall harmony in the Filipino creation story was quite interesting. The idea of natural compliments is the essence of the balanced equations that ties all sciences and theories together. So what about life? What about emotion? These questions are raised in this 24" x 36" poster...
The bamboo, representing the whole idea of Filipino spirituality finding compliments and harmony in nature are represented by the symmetrical patterns around the border, and the two large bamboo poles. Complimenting hues, orange and blue, are each tinting half of the poster. In the middle however, is a hodge podge of colors. I always felt that visually, colors can represent so much simply because there are so many depths to interpret, much like emotion. So, I wanted each dash of color to represent an emotion, and the essence of this ball of emotions is a soul. But if everything truly IS complimentary, and everything essentially has a twin, what is a twin to a soul? A soul mate? A kindred spirit? A best friend? I don't personally know, but whatever they call it, "Kambal" (Twin) seems to be one of those names by which we call such a beautiful pair. On the Baybayin characters I included repetitious strokes to further resonate the idea of "twin". And lastly, the characters in red, which as a color has historically been used for either love or war. Many poets have compared and contrasted the two, but they indeed compliment each other regardless of their extreme outcomes...
Perhaps we're on this planet to find our twin? Our soul mate? Our optimal genetic match? Surely, if the universe is self complimenting with matter to antimatter, 0 to 1, on to off, then perhaps it is our mission/destiny/fate to search for our twin. But to realize our choice as to who our twin is would be a lifelong adventure. If you're lucky enough to actually identify who your twin is, then love with loyalty and leave with honor.
Stay up,
Cyph
Thursday, December 17, 2009
FREE SWAG THURSDAY: Christmas Edition!
Be sure to follow The Bathala Project on either Twitter or Facebook for your chance to win a very special FREE SWAG THURSDAY prize: The Baybayin Christmas Card - Magellan's stocking
What you see is poor old Magellan, finding a lump of naughty coal in his Christmas stocking. Above him reads "Maligayang Pasko!" which is Merry Christmas! in Tagalog, written in Baybayin (Nordenx's Baybayin Round font). The colorway of Magellan's garb was inspired by historical documents:
Sort of... So again, be sure to follow The Bathala Project on both Twitter and Facebook for your chance to win this 4"x6" Holiday card print!
Stay up!
~cyph
What you see is poor old Magellan, finding a lump of naughty coal in his Christmas stocking. Above him reads "Maligayang Pasko!" which is Merry Christmas! in Tagalog, written in Baybayin (Nordenx's Baybayin Round font). The colorway of Magellan's garb was inspired by historical documents:
Sort of... So again, be sure to follow The Bathala Project on both Twitter and Facebook for your chance to win this 4"x6" Holiday card print!
Stay up!
~cyph
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Teka muna...
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Spoken Word Sunday: Under Pressure
So, I know I've been rather quiet this past week, but that's because I spent the most of that week rushing to finish this video piece, "Under Pressure".
Music recorded, video edited, and motion designed all in 3 agonizing days by yours truly. Good looking out to my brother in rhyme, Stimey, for shooting the video! This piece was my first real project using Adobe After Effects, to see what I can get done using pre-edited video without green screen or track markers (or money). In three days too! THE POSSIBILITIES ARE THERE, AND THEY ARE NUMEROUS! I can't wait to start working on some Baybayin-incorporated motion work, as soon as I figure out an idea to display modern Baybayin in practical design application...
Stay up,
Cyph
Music recorded, video edited, and motion designed all in 3 agonizing days by yours truly. Good looking out to my brother in rhyme, Stimey, for shooting the video! This piece was my first real project using Adobe After Effects, to see what I can get done using pre-edited video without green screen or track markers (or money). In three days too! THE POSSIBILITIES ARE THERE, AND THEY ARE NUMEROUS! I can't wait to start working on some Baybayin-incorporated motion work, as soon as I figure out an idea to display modern Baybayin in practical design application...
Stay up,
Cyph
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Rebuilding...
While I assess the Baybayin projects that I've lost, which ones I'll just drop anyways, and which ones I'll recreate, here's a non-Baybayin related piece I finished just before my hard drive crashed that I uploaded to my flickr. It's a photochop of me, smashing atoms the old fashioned way. Consider this my "I'm working on it" picture...
Stay up,
cyph
Stay up,
cyph
Saturday, December 5, 2009
This might take a while...
It's been said that the universe is always self-preserving, as is the nature of everything. So, when my harddrive crashed, taking along with it several projects that I didn't back up with it... I can only assume that whatever benefits I get out of this are going to be so grand and fantastic, it will make whatever I lost seem trivial in comparison...
But to my old operating system... it was hard to say goodbye, but I have to admit, Windows 7 is pretty damn sexy. So, my dearest XP, though we met long ago when I was a freshman in college and we shared many secrets, laughs, and cries together, this is an official farewell.
Spoken Word Sunday and Translation Tuesday will be on hold for a minute, as will other works; give me a second to regroup, and I'll get back at ya...
Stay up,
~cyph
But to my old operating system... it was hard to say goodbye, but I have to admit, Windows 7 is pretty damn sexy. So, my dearest XP, though we met long ago when I was a freshman in college and we shared many secrets, laughs, and cries together, this is an official farewell.
Spoken Word Sunday and Translation Tuesday will be on hold for a minute, as will other works; give me a second to regroup, and I'll get back at ya...
Stay up,
~cyph
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Baybayin Modern
A great blog post written by Malaya Design on the modernization of Baybayin. Here's a snippet, but check out the whole post here.
The future is now, it just needs to be thought out before it's implemented. Like the creative designer mantra goes, "Think more, design less."
Stay up,
Cyph
Modifying, modernizing the Baybayin is a debated issue between some writers. Some don’t see a problem with using the Spanish modification by placing a + sign under a character to cancel out a vowel, but some do. It is both right and wrong at the same time, depending on who you are…yeah, it’s vague. I am a traditional practitioner that has evolved to include a variation of it by placing a kudlit above and below the character. I didn’t make it up, I saw it someplace and had an “error 404” episode.And in case Wordpress gets wonky on me, here's the reply comment I (tried to) put up:
Does that mean I condone the use of cancellation kudlits? Yes, to some extent, but I will not bastardize the writing system just because of an individuals ignorance. If anything, I hate seeing transliterations that are blatantly wrong because either the writer or the person wearing the script just didn’t take the time to research and ask questions. There is no “system restore” for this mishap.
Very insightful and well put!
I do believe that modernization of Baybayin is the way to go, however, who would be responsible for doing so? Who should be held responsible to commit to the task of amending a writing system? The Baybayin artists? The tribesmen that still use an iteration of it? The Philippine government? College professors, academics and intellectuals? Consider a similar scenario in which the increasing Spanish-speaking population in America may one day deem it necessary to add the Enye (~n) letter to the American alphabet. Who would be responsible in doing so? And how would such an amendment be standardized throughout the country? Then how would this be distributed to the academic institutions? I suppose one can look at the politics behind the redefinition of Pluto no longer being a planet and being made into public intellect as a reference.
I understand that several Baybayin writers have tried to modernize the Baybayin script by adding new characters to express modern phonetics as well as reconfiguring the kudlits to become more expressive; however, I feel like most of these changes were done independently by the individual Baybayin writer thus becoming unlikely to be held as a standard. Without a cohesive agreement from the "Baybayin community", I think it would be difficult to bring forward a modern Baybayin character set if there are too many individual variations.
I think to successfully modernize Baybayin, several things must take place: First, a committee should be formed to discuss, debate, document and deliberate all Baybayin-related matters. By unifying efforts and collecting opinions, insights, and perspectives, macro-level changes of a writing system could have a stronger foundation to be built upon. Second, the 17 Basic character system should have it's character strokes finalized and standardized to be recognized by the Baybayin community; The problem with making changes to Baybayin I feel is that because of regional, stylistic and individual differences, it can be difficult to communicate the same idea when many are unsure if the character they're writing is founded on a standard character face. But once this has been defined, standardized, documented and distributed, I truly believe that modernization of Baybayin will be a much smoother, calculated and designed process.
As to what we do with this new Baybayin system is a discussion for another time...
~Cyph-----------------
The future is now, it just needs to be thought out before it's implemented. Like the creative designer mantra goes, "Think more, design less."
Stay up,
Cyph
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
Black Friday
This is my first attempt at Dynamic Typography, and I realize that some of the frames and perspective shifts are pretty wonky; I'm not that dope at motion design (yet), so what can I say?
The audio is part of Bambu's verse from the song, Slave Thinking, from the Native Guns album, Barrel Men. Dope album, yall should check it out. Baybayin font used was Nordenx's modern script.
Stay up,
Cyph
The audio is part of Bambu's verse from the song, Slave Thinking, from the Native Guns album, Barrel Men. Dope album, yall should check it out. Baybayin font used was Nordenx's modern script.
Stay up,
Cyph
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Translation Tuesday: Happy Thanksgiving!
In this week's exciting episode of Translation Tuesday, we find out how to write "Happy Thanksgiving" (Maligayang araw ng pasasalamat) as well as "Happy Turkey Day" (Maligayang araw ng mga pabo) into Baybayin! Also, the translation of the mysterious RA sound is finally discussed!
Lastly, to purchase the Baybayin Turkey-Day greeting card, just click here! (available only this week!)
Stay up,
Cyph
Lastly, to purchase the Baybayin Turkey-Day greeting card, just click here! (available only this week!)
Stay up,
Cyph
Monday, November 23, 2009
Giving thanks, getting turkey
A week or so ago, I made this typography poster, experimenting with brush styles and trying to fake a 3d look:
So, using similar methods for the type, and with the American holiday of Thanksgiving day coming up, I wanted to make a Baybayin greeting card I could give out to friends. And here we have it:
It reads "Maligayang araw ng mga pabo!!!", or literally, "Happy day of turkeys!!!" I opted for "happy turkey day" rather than "Happy thanksgiving"... I'm not exactly sure why, but I guess it was just funny at the time. That, or I didn't want to let my hand-turkey drawing go to waste.
SO, I'll be special sending these out to family and loved ones, BUT, if YOU want one, just send me $5, which will cover the envelope, printing and shipping, to me and I'll be sure to send you one :-D
Stay up,
~cyph
So, using similar methods for the type, and with the American holiday of Thanksgiving day coming up, I wanted to make a Baybayin greeting card I could give out to friends. And here we have it:
It reads "Maligayang araw ng mga pabo!!!", or literally, "Happy day of turkeys!!!" I opted for "happy turkey day" rather than "Happy thanksgiving"... I'm not exactly sure why, but I guess it was just funny at the time. That, or I didn't want to let my hand-turkey drawing go to waste.
SO, I'll be special sending these out to family and loved ones, BUT, if YOU want one, just send me $5, which will cover the envelope, printing and shipping, to me and I'll be sure to send you one :-D
edit: SOLD OUT
Stay up,
~cyph
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Spoken Word Sunday: They Say...
At the risk of losing fans of The Bathala Project, I'll opt for flexing some honest expression. Finally, after what seems like forever, an original spoken word piece of mine: They Say...
Like many Second-generation Filipino Americans, I was raised Catholic; and like many of my own generation, I would later become a skeptic...
Before you start debating and soap boxing your opinions, know this; I believe that there's no empirical proof that a god doesn't exist, however I also believe there's no empirical proof that a god does exist. This piece is about keeping an open mind, and to look past what you've been told to find what you find true to yourself. The word "Bathala" itself means the "supreme being", and was the name that the ancient Filipino people used for their god, before the Spanish came and replaced it with the word "Dios".
Stay up,
Cyph
Like many Second-generation Filipino Americans, I was raised Catholic; and like many of my own generation, I would later become a skeptic...
Before you start debating and soap boxing your opinions, know this; I believe that there's no empirical proof that a god doesn't exist, however I also believe there's no empirical proof that a god does exist. This piece is about keeping an open mind, and to look past what you've been told to find what you find true to yourself. The word "Bathala" itself means the "supreme being", and was the name that the ancient Filipino people used for their god, before the Spanish came and replaced it with the word "Dios".
Stay up,
Cyph
Thursday, November 19, 2009
The count is up...
Sometime last week I posted that if at least 50 people chimed in, regarding hosting a live video web-chat to have a free Baybayin consultation/translation/QA session, I'd do it. And how many people chimed in throughout my different avenues of communication??? The total number is... *drum roll*
8 replies.
Well, that's that...
Lately I've been trying to post more regularly, but I would rather concentrate on putting together a nice Baybayin piece for you all to see rather than just posting random schlop. So peace out for now, tune in Sunday for a new Spoken Word Sunday feature!
Stay up,
Cyph
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Flirts With Shirts
Humpday. Let's take a break from Baybayin bombin' for a second.
My path in art has been a rather erratic one; graffiti vandalism, stencil art, photo manipulation, vector art, graphic design, acrylic paintings, and every once in a while... t-shirts. I remember the very first time I ever saw a shirt being "custom designed" was when a 4-yr old version of myself gleefully brought home my cub-scout shirt-kit: an orange polo and an iron-on-patch of the cub scouts logo. My grandfather would happily iron on my cub-scout patch onto that husky pumpkin-orange polo shirt of mine... it was magical.
Later down the road in high school, one of my cousins would be the first on the block to bootleg Nike shirts and Reebok tees for himself by printing out their logos onto iron-on print-out sheets. Printable iron-on sheets was new at the time, so it was kind of a big deal. Forget that they were just logo-tees, they looked pretty legit! Around 2003, I very much wanted to buy an "I *heart* Hip Hop" shirt, but could never find one of the right font or heart shape to my liking. But what I did have was a grip of white tees, a printer, and some iron-on print sheets...
No, I did not intend for it to look grunge-ish with the type, that's just how it looks like after 6 years of existence... and sadly, it's been lowered to undershirt status. But every now and then, it sees sunlight. The next year, when I joined the Purdue Filipino Association, I was of few members that had access to Photoshop at the time and thus became the designated graphics guy. The 2004-2005 PFA shirts would then come to fruition:
Horrible... but it was cool at the time. The next year, I would redeem myself with the 2005-2006 PFA baseball shirt (aka 3/4 length sleeve shirt):
Later on the same year, word through the bamboo would travel and I would later get picked up to do the Asian Student Union Board's first logo design and shirt design as well, to commemorate ASUB's "spring olympics"... which I never attended. Also, this shirt is the cleanest one too, as it's always been too small and thus never worn.
I graduated from Purdue in 2006, so that was the end of the student organization shirt designs... or so I thought. Earlier this year, as my work with Baybayin education throughout the Fil-Am collegiate community would build, I'd try my crack at it once again with Indiana University's FSA shirts:
And lastly, my most previous efforts came to realization earlier this week for The Boxing Club at UCLA:
People always ask if I'm ever going to put my Baybayin work on clothes, and I always tell them that the market isn't there... but it is. Baybayin can be stylized into abstract beautiful goodness, or it can be turned into the next trendy-eye sore. My main issue is this: I have ideas, but I feel like I'm not quite as articulate with design as I'd like to be to fully express and present something I'd be proud to show. I'm not going to sell any piece that I'm not proud of, regardless how many people claim to love it... My latest shirts, the UCLA boxing tee and the I.U. FSA shirts show me that I'm making good progress, and I'm almost there... almost... f*cking almost. But oddly enough, I'm satisfied that I'm unsatisfied; it shows that my taste is still clear enough to tell when my own work isn't where I'd like to be. And thus... I fear the day when I'm in love with my own shit.
Stay up,
Cyph
My path in art has been a rather erratic one; graffiti vandalism, stencil art, photo manipulation, vector art, graphic design, acrylic paintings, and every once in a while... t-shirts. I remember the very first time I ever saw a shirt being "custom designed" was when a 4-yr old version of myself gleefully brought home my cub-scout shirt-kit: an orange polo and an iron-on-patch of the cub scouts logo. My grandfather would happily iron on my cub-scout patch onto that husky pumpkin-orange polo shirt of mine... it was magical.
Later down the road in high school, one of my cousins would be the first on the block to bootleg Nike shirts and Reebok tees for himself by printing out their logos onto iron-on print-out sheets. Printable iron-on sheets was new at the time, so it was kind of a big deal. Forget that they were just logo-tees, they looked pretty legit! Around 2003, I very much wanted to buy an "I *heart* Hip Hop" shirt, but could never find one of the right font or heart shape to my liking. But what I did have was a grip of white tees, a printer, and some iron-on print sheets...
No, I did not intend for it to look grunge-ish with the type, that's just how it looks like after 6 years of existence... and sadly, it's been lowered to undershirt status. But every now and then, it sees sunlight. The next year, when I joined the Purdue Filipino Association, I was of few members that had access to Photoshop at the time and thus became the designated graphics guy. The 2004-2005 PFA shirts would then come to fruition:
Horrible... but it was cool at the time. The next year, I would redeem myself with the 2005-2006 PFA baseball shirt (aka 3/4 length sleeve shirt):
Later on the same year, word through the bamboo would travel and I would later get picked up to do the Asian Student Union Board's first logo design and shirt design as well, to commemorate ASUB's "spring olympics"... which I never attended. Also, this shirt is the cleanest one too, as it's always been too small and thus never worn.
I graduated from Purdue in 2006, so that was the end of the student organization shirt designs... or so I thought. Earlier this year, as my work with Baybayin education throughout the Fil-Am collegiate community would build, I'd try my crack at it once again with Indiana University's FSA shirts:
And lastly, my most previous efforts came to realization earlier this week for The Boxing Club at UCLA:
People always ask if I'm ever going to put my Baybayin work on clothes, and I always tell them that the market isn't there... but it is. Baybayin can be stylized into abstract beautiful goodness, or it can be turned into the next trendy-eye sore. My main issue is this: I have ideas, but I feel like I'm not quite as articulate with design as I'd like to be to fully express and present something I'd be proud to show. I'm not going to sell any piece that I'm not proud of, regardless how many people claim to love it... My latest shirts, the UCLA boxing tee and the I.U. FSA shirts show me that I'm making good progress, and I'm almost there... almost... f*cking almost. But oddly enough, I'm satisfied that I'm unsatisfied; it shows that my taste is still clear enough to tell when my own work isn't where I'd like to be. And thus... I fear the day when I'm in love with my own shit.
Stay up,
Cyph
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Translation Tuesday: Filipino Pride
A very common request I get is how to translate "Filipino Pride" (or some iteration of it) into Baybayin (Alibata). In today's exciting episode of Translation Tuesday, we'll learn how to write out "pride"...
You might notice I kinda had the sniffles in this video... I got a fun little project soon to be posted up, hopefully finished by this week. It'll be something to ring in the holiday cheer!
Stay up,
~cyph
You might notice I kinda had the sniffles in this video... I got a fun little project soon to be posted up, hopefully finished by this week. It'll be something to ring in the holiday cheer!
Stay up,
~cyph
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