Last November 24, 2014, GRIDS hosted its first ever Basic Calligraphy Workshop. The workshop was held in Bellarmine Hall and started from 4:30pm-7:30pm, giving the participants plenty of time to hone their skills in the craft.

With the help of the workshop facilitators, Mischel and Isabelle Ocier of the Pencasso Project (Personal Instagram of Mischel: @mgeyo and Official Workshop Instagram: @pencassoproject), the participants were taught how the materials for calligraphy worked and the skills that were required to use them.

Worksheets were given to each participant which gave them an organized but fun way to learn the art form. After an hour or so on the worksheets, each participant was tasked to stylize certain quotes that they brought with them to the workshop to culminate all that they have learned from the program.

Without a doubt, the workshop proved to be a huge success with each participant bringing home some new found information and skill on the beautiful and stylistic art form that is Calligraphy.

This year's Form Function Class was held at the Henry Sy Building, De La Salle University Manila last November 8, 2014. FFC is an annual web design conference that invites well-known designers from around the world to speak and discuss with the participants topics related to the field of creatives and of design.

The GRIDS members who volunteered to help out were given the task of manning the registration booth again this year. Because registration is a hectic process, it tested our patience and composure when dealing with people who each had their own set of questions and problems. We also had to put or multitasking and teamwork skills to use while working the registration booth, especially when the participants came in hordes at the peak hours of the morning, so as to prevent a congestion of participants at the booth.

FFC is a pretty big annual event that brings together not only professional web designers, but also amateurs and beginners to the field as well and as volunteers, we interacted not only with the conference's participants, but we also had to work with the other student volunteers who came from different universities. The student volunteers were pleasant to work with because they were very friendly and approachable. They each came from their respective schools’ web design and development organizations so there was already a common interest amongst all of us.

After the initial ruckus of the morning's registration died down, we were given the chance to sit inside and listen to the conferences speakers, each of which was considered a tenured professional in the design field. The talks of the speakers — which ranged from the debate between aesthetics versus functionality to the importance of the originality of brand logos — were not only informative, but also quite engaging. Since everyone in the room shared a common interest, everyone was able to relate to the topics.

All in all, volunteering for the FFC was a great way for us to not only catch a glimpse of what a design-centric profession would look like, but also to get out and meet new people. GRIDS is thankful to have been part of such a wonderful event and we'll definitely be looking forward to more years working with the FFC!

Last August 20, GRIDS conducted a partnership workshop with The Computer Society of Ateneo for their Dev Tutorials 2014 series, focusing on web designing.

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Send an e-mail to [email protected] if you’re interested in holding a workshop for your organization, or check out our website for a list of all the services we offer!

On Friday, August 15, 2014, GRIDS held a workshop for members on the basics of Adobe Illustrator with Rax Maniquiz as the guest speaker. Rax, from Plus63 just across Katipunan, gave a small talk about her journey as a designer and offered some tips to being a good designer. Then, she proceeded to laying out on Illustrator and a lot of very helpful tips and shortcuts she uses while designing.

Thanks everyone for coming and hope you learned something new!

GRIDS conducted a Photoshop workshop with Ateneo Blue Repertory last August 14. The workshop gave a special attention to the program's pen tool to help the organization with their promotional materials.

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Last August 4, GRIDS had its First General Assembly to welcome members for the school year 2014-2015, with the theme of "Monopoly". The Core members gave QR ID’s and mini Monopoly money for each. Attendees, then were divided into 6 groups representing each money (1M, 2M, 3M, 4M, 5M and 10M). 

The General Assembly started with Opening Remarks from Sir Martin Villanueva and Sir Glen Lopez to talk about GRIDS as a design organization. Hosts Clara Cayosa and Manel Solsoloy entertained members  with their enthusiasm all throughout the event. Six groups were divided into two to give way for Group Dynamics and Departmental Talks alternately. The three main departments (HR, Admin and Design) were thoroughly discussed for members to know more about the various projects GRIDS has on each. With the three departmental talks, members got a glimpse on which project event they want to be active in. While an icebreaker game called Bumpety Bump -Bump was introduced to help members interact with one another and for them to meet new friends.

Group Dynamics like Your Number’s Up became a game for members to enjoy and test their luck on playing the dice. And another GD called Human Machine tested each of the group’s creativity and leadership skills. The Core was there to participate in every activity and act as facilitators in their respective group.

We conducted a basic Photoshop workshop with the Ateneo Mathematics Society this afternoon at SOM 211! It was great seeing our mathematically-inclined schoolmates try their hand at creating their own digital artwork.

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GRIDS further opened its doors to Ateneans with Render, its first ever Design Camp. From May 23 to 25, participants dove headfirst into Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, and tested their newly-acquired skills and creativity with the Design Challenge, the event's culminating activity.

Design Camp Day 1 was for listening, with Mr. Martin Villanueva opening the program with an address on how Ateneo has been backing up its Fine Arts Program and Mr. Glen Lopez introducing the participants to GRIDS. Speakers and designers Mr. AJ Dimarucot, Ms. Tata Yap, and Mr. Ali Figueroa discussed setting one's heart for design, using a common visual language, and design thinking, respectively. The day ended with an open forum with all speakers present, discussing plagiarism, copyright, and everything else under the design sun.

On Day 2, the participants put what they learned the previous day to use. The day began with an Adobe Photoshop workshop by Ms. Tracy Monsod, followed by an Adobe Illustrator workshop by Serious Studio. After lunch, Mr. Ponci Soliongco gave a workshop on Adobe InDesign. The participants then joined their respective groups to work on the Design Challenge.

The participants were tasked to create a poster and branding for a fictional GRIDS event. Having been given a creative brief, they were judged based on their originality, execution, and presentation, which would fall on Day 3. After much discernment by judges Mr. Philip Cheang and Mr. Meneer Marcelo, Arantxa Orig and Janna Saavedra were crowned the Design Challenge winners.

Thank you to our speakers and creative participants for filling our weekend with lots of design-related fun! We're hoping for bigger and better Design Camps in the years to come.

November 29, 2013

Have you ever wanted to paint your own shoe? Last Nov. 25, GRIDS just held a fun activity to customize shoes.

Held at the FA lounge, students were able to customize their own shoe from Evans, a local shoe manufacturer.

GRIDS invited Monet Dizon, a known local artist, to talk about her beginnings as an artist that paints on shoes. The activity aptly named Pump Up Your Kicks was a great success as students from the Ateneo were able to create and customize their own shoe design. 

We'd like to thank the project head Nina Tinsay & deputy Karlo Erfe.

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Some photos from the 2nd General Assembly of GRIDS held last November 18, 2013.

Thank you to everyone who attended this event! There are loads of exciting projects in store for you!

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Last November 9-10, 2013, GRIDS members helped out at the Philippine Web Design Organization’s event, Form Function & Class 2013 at the De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts. FFC is an annual conference that discusses web design as well as many other topics relevant to the interest of the modern creative professional.

We, as student partners, were in charge of the registration table. Through this, we learned more on how to deal with people under stressful situations, as there were so many people who came. It surprised us to see there were so many people who are interested in learning about web design – web design is definitely a growing branch needed by every business, seeing as the internet is such a large part of media today.

Since we handled registration, we met many different kinds of people who came to learn more about web design, both from local and international corporations, and also individuals who were interested as well. It was fascinating seeing how so many different kinds of people were interested in this facet of design.

This also gave us an opportunity to meet many people with the same interests as we do. Aside from the delegates who came to participate in this conference, we got to talk to students from other universities who also came to help out and volunteer. They also came from their schools’ design organizations so we understood each other very well, and they were all very friendly so it was a very pleasant experience working with them.

We also had a chance to sit in and listen to the speakers inside the venue when everything was settled down in registration. There were very interesting talks about the importance of web design in terms of your connection to the world around you, branding, data-driven design, and many more topics.

It was definitely a learning experience, both inside and outside the conference venue. We are very thankful for this opportunity to help out in such an amazing event- GRIDS is looking forward to next year’s FFC!

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GRIDS goes to BGC

Photos from BGC Art Mart 3, held at Bonifacio High Street last August 31 to September 1, 2013. 

Click here to read more.

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Hello GRIDS! Taking a break from all the storm-related posts, and your HOHOLs (help out help out lang ;)), check out our very first WHOAH WEDNESDAY post! You don't always need a computer to be a designer. Take it from Jacopo Rosati - the dude uses felt. WHOAH.