[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:04] DC: It takes the right skills and the right innovation to design and manage meaningful print marketing solutions. Welcome to Podcasts From the Printerverse where we explore all facets of print and marketing that create stellar communications and sales opportunities for business success. I’m your host Deborah Corn, the Intergalactic Ambassador to the Printerverse. Thanks for tuning in. Listen long and prosper.
[EPISODE]]
[0:00:31] DC: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Podcasts From the Printerverse. This is Deborah Corn, your Intergalactic Ambassador. I am so excited for our episode today. I was invited a few weeks ago by Kervin Valero from Fedrigoni Specialty Papers in the Philippines to present some printspiration to kick off the inaugural PrintCon Conference, which took place, as I said, a few weeks ago in Manila, in the Philippines.
The conference was hosted by the two incredible gentlemen I invited to join me on the podcast today. Nabbe Francisco, he is the founder of Uno Graphiko, a digital-first marketing agency. And Lad Gutierrez, he is a freelance visual identity designer, graphic designer, and content creator. He is also the founder of the Creative Incubator Podcast, which plays on Spotify. Together, they have cultivated one of the largest Facebook communities of graphic designers in the Philippines, with 135,000 active members. The group is called Filipino Graphic Designers. Gentlemen, welcome to the podcast, and thank you so much for sharing your time with the world.
[0:01:50] LG: Thank you for having us, Deborah. We’re excited and thrilled for this podcast. Yes, it’s so amazing to be here.
[0:01:59] NF: Yes. Hello Printerverse and to all the followers and listeners of Miss Deborah. Hello, everyone. We’re so glad that we’re here. It’s actually a privilege and an honor to be interviewed by the only Printerverse Queen herself, Deborah, of course. Thank you so much. We’re excited about what’s coming right now. Hello, hello.
[0:02:18] DC: Hello, hello. You guys are so cool. I had never met you, I never saw you. All of a sudden, you popped up on my screen as I was waiting to do my talk, and I was watching your enthusiasm, and your excitement, and the excitement of all the people who were coming into the room, and how you were interacting with them. Although I have to say, it was a little difficult, because sometimes you were speaking Filipino and sometimes you were speaking English. So, I was like, understood every fifth word or something like that.
Honestly, I was like, “Who are these guys? Who are they?” I hunted you down. I watched the conference for the first day up until the middle break, but it was like two o’clock in the morning here in the United States at that time. Then, I kind of went to sleep, but I hunted you down after because I just needed to know more about both of you. So, starting with Nabbe, can you let everybody know more about you and the work that you do?
[0:03:22] NF: Yes, sure. Going back actually about our hosting stint last time, we actually asked Kervin about the language that they’re going to be using. First of, I asked Mister Kervin, “Hey, we have some guests abroad or from different countries. Do we have to speak in English or do we have to speak in Taglish?” Mister Kervin just told us that you just have to be –
[0:03:43] DC: Oh, Taglish. That’s it.
[0:03:45] NF: Yes, Taglish is the term here. Kevin just told us that just be comfortable, any language that you could use, because this is also our country, and they should also like learn. So, we both spoke Taglish, and that’s really quite good for us to host that event. So, yes.
Hey, everyone. I am Nabbe Francisco, I am actually the founder of Uno Graphiko, and also the creator of Filipino Graphic Designers community on Facebook. I’ve done a lot of gigs as well, and freelance projects for different brands and government agencies as well in the Philippines. Also, I am now working full-time in a Singaporean consultancy agency. I also have a podcast, which is Designer Diaries, where we feature graphic designers all over the country, where they also have this kind of problem, where they’re so good at designing, but can’t really market themselves well enough.
I’m a marketer myself. I teach them, I also teach in Designer Diaries. I give them bullets and terms where they can use on how to market their skills internationally. That’s the very goal of this podcast, which is just casted via Facebook group, and also my Facebook page, which is Uno Graphiko. This is my main goal. So, Filipino Graphic Designers, as well, I also found three years ago, last 2021, to give a platform of opportunities for designers.
Back then, I told myself that these opportunities are so much for me, so I really have to share this opportunity for the people that really deserve this, which is also Filipino Graphic Designers. So, that’s what I also do. I am a community builder of three communities right now, two branded and one which is organic. I also handle five brands right now for social media campaigns. I create campaigns for them on social media, The Gen Z Way, which is founded by LinkedIn. So, that’s what I do right now.
[0:05:40] DC: That’s all you do. You don’t have time to build ships or anything else. I mean, you’re doing so much work there. I have to say that you just made a light bulb go off in my head, and you’re absolutely right. I just always assume that designers know how to market themselves because they’re creative. But you’re absolutely right, that is a left-brain, right-brain thing in many cases. So, good on you for seeing what I call the hole in the market that you could actually service. See, I knew I loved you for a reason.
[0:06:13] NF: Thank you.
[0:06:13] DC: Lad, tell everybody more about you and the work that you do.
[0:06:17] LG: Yes, of course. Hi, I am Lad. Like what Deborah mentioned earlier, I’m a freelance visual identity designer. I help brands create logos, create visual identities. Actually, the touch points for their visuals, I help them create those things, including packaging designs and all. I’m also a content creator for creatives and graphic designers. I help graphic designers to learn more about the journey of being a graphic designer, and also giving them simple terms in graphic design, like that, and about creativity, and how to be more creative.
I also host a podcast called Creative Incubator Podcast, where I invite various creatives from different fields, not only designers, not only artists, but I also invite singers, and dancers to share about their creative journey and their creative stories. Actually, I also have a community. It’s also called Creative Incubator. Creative Incubator is a place or a platform for creatives to upskill their creativity and their design.
For Nabbe, his community is for – if you want to find a market or clients, go to the Filipino Graphic Designers. But if you want to upskill your creativity in your designs, go to Creative Incubator. But me and Nabbe are also working on the projects, so that’s one of the things that we’re doing. We’re looking for clients to help in their social media, in their designs, and then everything. I can say that I’m a multi-passionate, I love doing things. I’m passionate in many things, and I want to learn many things. Actually, that’s all about me, and I just want to learn more about different things.
[0:08:08] DC: I love it. Well, let me just ask you, how did you guys meet? Lad, you answer that because you’re louder on your microphone.
[0:08:16] LG: All right. Actually, during pandemic, I follow Nabbe on his Facebook page, which is the Uno Graphiko, because he gives like tips and advices in graphic design, which I started the freelancing way back 2020, during the pandemic. I followed him on Facebook, and we don’t have any interaction that time until one of our common friends, which is Cap Hernandez, he’s also a community builder, introduced us to one another, to each other. He’s planning to have a program, it’s also a podcast, but it didn’t push through.
Since then, me and Nabbe just talked, and have a different conversation about things, and then we come up with this, like, what if we look for projects and we work together on it? Since Nabbe is good in social media, I’m good in graphic design, we team up together to help clients on their social media and their design.
[0:09:15] DC: It’s a perfect collaboration. The things that you both bring to the table are unique, and where they overlap, they only add more strength, and value to the people that you help. I just love it. Nabbe, I want to ask you, both of you are freelancers, but you’re also business owners. I had asked you for some bullet points for this discussion, what you guys wanted to talk about, and this was important to you. So, talk a little bit about that and what it takes to – the inner journey also that you were on. Lad, will ask you the same question after.
[0:09:52] NF: Yes. That’s a great question, actually. To be fair, I just graduated last year.
[0:09:58] DC: From university or high school.
[0:10:00] NF: From a university. I took up a Bachelors in Advertising and Public Relations, so basically making campaigns, and also graphic design, and all sort of stuff in graphic designing, even printing. We also understood about the printing industry. So, it was quite challenging for me to – if ever I’m going to be choosing the corporate world, or the business world, or the freelancing world, that’s quite tough for me and a hard decision.
What I did is, I chose all of the three. I’m just joking. Somehow, I think I chose all of them because I still work full-time, I have a business and also do freelance gigs. For me, it was quite tough, but still fulfilling for me, because I still can do a lot of things. I work remotely for my clients abroad, and they give us, or give me chances to work also for my side gigs. So, it’s not really a problem.
Before being a graphic designer and also a business owner right now, I actually sold a lot of things when I was still in college. I did not come from a well-off family, and my family is just like giving me enough allowance for my food. So, I did work for a lot of things. I sold pillows, I sold curtains, I even sold snacks for my college friends, even assignments. I’m really sorry for my professors, I sold assignments when I was in college. For five pesos or 10 pesos, I sold assignments for my classmates, so it was quite challenging for me.
Eventually, I graduated with honors, and thank God for that. I thought of myself, if I’m going to be pursuing full-time in the corporate world, since I also needed experience. When I was in college, I worked as a content creator for this digital advertising agency, and after one month, I eventually was promoted as a marketing head. It was an agency, a small agency, but I already handled a lot of Filipino freelancers and also full-time. So, it was, I think surprising and a great opportunity for me to learn, and grow, and also impart all of the knowledge that I gathered from the previous experiences that I had.
Currently, I’m applying all of those experiences. I give those experiences to the brands I’m handling right now, and I feel like I’m also qualified to have those qualities as well. Eventually, when I felt like money is not just the thing, I give out opportunities and also help other people through the community that I handle right now. We also give upskilling and also collaborate with government agencies. Recently, I was also the representative – I just talk too much about myself, I’m really sorry. I’m just happy to share about these things.
[0:12:33] DC: No, you’re supposed to. This is your chance.
[0:12:37] NF: Yes. I’m really sorry for sharing too much about myself. Just really ecstatic about sharing this, and also inspire a lot of youth, and also up and coming designers. I was invited to be the representative of the Filipino graphic designers, and the DTI, Department of Trade and Industry when we were validating the plans for the graphic designers. That’s actually a great thing for the government because they’re really moving to give regulations for graphic designers because we don’t have that compared to other countries.
I was invited to be the representative because I was very immersed with the current issues and the problems of the graphic designers. I was asked, “What do we need? What the graphic designers want to be regulated in this industry, and what do they actually require to be in the field or industry?” We did that, and we give a lot of problems, actually, and took that opportunity to share all of the problems that we’re facing, just like pricing, and also client demands, revisions, and all sorts of those things. We’re still hoping to have the regulations that we have, like other countries, like UK, actually, and also USA, they have those different regulations, and we want that to apply in our country. Yes, I hope I didn’t talk that much. I then we decided on — I’m excited on what kuya Lad will be sharing right now. Go kuya Lad.
[0:14:03] DC: I mean, you guys are so interesting. I mean, you’re so young and you’ve accomplished so much. I mean, it’s the entrepreneurial spirit that you did whatever you needed to do selling snacks. By the way, I would have been a good snack customer for you.
[0:14:17] NF: Wow.
[0:14:17] DC: Lad, tell us about your journey from freelancer to business owner.
[0:14:23] LG: Oh, actually, I don’t have any prior experience in business or entrepreneurship. I have a background in – a graduate of Bachelor in Computer Science, so I know basic programming that time, but now I don’t have any. I started working on a real estate company, where I handle the graphic design. After a year, I was promoted to being a training director, where I trained our real estate sellers and brokers, that’s why I learned how to do public speaking or sometimes talk to people.
After a year, again, I became a marketing – before that, business development in branding in our company. Then again, another year, I became a marketing manager in our company. I was thinking, what is the right journey, or is this the right journey for me to do these things? After that, I resigned, because I think I outgrow myself doing those things. I really want to learn more about the industry, I really want to learn more different things. That’s why, me and my friends started a business. It’s a milk tea shop here in the Philippines. But pandemic came, we closed it.
Then, 2020, started freelancing, doing, offering, logo design, just the logo design. But I realized that the journey I took when I was in the corporate is the things that I’ve experienced are the things that I will use until today, like doing training, doing business development, doing marketing, and marketing my services, marketing my offers. Then, I learned many things about technical things.
In graphic design or in being a freelancer, you don’t have to learn more about the technicalities, but you also have to learn about the marketing, the sales, actually, everything. You started as a one-man team learning those things. You don’t just learn about the design or the technicalities, that is just your core talent or your core service. But again, we need to learn about different stuff in, especially marketing. Because you will not attract client if you don’t know how to market your services or your offer, or you will not close that client if you don’t know how to negotiate, or you don’t know how to do sales, right? I learned those things, and here we are, here I am.
[0:17:02] DC: Here we are.
[0:17:03] LG: Here we are, doing things, offering my services from freelancing. Now, actually, Nabbe and I, we’re planning to make this official, or even professional, our business to be an agency, and we’re still talking about it. We’re offering our services to clients. Now, most of our clients is a collaboration of me and Nabbe. We have to level up our services and our business to become an agency, not just a freelancer. Yes, I think that’s pretty much about my journey.
[SPONSOR MESSAGE]
[0:17:42] DC: Print Media Centr provides printspiration and resources to our vast network of global print and marketing professionals. Whether you are an industry supplier, print service provider, print customer, or consultant, we have you covered, by providing resources and strategies that enable business marketing and creative success, reporting from global events, these podcasts, Project Peacock TV, and an array of community lifting initiatives. We also work with OEMs, suppliers, industry organizations, and event producers, helping you connect and engage with our vast audience, and achieve success with your sales, marketing, and conference endeavors. Visit Print Media Centr and connect with the Printerverse. Links in the show notes. Print long and prosper.
[EPISODE CONTINUES]
[0:18:36] DC: It is just so fascinating to me, both of you. I’m a Gen Xer, so when I grew up, you have a job, and you probably want that job for life, and you don’t want to change your job because you’re afraid to change your job. What’s going to happen if I change my job? Just the fact that you have both given yourself the freedom to explore what really interests you, and what you like, and more things to learn. It kills me that you went in as a graphic designer. The next thing you know, you were training real estate agents, and from there, you learned how to public speak. You guys are so fascinating, I can speak to you for hours, and I definitely think you should start this agency, and I want to help you if you do that, in any way that I possibly can.
I want to now go talk about community building, and I want to share with you that, the only reason I am here is because I built a community online. I would not be here had I not done that. I’m not sure if you know, but I run the world’s largest print group on LinkedIn, Print Production Professionals. From that community building is how I met the manufacturers of printing equipment, and the paper companies, and the printers.
So, everything that you’re doing now is the seeds that will lead you to all of this business, and you’ve got 135,000 people in this Facebook group, and there are people in there who need your help. So, you already have done the most important part, which you have already established trust and authenticity with your community, from that – which is not easy to do. You do that as you guys know, by sticking, by engaging, by answering everybody’s questions, by commenting on it, by spending the time.
About three years, people asked me what I did, and this is when social media first started, like 2008, 2009. They’re like, “What are you doing?” I’m like, “I think I’m a professional networker, but I’m not sure. I don’t really know. I just know that there is this community growing around me, and I am at the center of it” which is actually why I called myself the ambassador, because the role I could play was helping people connect because I could see everybody who was in the group and things of that nature.
With that being said, Nabbe, you founded the Filipino Graphic Designers Group. Is that correct?
[0:21:18] NF: Yes.
[0:21:19] DC: Okay. What was the genius behind that? I will tell you that I started my LinkedIn group because I had run out of people to look for, to network with, to find a job. So, I figured I’d open up a LinkedIn group and bring everybody to me instead, and then it took a life on its own, as things often do on social media. Please, go ahead.
[0:21:39] NF: Well, it’s almost similar to your motivation, actually. I also lacked people back then. During pandemic, I’ve also created Uno Graphiko, where I also shared tips about graphic designing for career shifters and also beginners that know how to design, and also pursue graphic designing when they were just starting. So, I shared different tips, and also carousels on how to create designs.
The opportunities are really coming back then. The people are already messaging me that we have need designs for this project and sort of stuff. What I felt, these opportunities are really so much for me and I couldn’t handle it that well. Praise God for that, that’s a good thing back then. I felt like I have to share to other people, and I did not know any designers back then. I did not know kuya Lad three years ago. What I did is, I created a well-engaged community. What I did is I created a Facebook group, I shared opportunities there, “Hey, I have this client, who else wants this?” People are not really that engaging enough back then.
What I did, I really message each one of the people that comment on my Facebook page, which is Uno Graphiko. “Hey, can you please join here? I share opportunities here, and also, please join in this community. Share your portfolios, and share anything that you would love to share.” That’s what I did back then. I really pleased a lot of people just to join my community, because I told them that, “I have so much opportunities for you guys. Please join, just click Join. I don’t have any qualifications or anything else.”
Back then, we were growing so slow, 100 people per week, or 200 people per month, maybe. So, I chat them personally, join this group. So, after that, we grew into 130,000 members right now. That was so surprising for me, and also mind-boggling. Because currently, we have almost 25,000 contents waiting to be published. They really messaged me, they needed a spotlight in the group. They just need to share their portfolios so they could have enough clients for them.
As what I’ve seen from the Philippines, we have 117,000 members, and from other countries is the remaining. We have from Palestine, USA, UK, and majority of them are not also graphic designers, but also employers, and clients, or potential clients. Currently, we have three domains right now. We have graphic designers, we have HR people, those people from the corporate world, and also clients that need – for one-time projects or gigs. Those are the three domains that we have right now.
We have so much effort right now that we do, like Designer Diaries, where we also feature people or graphic designers in the Philippines. Number two, we also have this FGD Run, where we just recently launched. This is a creative breather for them. All the creative projects that we have, we let them run and also talk to them personally, because our group is just a virtual group, so we need to talk to them personally through this FGD Run.
Also, we have FGD learns, where we collaborate with kuya Lad’s community, Creative Incubator. We give them a free upscaling and also free webinars for them to upskill. Lastly, FGD Partners Up, where we partner up with various government agencies and also brands, where they needed to promote their brands, or get users from our group, or even help them through webinars as well. That’s currently our efforts for the community to really help them. That’s the history of Filipino Graphic Designers.
[0:25:28] DC: Excellent.
[SPONSOR MESSAGE]
[0:25:30] DC: Printspiration is streaming across the Printerverse on the Project Peacock Network, and our mission to provide education and resources for print customers, students, and printers around the world has never been more accessible. Watch what you want, when you want, where you want. It’s free. Visit ProjectPeacock.TV to access original programming, and replays from our online events. Learn about the Peacock partners and companies featured in our shows. Join our mailing list to learn about new episode premieres, and series launches, and create a free account to make watchlists. Ready for your close-up? Get your Peacock show on air by visiting ProjectPeacock.TV and request your partnership proposal today. Peacock long and prosper.
[EPISODE CONTINUES]
[0:26:22] DC: Lad, both of you are growing these massive communities. By the way, you grew the same amount of people in four years that it took me 15. So, congratulations for that. But Lad, both of you have mentioned Facebook, and it seems incredible to me. Because when I think of Gen Zers, which you both are, I think Instagram. I mean, certainly TikTok, but not for this. I get also that you can’t really build a community on Instagram, but you sort of can. First, why Facebook, and then I want to know the other channels that you’re focusing on to support and grow this community.
[0:27:01] LG: All right. First, Deborah, let me correct with you, with the Gen Z. I’m actually a millennial.
[0:27:06] DC: Get out of here.
[0:27:09] LG: Yes, I’m a millennial.
[0:27:11] DC: You have a baby face, sir.
[0:27:12] LG: Oh, thank you.
[0:27:13] NF: Yes, I agree.
[0:27:13] LG: I’m 31 years old. Why Facebook? Actually, based on our initial research, designers are always like – what do you call this? Staying in Facebook for far too long. I mean, they have a lot of screentime in Facebook, scrolling like that, and finding groups and communities also in Facebook. Facebook is, actually, social, because it’s a social media, and many creatives and designers are using Facebook. We decided to create a community in Facebook based on the target audience, because we really wanted to, as much as we want to, or as much as possible, we want to reach a broader audience, especially in the graphic design industry, in the creative industry.
We also have different platforms where we share different educational content. Me, specifically, I create content in TikTok, video content, and two-minute to three-minute videos. That is the platform I use to create educational stuff. I create different content in different platforms because every platform has different market, and different environment, different culture. I rarely cross-post content from TikTok, then to Facebook, but I have different purposes for different platforms.
Again, in TikTok, it’s more on educational content. In Facebook, there’s educational content, but on a larger scale, but it’s more to socialize. I bring my community or my audience from TikTok to Facebook community, for the FGD, for Filipino Graphic Designers. If they are looking for opportunities, or if they are looking for clients, I tell them to go to Filipino Graphic Designers. But if they want to learn more about creativity and about design, I invite them to my community, which is the Creative Incubator on Facebook.
Actually, we’re also like experimenting on different platform. We have this one platform where I share a newsletter to my community. There’s 180 members as of now, but I just started it last July, I think. But I share something very specific content for a specific audience because they are the people who were interested to learn more about that. So, I’m trying to experiment on different platforms. Yes, I guess that’s the platforms we’re using.
[0:29:49] DC: You guys have the right strategy. You’re not trying to be everything to everybody. You’re speaking specifically to certain channels and the way that people want to be communicated, and/or entertained, or inspired. Then, you bring them back to the mothership, whatever that happens to be. But in this case, it’s your Facebook page. I just have to ask you, have you guys seen the turtle who rides the skateboard, who’s friends with the cat on TikTok? You need to –okay, you both look at me like I’m crazy. You have to look this up.
There’s a woman and she owns a cat, and there’s also a turtle in the house, and the turtle rides a skateboard, and follows the cat around. Now, there’s a frog involved. She has magic animals. I just was wondering if it made its way to the Philippines. I’ll send you guys a link. You must see this. I completely digress. I digress there, but I watched this freaking cat and turtle all day long. It’s my life at the moment. Okay. So, you’ve grown this massive community, and then what happens? One day you’re like, “Huh, let’s have a conference.” Is that how it came about, Nabbe?
[0:31:02] NF: Yes. So, here comes PrintCon 2024, the first-ever print conference in the Philippines. That was just an idea by Mister Kervin, and he initially invited Filipino Graphic Designers as the partner of this conference. Mister Kervin, I didn’t actually know him back then. He just messaged me on Facebook and told me if I’m open for partnership and he’s going to give us a booth. That was our first time to be invited in such a large conference like PrintCon2024. The first ever, actually.
It was kind of fulfilling for us, because again, aside from the exposure that we’re going to be giving or having, we’re going to be helping a lot of designers as well to have opportunities and also learn in this industry that most of us actually don’t know. Although, printing is quite good and a thing here in the Philippines, but most of the designers, or majority of our members right now are pursuing the digital designing. Print actually is not really that much of a talk or a thing for a majority of our members. So, giving this or making this event is, I think, a launch for us to give more awareness that the printing industry is not dying in the Philippines, and it’s still living and it’s going to live the coming years. This is a great opportunity for us to give more awareness and also think about what’s happening in the future in the printing industry. So, it’s an opportunity for us.
We were invited back then, and Mister Kervin told me that Filipino Graphic Designers is going to be the official community partner of this and we’ve invited a lot of members. They actually came. I think 1/4 of the members, they are from the Filipino Graphic Designers. So, we’re actually proud and also grateful that Mister Kervin aksed us to be the partner of this print conference. We’re excited for the next year, because a lot of things are going to be happening for the next year, and we hope to still see you, Miss Deborah.
[0:33:08] DC: I’d be more than happy to do it again on Zoom unless we can get me to the Philippines. That would be really cool. Lad, tell me about your experience at the conference, and then I want to know what you guys learned from it.
[0:33:24] LG: Actually, it was an amazing experience, because it’s my first time hosting a conference, specifically for printing. Actually, we’re nervous at the start, but when we feel the vibe of the conference, like there’s a lot of things to learn, there’s a lot sponsors having their own booth. Me and Nabbe, joined – what do you call this? We go to the booth, then learn about the brands, and the speakers are all good. We learn a lot of things.
Actually, I expected to learn about the basic stuff or the technicalities of printing, but there’s a lot and deep learnings and takeaways from the PrintCon. Especially, what I’ve got from your talk, Deborah, your topic is about what is print, right? You’ve mentioned about, print is not only on paper, but print is not only ink on paper, but ink on anything. You can put print in printed decor, wall graphics, floor graphics, everything, and anything that you can do. You’ve shared different samples like, printing is very dynamic, and unique, and creative,
[0:34:39] DC: You’re literally saying the words I said back to me, and I’m smiling so hard that my cheeks hurt right now. It makes me so happy that it meant something to you. Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I have to say that, I was getting some nice messages on LinkedIn, and I saw the write-up, and there were other people at the conference who were talking about my presentation after. So. thank you so much. I didn’t mean to cut you off. Did you have anything you want to continue?
[0:35:09] LG: Yes. I just wanted to say that one of my takeaways is that, our imagination and our creative thoughts can really transfer, and we can interpret it in real world through print. Like what you have given, one of the examples that you have given. What’s the sample? The billboard for the Dracula, the miniseries for Dracula, right?
[0:35:31] DC: Yes, with the stakes and the lighting effect.
[0:35:33] LG: During the day, you can see the title, text, and everything. Also in it, yes, the stakes. First, you just think that it’s a random stake with a blood. But in night time, when the lights on the billboard open, we can see the shadow from the stakes, a shadow of like Dracula. It’s very unique and very creative. That’s one of my favorite examples that you’ve given, truly the imagination of the creatives transferred and interpreted in real world. That’s what print is all about.
[0:36:05] DC: Totally. It can be an experience, and I will put the link to some YouTube videos, because, as I mentioned, people set up cameras, time lapse cameras for when the sun went down and the lights came up on the billboard and it transformed. So, just so everybody can see that, there’s a link to YouTube down there in the show notes. Nabbe, what did you learn? What did you take away from this conference, and what are you going to bring thinking about next year? What did you learn this year that’s you’re going to move into next
[0:36:35] NF: Yes, aside from the conferences and what your talk is all about, that’s actually fascinating, again, for us and kuya Lad. We actually talked about it so much after the conference. Again, it was the most cited talk of all the talks. So, congratulations, Miss Deborah.
[0:36:52] DC: Thank you so much.
[0:36:51] NF: A lot of things are actually inspired by your talk. I guess, it’s also an opportunity for various designers to think about printing and talk about printing as well, because it’s so creative, it’s so, again, dynamic. There are a lot of things that we can relay or communicate to other people via print. That’s what you just shared, and also made us inspired and enlightened, is the term about the printing industry. That it’s not just all about the ink, it’s about the message that you’re going to be conveying to other people. So, that’s what we love, and what we’ve learned from your talk specifically.
From other talks, it’s really, really engaging. We actually thought that we were just invited to be speakers, but eventually, we were invited to be hosts. The first day was really awesome for us, and the second day was just as awesome because we shared things about how to price your services as a graphic designer. Right now, the opportunities for graphic design is really high, and most especially here in the Philippines. In the Philippines, we’re kind of the fourth one that people hire in the freelancing world. Graphic design is the top 10, I guess, skill where people hire mostly remotely. That’s a good insight also that we’ve shared to a lot of designers and also clients in the conference.
Aside from that, we’ve learned how to handle our own booth. So, as a learning from the conferences, we did – that was the first time we handled the booth and talk to other people. We were kind of introverts at some point, so that was an opportunity for us to talk to a lot of people and diverse people. They’re not just designers or potential clients. They’re from brands, government agencies as well, and also companies that we haven’t really met before. It was a learning opportunity also because we thought about like having some designs or doing activities. We learned things like having some registration so we can get their contacts. That was the thing we did not do when we were doing the booth. Eventually, in the next conference, we can do it in the booth.
Mister Kervin and I are actually thinking about one thing, aside from the print conference, we’re doing a job fair, and also an art fair for the graphic designers. We’re doing this event to also invite a lot of designers where they can do skills competition and also a contest where they can showcase their designs, and also their skills, and eventually be trainers, so they can share more about printing and also package designing. That’s what we’re currently building right now, and hopefully we can execute it well.
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[EPISODE CONTINUES]
[0:40:17] DC: You guys are just so incredible to me. I mean, you honestly give me hope. I wish you lived in America. I wish I could just like see you all the time. But now, I’m going to make you see me on Zoom at like nine o’clock at night, every night for me. Okay. Last question for both of you, no pressure, but this podcast is listened to in 156 countries, and because you have just been such incredible guests, and really inspiring to me, and I’m sure everybody who’s listening to this podcast. I’d like to know if you can each share the best career advice you have been given and how it helped you get here. We’ll start with Lad, so Nabbe can think about this.
[0:41:03] LG: All right. One of my favorite quotes that I get from my mentor. Actually, I don’t know who is the original person who said this, but he said that, “Version one is better than version none.”
[0:41:19] DC: I love that.
[0:41:22] LG: Yes, me too. That’s my favorite quote. That’s my favorite quote because it tells me that when it comes to business or whatever you’re doing, version one is better than version none. You have to do something, even if it’s a small step doing that thing. Because when you think about something, “Oh my God, I’m going to do this, do that. What am I going to do about it? What is my first step?” You’re not going to move forward. But if you have this version one, your first step, at least, you have that small step, and you’re at least one step forward to your goals in what you are doing.
In my life, that quote is very impactful, because in everything that I do, in everything that I did before, I always started with my first small step. I always look for – I break it down like, this is something that is big for me, but what can I do for me to get there to do this, like doing communities, doing this agency with Nabbe. We started with a small step, like partnering together, doing a social media, and offering our services, but now we were planning to make it bigger, getting more clients, getting different graphic designers to help us out.
Even in my content creation journey, I do this, version one is better than version none. Because if you don’t have version one, you will not know what to improve. That is in connection with progress over perfection. That is one of my best career advice.
[0:43:05] DC: It’s incredible. It’s also would be a great name for a keynote or even a TED Talk, I just loved it. Okay, Nabbe. The pressure is on you now.
[0:43:17] NF: Yes, hello. I love that. I’ll just copy and paste it and – no, no, I’m just joking. I guess, I’m more leaning on the spiritual advice that I got from someone. Since my childhood days, I’ve been very spiritual as well. So, I think the best quote that I heard from someone is, “You have to live for an audience of one.” That’s my very quote. Back then, I was really scared. I did not know what to do. I was actually thinking what to share and what other people will see if I’m going to be doing this.
So, I thought of myself, why am I doing this? Why should I do this? What I did is, I just shared it because I have just an audience of one, which is my God, my Jesus Christ. I’m not doing it for myself gain. I’m doing it for him. I’m doing it to help other people as well, because he’s using me as an instrument to share his love, to share his purpose to other people. Luckily, I was just given an opportunity to have this community to share with His love, and also to share the passion that I have for them, and for Him specifically. That’s just my best quote for me.
[0:44:32] DC: But how amazing that you recognize this calling at this point in your life, and not when you were 60, looking back and regretting things. Like, “I could have been helping people with everything that I do.” I mean, both of you are just so really in touch with who you are. It’s just amazing to have met you and to have been able to have this time to have the podcast with you. I want to thank you both so much for joining me today and for being incredible hosts of the conference. Everything I saw, I did watch some of the replays as well. What I could understand because you were talking Taglish, as you said, the combination of Filipino language, which is – what is it called? I’m sorry.
[0:45:19] NF: It’s Tagalog
[0:45:20] DC: Tagalog and English. So, you were doing a combination. It was funny, because when I was behind the scenes, nobody was talking to me, and all of a sudden, I was on Zoom, and I was like, “Okay, I guess I’m on Zoom. I guess I’m live now.” The whole thing was just really – it felt really comfortable. I wasn’t nervous about anything. I knew it would all work out, and that was all because of both of you. The way you welcomed everybody to the conference, how you introduced those first official speakers that you brought in before I started my presentation, which kind of kicked off the creativity portion, or the inspiration. Which is what I was tasked to do for 20 minutes, just get the room ready to learn more and absorb more. I’m so glad that it worked out, based upon what you’ve said and the feedback I received. So, thank you.
Again, we have to go back and thank Mister Kervin, because he found me, he obviously found you, and he has his pulse on everything that’s going there. So, everything you need to connect with Lad and Nabbe is in the show notes, their LinkedIn profiles, their Facebook group, the podcasts, and everything else. Stay tuned for everything that they’re doing. You can follow me to figure that out. Join their Facebook group, pay attention to these guys, they are going places. Until next time, everybody. Print long and prosper.
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[0:46:52] DC: Thanks for listening to Podcasts From the Printerverse. Please subscribe, click some stars, and leave us a review. Connect with us through printmediacentr.com, we’d love to hear your feedback on our shows and topics that are of interest for future broadcasts. Until next time, thanks for joining us. Print long and prosper.
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