Michael “Miggie” Esguerra Bacungan, a Visual Communication student from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, has been named the Portfolio Night Manila 2026 All-Star Winner, emerging at the top of a field of 60 young creatives who gathered at Ayala Museum on October 5 for the fourth consecutive Manila edition of the global creative initiative.
Presented by The One Club for Creativity and adobo Magazine, the word on creativity, Portfolio Night Manila gives young creatives the opportunity to present their work before leading creative professionals, receive feedback, and build connections within the industry.
In an interview with adobo Magazine, Miggie admitted that the recognition came as an unexpected affirmation for a creative like him who joined Portfolio Night primarily to challenge himself.
“The mindset I had for Portfolio Night wasn’t really about competing, but more so, pushing yourself to present your work to other people so that they can see your blind spots. I just happened to win,” he said.
That perspective became an important part of his experience. Alongside the excitement of the win came imposter syndrome and anxiety, but ultimately, the night reassured him that his creative instincts were taking him somewhere.
A portfolio built over three years
Miggie’s winning portfolio was the product of an ongoing creative practice spanning approximately three years, with works dating back to 2023 and drawn from both his student journey and freelance practice.
The final presentation, however, came together under considerably tighter circumstances.
After returning from a trip to the Philippines just one week before Portfolio Night, Micggie developed a high fever and had only three days to build his creative deck.
“I really just winged it, and it worked.”
The work itself, however, had been accumulating for years. Rather than creating an entirely new body of work for the competition, Miggie had been steadily documenting projects from his practice. The challenge was deciding which ones deserved a place in a presentation limited to 15 minutes.
“That was the most challenging part. I seriously wanted to put everything in.”
Some pieces demonstrated his technical ability. Others showed stronger conceptual thinking, while some carried personal significance. In the end, he chose the projects that felt closest to him. He also wanted the portfolio to demonstrate his versatility.
“I wanted to showcase a wide enough range, cause I know some of my projects have a clear-cut style,” Miggie explained. “I made sure to expand the scope of work to showcase my versatility as a designer.”
The resulting portfolio moved between playful and serious work, deliberately creating contrast between projects while allowing different facets of his creative practice to emerge. For Miggie, that versatility is not about abandoning a recognizable creative identity when moving between disciplines.
“I mentioned in my presentations that I’m a multihyphenate, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I lose my voice whenever I switch disciplines. I believe that if you have a point of view, then it will reflect on any medium that you decide to tackle.”
Craft, play, and personal stories
One of the works closest to Miggie is “Artificial Flavoring,” a series of toy boxes created for Art Fair 2024 under the Manila Illustration Fair collective. Inspired by bootleg toys and plastic kits commonly found in Divisoria, the project reimagines familiar childhood objects through an intricate visual experience.
He spent two months conceptualizing and designing the work, finding a manufacturer, and producing the photoshoot that would document the finished pieces.
“It felt like it was an amalgamation of what I love to do,” he said, describing his preference for work that is “fun, playful, and intricate and well crafted.”
That sensibility also informed how he curated his winning portfolio for Portfolio Night Manila 2026. While his initial selections came from intuition, his final lineup was shaped by a deliberate effort to balance personal favorites with conceptual depth and technical execution.
“I first based it on intuition. What were my favourite pieces? I put “Escolta in Light Years” and “Artificial Flavoring” as my non-negotiables,” he said.
Upon reviewing the judging criteria, however, Miggie began narrowing his selection to projects that demonstrated his creative conceptualization, particularly ideation, one of the competition’s main assessment criteria. Recognizing craft as one of his portfolio’s strongest qualities, he also included more concept-driven work, such as “Media Commoner,” an editorial project that explores how investigative reporting can be visualized through a modern format.
The sequence was just as intentional as the selection itself. He placed his favorite projects at the beginning, then arranged the presentation to create contrast between different styles and approaches.
“I structured my portfolio presentation in a way that showcased contrast. So I would put a fun and playful project after work that is more serious and formal, in order to emphasize the range in my skill set,” he explained.
Beyond demonstrating versatility, the portfolio revealed a consistent thread connecting his different projects, such as his ability to translate ideas and experiences into work that feels considered, personal, and distinctly his own.
Another standout project, “Escolta in Light Years,” drew inspiration from his experience as an artist and design intern at HUB | Make Lab, as well as the friends, collaborators, and community members who contribute to Escolta’s creative energy.
For him, these personal connections are essential to the creative process, saying that experiences provide the emotional foundation for ideas, allowing the finished work to resonate beyond its visual appeal.
“I feel like experiences help ground yourself in the process of creating. Whatever that emotion is, you have to harness it in order to make people feel something,” he said.
He added, “I love being intentional about everything that I put into the work because I want people to appreciate the hard work that is put into making each project.
The feedback: Keep going
Going into the portfolio reviews, Miggie expected the Creative Reviewers to find something he could improve. Instead, the three mentors who reviewed his work delivered a similar message , saying he should continue what he is doing.
Having lived with some of his projects for years, Miggie had developed a more critical eye toward his own work. He expected the reviewers to identify weaknesses that he had overlooked. However, their response gave him a different kind of validation.
“The panelists liked my work, so it basically meant that I should just continue to trust my creative intuition.”
That advice became one of the most meaningful takeaways from his experience. For a young creative still developing his voice, sometimes the challenge is not learning to change the work. It is learning when to trust what is already there.
Looking beyond the win
Miggie sees the All-Star title as an opportunity to keep expanding his creative practice rather than narrowing it. He hopes the recognition will connect him with opportunities to work with dream clients while giving him more room to explore different creative disciplines.
“I want to see how I can continue evolving my practice. I still believe that I have a lot of things to learn, and the process of learning never really stops,” he underscored.
His immediate focus is on strengthening both his technical and conceptual skills, and while advertising and design remain part of that future, Miggie does not want to define himself too narrowly.
“I don’t want to be stuck doing just one thing. If it’s creatively fulfilling, then I’ll go for it.”
Ultimately, Miggie said that the most important part of the story may have happened before the award was ever announced. He almost did not apply. He was nervous about putting himself and his work out there, and he questioned whether he was ready to participate.
The decision to try essentially changed the trajectory of the night.
“My winning is proof that anything can happen, but that wouldn’t have happened if I did not give myself the opportunity to try.”
At Portfolio Night Manila 2026, Miggie entered the room hoping to see his work through someone else’s eyes. He left with the highest recognition of the night, but more importantly, with renewed confidence in the voice that was already there.
As the Portfolio Night Manila 2026 All-Star winner, Miggie is now looking ahead, not with one fixed destination, but with the freedom to explore what comes next.
“Do it imperfectly, the most important part is that you did it,” he concluded.
Portfolio Night Manila 2025 wouldn’t be possible without the support of our sponsors:
Community Partners: DITO Telecommunity, Loudbox Studios, Dentsu Creative Philippines, and Coca-Cola
Stationery Partners: Mongol and Sharpie
Coffee Partner: Oatside
Food Partners: Jollibee, and Yellow Cab
Swagkit Partner: Birch Tree
Partner: Ayala Foundation
Venue: Ayala Museum
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