Team Manila helps DOT, one poster at a time

PHILIPPINES, JANUARY 2011 – Team Manila set the trend with the use of Filipino icons in its designs. Now the graphic design studio has set a trend in the Twiterverse with their #helpDOT hashtag.

When Carlos Celdran toured then undersecretary of the Department of Tourism Enteng Romano long before the Pilipinas Kay Ganda fiasco, Team Manila has expressed the desire to work with DOT, signing off with #helpDOT. Other tweeters caught on, including Celdran and local showbiz personalities.

At the drawing board, Team Manila wanted to do more. Says Jowee Alviar of Team Manila: "As designers, how can we help DOT? We researched tourism posters, but we don’t really have them. We wanted to contribute images so that when people search tourism posters, may magandang images (there are beautiful images)."

Team Manila’s latest uploads on Flickr, linked to on Twitter, look patterned after art deco postcard art, and feature beach and diving spot Puerto Galera, and two January festivals, Aklan’s Ati-atihan, and Cebu’s Sinulog. Downloading, blogging and reposting is not only permitted, but encouraged as part of the advocacy to promote Philippine tourism. Team Manila hopes that this design trend catches on. "We want other designers to do the same," says Jowee. "Other countries such as Thailand and Japan have so much material and a culture of design tourism. We want the same thing to happen here." To budding and veteran designers, he issues this challenge: "Use the country as a subject so we can have quality images."