Brand Spark 1.0

Custom workshop

2022

Equipping Pangasinan’s 4th District Creatives and Business Owners to Elevate and Empower Local MSMEs

Client
Office of Rep. Christopher de Venecia 4th District of Pangasinan
Duration
6-day in-person workshop

Brand Spark 1.0: Branding for Business Training was a 6-Day in-person Branding Workshop and Capacity Building for Graphic Designers and key MSMEs of the 4th District of Pangasinan. The whole workshop was conducted in Dagupan City. Representative Christopher de Venecia and other LGU members identified 10 MSMEs in key industries which would be pivotal in the reopening of Pangasinan after two years of lockdowns. The identified MSMEs, which were primarily in tourism and food, were paired up with local graphic designers to workshop their respective brands.

In total, 10 business owners and representatives worked closely with 17 designers to come up with new brands and strategies. The intensive workshops lasted between 2-3 hours every day, where every day was a mix of lectures, working sessions, and mentorship/consultation.

Mr. and Mrs. Cesario owns the local restaurant Cesario’s, famous for their pork barbeque and other grilled meats.

Mrs. Cela is the founder and namesake of Mangaldan’s original tapa maker, Cela’s Meat products, an institution and celebrated local product of Pangasinan. Her daughter now runs the business and is one of the participating business owners.

Goals of the Workshop–

To uplift local designers and business owners through design education that’s inclusive and accessible.
To guide graphic designers in strengthening and refining their design foundations and skills.
To guide local business owners in using branding and graphic design to strengthen and empower their businesses.

Output–

Rebranding and/or redesign of business materials

A participant sketching her logo study during one of our working sessions.

Demographic –

Business Owners: Participating MSMEs were shortlisted by the LGU following a set criteria.

Local Brand and Graphic Designers: The LGU posted an open call for graphic designers then we were tasked with assessing, shortlisting and matching them to the MSMEs.

Skill Set–

The graphic designers range from beginner to advanced practitioners with basic to professional knowledge.

How do we redesign a branding workshop format in such a way that respects the local context?

Participant Needs–

Our biggest challenge was designing the toolkits and the facilitation format. We did not want to just be experts who were coming in to talk down on them and then leave. We wanted to foster collaboration. To show how design creates value for businesses and communities.

Empathy was our guiding principle in the development of our materials.

To address these challenges, we made sure to write out the entire curriculum in Filipino and avoided jargon when possible. We would always tie it back to real experiences of the community, making sure that our examples would not be removed from the local context. We provided them with customized cards and worksheets on Manila papers to encourage more collaborative ideation.

We designed our daily schedule visitng local MSMEs before the workshop proper. During the workshop, we maximized activity time while maintaining interests. At the end of every session, we opened the floor for groups to show their work and to receive peer feedback.

We wanted to foster collaboration, not just between us as facilitators, but between local creatives and stakeholders.

Accessibility became an important aspect of the workshop since not all participants had laptops or subscriptions to different programs we usually use. We designed toolkits that included worksheets on manila paper and cards to facilitate each working session. In this way, every participant was able to utilize all available tools to create and collaborate.

Brand Spark was designed to be a closed loop.

The goal was to leave the foundation for a design ecosystem between local stakeholders and designers, where local perspective is championed above all. Everything down to the layout of the classroom, lesson plans, tool kits, and program scheduling were designed to give more importance to collaboration and ideation.

“Mas nakita ko yung strengths and weakness ng aming negosyo. After ng workshop mas marami akong gustong gawin sa negosyo, subalit, dahil sa pinansyal crisis set aside ko muna. Focus lang sa kung ano ang kayang gawin at kaya ng budget.”

“Oo madaling matutunan ang mga lectures at activities ng programa. Ang mga ito ay naiparating ng naayon sa aming limitadong kaalaman sa konsepto ng new age of marketing.”

Through Brand Spark and our partnership, we hope to create value for Filipino communities with good and thoughtful design.

We hope that this could be a pilot program to try out with different LGUs who wish to employ design strategies to grow their MSMEs as well as to encourage young creatives in their communities