Design Thesis Research || Problem Definition

While today, the Philippines is a prideful country, often boasting it’s strong pride in the Filipino culture and “pinoy” excellence on various international stages, this pride is often hypocritically steeped in a long cultivated colonial mentality, characterized by a preference for western cultural practices and a tendency to erase the injustices inflicted upon the Filipino people by their western colonizers. The damages of this phenomena exist in many aspects of Filipino society, but none more prevalent than the erasure of and negligence towards indigenous Filipino communities and their culture, especially in the realm of Filipino art and design.

Due to the history of  violent cultural genocide in the Philippines, modern day Filipino design practices tend to reflect the methods of its western oppressors rather than taking influence from their indigenous and native cultures, contributing to the deterioration of cultural preservation within the country and the growing negligence of indigenous communities. In order to resolve this problem of the erasure of indigenous culture in Filipino art and design, the introduction of new modern design brands that utilize indigenous art styles and practices would increase awareness of the culture, directing Filipino design in the direction of a more uniquely Filipino style and deteriorating the colonial mentality that ties the Philippines so closely to their past oppressors.