Poster by Aia Arkoncel
Good design matters.
For the first time last Last May 18, the MINT Multimedia Arts (MMA) program held "The Big Pitch," its senior thesis defense as an open event . Five MMA students presented their design studies, which they spent three semesters putting together. They are Karen Endaya, Igi Rollan, Vicky Tumacder, Dia Sosa, and Daniel Rueda.
"This would be the first time we'll hold such activity," said MMA Program Head Lizza Gutierrez. "Through this, we hope to foster, especially to our juniors, the research culture." The panelists for the event were Gutierrez; MMA Professor Abe Medenilla; and Thesis Professor Michelle Roxas. The senior research would be based on topics the seniors were passionate about.
Karen Endaya’s “Schwarz Girl Ako” is a recruitment campaign aimed at young girls to join Don Bosco College - Canlubang, Laguna's Swarchz Football Club. It is supposed to be a co-ed soccer club, but in recent years, Endaya saw a steady recline in girl players like her. "I am an alum of Schwarz Football Club," Endaya explained. "Napansin ko [na] super kaunti nalang ‘yung sumasali sa club." Through her campaign, she aimed to recruit more female players and make the football club grow more in the future.
Next, Vicky Tumacder chose to tackle mental health for her study, “It’s Okay.” Her campaign focused on helping people, especially young kids, to articulate their feelings. “As an older sister, I personally felt as though this was something that needed to be done,” she said. “My goal was to help kids feel more comfortable talking about their feelings, and helping to create a safer place for them to express themselves when it comes to their mental state; as well as giving them the vernacular to speak such things.”
Working on a broad subject such as mental health has proven to be quite challenging for Tumacder. However, her dedication to help people talk about it fueled her campaign. "The strongest pursuit of my thesis was coming up with a proper vocabulary for kids to express themselves with. Since mental health is so complex, finding words simple enough for children to understand easily was a very important task," she said.
As for Igi Rollan, his thesis zeroed in on proper waste management. His campaign was called "Trash Talk". His goal was to remind people to be responsible for their trash, especially in public places. His campaign included posters and an information video.
Dia Sosa's thesis "Pamana" was dedicated to the elders of the House of Somang - a home for ageing Filipinos - where she volunteered in years ago. “My goal was to make the audience remember that our grandparents (or parents) are growing old, and they need quality time from their family members especially the young generation," she said.
At first, Sosa was skeptical on addressing the issue of homeless elders because she deemed it was too big an issue to tackle. However, through the guidance of her mentors, especially MMA Program Head Gutierrez, she finally "fell in love" with it. Sosa said "[Gutierrez] told me to use my personal experience with the homeless elder that I took care of 6 years ago. I used the experiences I had to develop the campaign."
Daniel Rueda's thesis took inspiration from his daily commute. He developed a campaign to remind people of bus etiquette, naming it "Victory for all".
For Tumacder, “it was a great learning experience! After so many sleepless nights freaking out about it, I can really say that we were satisfied in the end. It was an experience I wouldn't forget.” W