Ella Quiogue, a 2014 graduate from our MA Applied Imagination course, was recently shortlisted in the design category of the Deutsche Bank Awards for Creative Enterprise.
This prestigious award has been helping creative entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality for over 20 years.
Ella was shortlisted for her social enterprise Fruitions Creative Collaborations, which is based in the Philippines. Fusions aims to form a creative collaboration between the Philippines’ indigenous artisan communities and established contemporary designers across disciplines including illustration, graphic design and jewellery design.
It is a design-led initiative that helps indigenous artisan traditions thrive, while also providing a new way for established designers to create.
Conventional handcrafted products from indigenous artisan communities are re-imagined by contemporary designers. These re-imagined designs are then made by the artisans, who use their traditional tools and crafts to create premium products.
The first project, called Resignified, is an eight-piece homeware collection. Consisting of weavings and woodwares, it features reworkings of the traditional patterns and iconography of the Ifugao tribe of Benguet, Philippines.
Ella has developed Fruitions with a team of creative industry professionals, strategic advisors, and a growing network of talented designers. Her enterprise developed from her research project as a student on MA Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. She hopes the project will generate economic and social benefits for indigenous communities of the Philippines.
More information:
– Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries