Designery: Hatching creative solutions for home & office

The project was so secret that not even the managers of the 115 stores of Smart Communications knew they were about to unveil a new logo, or that the dressing up of stores — located in as far north as Tuguegarao to down south as General Santos City — was done simultaneously last June for a new look the giant telco was launching.

Ever wonder who’s responsible for those huge images on the window displays of Uniqlo, SM and Rustan’s? Or those theme graphics in your fave café or the coasters in your bar? Or the customized wallpaper in your friend’s home and the corporate giveaways from your bank?

That would be Brushstrokes Creatives and Designery, subsidiaries of Primer Group, the multi-brand holding company that’s growing globally at a fast pace. Brushstrokes and Designery provide design solutions and production services to business owners, developers, architectural and interior design firms, and individual homeowners.

Business development manager Mary Sy, a second-generation executive at Primer Group, explains, “Brushstrokes Creatives has been in the industry since 2005 and was established to service all the Primer brands. At first we provided the signanges, marketing collaterals and all the printing needs only of Primer and then we diversified to service other companies.”

In 2007, Hewlett Packard (HP), a leader in large-scale digital printing, approached them to make investments in machines for new-generation printing. “When we started we were using solvent printers from another supplier. HP is a pioneer in latex, water-based and eco-friendly printers and we invested in three machines that are so huge at 12 feet wide that we call them ‘Transformers.’ That’s when we started with real estate companies and the big retail stores like SM. We also partnered with interior designers and architects to dress up cafes and offices for their wall graphics and directional signs.”

Today, they have six printing and two cutting machines in their warehouse in Parañaque and maintains a showroom in Ortigas Center.

In 2015, they created another company to focus on design solutions (Brushstrokes is more known for production) with its own capability in production and installation. Called Designery, it’s a combination of the words “design” and “hatchery” to signify that the firm can bring ideas to life, from conceptualization to design to printing and cutting, fabrication and installation.

Designery is a design hub for big projects as well as small offices and individual people. “Our main products are customized wallpaper, canvas, stickers and decorative panels. Because we have the latest machines, including two machines that can do cutting on wood and aluminum among other materials, it’s really cost-effective for our clients.”

Brushstrokes and Designery general manager Agripino “Agree” Ferrer says, “For residential projects, we specialize in customized wallpaper, print on canvas like paintings or pictures, and we can print on fabric for upholstery. The advantage of customized wallpaper is that you’re not limited to one design. For instance, when we dress up office spaces, our graphic artists collaborate with the companies that might want the colors or design tied to their logos. With the Smart project, their wallpaper design was based on their own theme, which was the latest mobile phones.”

Mary relates that in a recent residential project, the homeowner told them that for the wallpaper in the three children’s bedrooms, the theme should reflect the dreams and ambitions of the children. “One of the kids wants to travel the world when she grows up and our wallpaper design included famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower. We have our own artists who create the graphics or we buy images from image banks to use.” 

Mary says office dress-ups remain a big part of Designery’s business because of the rise of mixed-use developments and retail stores, such as H&M and Zara which, aside from their clothing lines, also offer a home department. Designery has also done work with the new Boracay hotel The Lind, Kenneth Cobonpue’s retail store in Greenbelt, residential interior design and individual projects such as wrapping up a pick-up truck in camouflage (not just decals but the entire truck!).  

 “We have projects that involve offices whose needs include glass stickers and wooden or aluminum panels as dividers.  We’re doing call centers that we’re transforming from boring workplaces into more lively spaces.”

Both Mary and Agree say that offices no longer have a standard look.  “A company is now seen as a person with its own unique identity and business owners want to highlight this,” says Agree. “Even in Primer Group, we have a ‘work-play’ philosophy to make the workplace more fun.”

Mary adds, “The way an office looks has an effect on productivity. It’s the employees’ second home, sometimes they spend more time there than in their own houses, so when they’re comfortable, when they don’t feel that they’re trapped from 9 to 5, productivity and enthusiasm increase. When there’s decorative wood panels and not just blank walls, it makes a big difference in their attitude.”

It may be a cliché, but there’s also that element of shared goals that’s important in office design. “Sometimes it’s as literal as putting graphics on expansive office walls that state the company’s mission and vision, and it’s all done in style.”

What about cramped offices or those without windows? “We see those projects as an opportunity and a challenge. Lately, we’ve been dressing up clinics in malls and these are so closed and confined and without windows, so our interior designers include optical illusions of the sky or nature or make them look like a garden.”

Branding is also a key business in Designery’s portfolio. They’ve done coasters for Draft and other bars and restaurants, passport covers and flasks as corporate giveaways, planners and creative business cards. “We’re getting 600 to 700 projects a month. In fact, Primer now accounts for only 20 or 30 percent of the work we do.”

One of the biggest and fastest projects they did recently was for the Swiss Embassy, which was holding an event in a hotel. They did the background for the stage — an 8x4-meter, LED-lit, 3D rendering of Mt. Mattherhorn, the mountain in the Alps straddling the border between Switzerland and Italy.

“Our ingress was at 2 a.m., so kailangan quiet because we were installing in a hotel. It meant no carpentry, no cutting, we had to build everything here in the warehouse and then install it on site,” says Agree.

Such projects excite Agree, whose background is engineering — aside from trade fairs featuring the latest technology in digital printing, often costing P80 million upwards for one machine.   “I like to solve the engineering part of design and installation,” he says.

Mary, whose background is in fine arts and marketing, likes the creative part of Designery — hatching ideas and seeing them all the way through to installation and end-use.

“I used to handle a jeans brand in Primer when I was starting with the company, but I like the creativity that Brushstrokes and Designery demand and the collaboration with different industries.” 

Sometimes, it’s also the basic things that bring design to life and make the job exciting, such as seeing their machine cut and design on wood in 30 minutes and then being polished by a worker’s hand — and finally being installed in a little girl’s bedroom. 

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Check out the author’s travel blog at www.findingmyway.net. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter @iamtanyalara.

Designery’s showroom is located at Robins Design Center, 31 Meralco Ave., Pasig City. Call 820-5355, 820-3210. Log on to www.brushstrokescreatives.com, www.designery.ph.