As the 10-A Alabama art fair wound down to a close Sunday night on April 17, Ylaya Studio collaborator and adobo Design Award Asia juror Marcus Nada sat down to talk about this particular project.
A bespoke furnishing studio “born from the love of creation, the need to diversify one’s passion for design and the application of ideas into tactile and functional home objects.” The creative venture of Doy Lagos, who started creating one-of-a-kind lamps in 2007, Nada teamed up in 2013 to allow both of them to expand into designing custom furniture and home accessories.
The studio was named after a street in Lucena, Quezon Province, where both collaborators hail from. “Most of the town in Quezon always have an Ylaya na place or street.” Nada explains “The name kind of resonates dun sa amin.”
Nada, who also collaborates with his wife Bru/Bernie on graphic design projects for Electrolychee, elaborates that it’s that shared love for certain pieces of furniture they had while growing up that inspired them to seek it out or create it in their own way. “We like lang talaga yung gumamit ng mga repurposed na material just for the aesthetics. Tsaka yung texture na binibigay nya because it… actually most of the stuff the we do kind of reminds us of how our home used to look like when we were growing up. It’s like an experiment on ready and available pieces na pwede mo nang magamit and you kind of convert it into something…For instance: wood. Ang ganda ng mga patina na nag-accumulate na roon, ‘yung mga lumang paints, so yun ina-apply na lang din namin dun sa design namin.”
Trips to home depots are prime creative opportunities, as he confesses: “Sa hardware kasi mas alam ko na yung gusto kong gawin eh, but yung sa depot yung nag-iikut-ikot ka and then you try to look for things na pwede mong gawin into something else, mga materials na pwedeng gamitin. Like when I go to Binondo, ang dami mo rin makikitang mga objects na hindi talaga yun yung specific na paggagamitan but then you kind of get some ideas on how to apply it on other projects.”
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