by Irma Mutuc
MANILA – Twenty two years ago two cool college dudes from UST Fine Arts decided to take their “group project” partnership out of the confines of college art projects into the world of real graphic design clients. Brimming with a combination of naiveté, chutzpah and talent, they started their graphic design studio called Team Manila in a garage. Today, the multi-disciplinary graphic design studio remains lean with 12 people but their retail venture employs ten times that. This year will mark Team Manila’s 15th year in design and their 10th year in retail.
adobo sat down with Mon first but after a few minutes with Jowee it felt like one of those couple quizzes where they got most of their answers synched. Effortlessly. Did we mention that we read somewhere that business partnerships are like marriages? For the most part of their business partnership, the duo lived in the same townhouse even after Mon married. Jowee moved out only two years ago when he got married. At the time they lived in the same address, they went to work together every morning.
COMPLEMENTARY PERSONALITY AND SKILLS
Jowee defines their collaboration, “Mon is very detailed. May perfectionist side. Ako naman yung mas impromptu in terms of ideas. Ganun ang balance namin. Even dati pa lang sa school projects, s’ya yung makakapag-produce on time and on schedule. Kasi kung ako lang, medyo cramming ‘yan. (Mon has a perfectionist side. I am more impromptu in terms of ideas. That’s our balance. Even when we were still doing school projects he was the one who can produce on time and on schedule. If it were me, I’d be cramming.)”
They didn’t even need to sit down to define the work. Mon explains that ever since they were in college, he was the planner. “Ganun na s’ya nangyari. Ako yung sa production. Naglalatag kung ano ang magiging plano, ano ang kailangang gawin, ano ang mangyayari. (That’s what happened. I take care of production. I lay out the plan, what needs to be done and what will happen.)” They both said the roles just came naturally. They start work by building from each other’s ideas and automatically their college “group project” dynamics take over.
In terms of their personalities, Mon admits that he’s mareklamo (querulous) while Joey is open- minded. Nary a heated argument all these years and they think it’s because they have the same work ethic, which Mon defines as “best effort”, and most decisions are made the same way they did in college – by gut-feel.
TRUST
The duo defines this as transparency. Mon says, “We lay all our cards on the table.” They do have formal meetings with their staff but mostly managerial concerns are discussed in the car on the way to work, over lunch or over coffee. They hardly disagree but when they do, Jowee’s solution is bigayan (compromise). They give their ideas a chance. They try it and if it works, they continue. If it doesn’t, they give it a rest. Blame is not part of their team’s vocabulary. “Work is work. Walang sisihan. Walang personalan. (No blaming. Nothing is taken personally.)”, they both declare.
When it comes to work, Jowee confines that he feels confident that his design will see fruition in the manner that he envisions when Mon is there for production. For his part, Mon says he knows for sure that with Jowee in creative, Team Manila’s designs will stay solid, current and competitive. The trust comes from their mutual respect. They know they have each other’s back. Nothing can argue with twenty two years of working in sync and going through all the business ups and down together. The trust extends to their finances, as everything is hating-kapatid (fair division).
SHARED VISION
For now, they both have their eyes set on making Team Manila sustainable so they can both step back a little. The retail business created business opportunities but it did so with itinerant challenges. Jowee is starting to build his own family. Mon is doing the same but at the same time also wants to get back into graphic design.
To this day, you can still find Mon and Jowee in the office from 9 to 6 except when either has to go to an outside meeting or attend to family matters. When these happen they never fail to let each other know through text or a call. “Respeto lang, (Simple respect),” they both say.
They started Team Manila because they wanted to tell a visual story of the Philippines to the world. “And I think we set something lofty like how can graphic design change the country for the better,” Joey shares. “Like when we travel, we notice how graphic design can help put order and influence pedestrian behavior, for example, through signage. Mon and I believe that we want to do a project like that.” This could also possibly be the reason why Team Manila, through Jowee, was one of the prime movers in having the Philippine Design Competitiveness Act signed in 2013.
One plus one is a lot more than two, indeed. Michael D. Eisner, Walt Disney CEO for more than 20 years, in his book Working Together: Why Successful Business Partnerships Are As Important As Successful Marriages, wrote, “So then, do partnerships enhance the good life? If life is said to be better with someone alongside you, what about work? Is doing business with a partner better than going at it alone? My answer is yes. Nothing in business is more rewarding. Working together is much better than working … alone.”
Twenty two years and still counting. Some marriages don’t even last that long.
This article was first published in the May-June 2015 Issue of adobo magazine.
