Villarica Manuel is a designer and art director by profession, but has always been an artist through and through. She’s also no stranger to art competitions having been competing since the age of twelve. One of her more formative distinctions include the President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Award for Culture and the Arts.
That same drive for excellence carried over into advertising. She won Gold in the 2019 Ad Stars New Stars in Busan, Korea. She was the sole female who made it to the Philippines’ top 10 at the Asia-wide portfolio competition Ubisum by Ubies the year after. And in 2021, she was named a finalist in Colorful: Prelude to Young Guns 19, a special grant program for up-and-coming BIPOC creatives around the world.
She has spearheaded brand projects that further informed her curatorial sensibilities. Some of these projects include the first of the National Artists-inspired fonts, the Abdulmari Imao Typeface project, exhibited at the Ayala Museum in 2019, and the Rimowa traveling exhibition in 2015.
In 2023, she made it to the official lineup of the juried illustration fairs, Manila Illustration Fair, and Jakarta Illustration and Creatives Art Fair. These experiences led to her becoming one of the artists in the Art Fair Philippines 2024.
She’s worked on some of the country’s well-loved brands such as McDonald’s, Samsung, Harry Winston, and Nissin Cup Noodles. As a skilled creative with more than a decade’s worth of experience under her belt, she goes from selling one-peso-worth candies to six-figured diamond rings.
But it doesn’t end there, Villarica wants to be more. She dreams of making the world see that there’s space for the Philippines in the global art scene. All while currently being a Creative Director at Havas Ortega, maintaining her school bangs, watching TikTok videos, and bedazzling things.
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