Conspiracy of good design

Neither monster nor man.”

Norman Nimer used to drop this  line under his name in every e-mail he sent to fellow members of Cebugrafika, a group of local graphic designers he founded more than a decade ago. Playful and witty, the tagline captures the brand of creativity of this art director who for years had worked for local ad agencies and print publications.

Norman’s play of words is also visual—typographic, to be more exact. And that—pardon the pun—typifies the nature of his trade: graphic design or the art of using text and images for print or screen.

And in Cebu, where until now to be a graphic designer is still largely misconstrued as being a computer wizard, Norman tried to elevate the discipline into a fine art at a time when the design of posters, brochures, magazines and websites were likely done not by artists but by geeky programmers (who knew software and the Internet better).

Ironically, for a college dropout (he got too busy designing the student publication that he skipped ROTC in the University of San Carlos and  never got to finish his fine arts degree), Norman  is one of the most educated graphic designers in Cebu. In fact, for me, Norman is probably the best design teacher USC never had (and not being a full alumnus, never recognized).

I owe my own interest in graphic design to this guy who recruited me for the design collective of  Today’s Carolinian, USC’s erstwhile student publication. In the early ’90s, computers were scarce and a bit tedious to operate, but Norman took pains to learn the crude Ventura and Pagemaker programs for page design.

He experimented with fonts, influenced by graphic designers April Greiman, Terry Jones, Neville Brody and David Carson, whose works he read in books and design magazines. These designers were all iconoclasts but the most extreme was David Carson (notorious for Raygun magazine and the title sequence for the movie “Seven”), who deliberately exploded texts for texture.

Norman did the same to the student paper to the disgust of conservatives among the students and school administration. Our collective had such a strong influence on the editorial board that we even persuaded the editor in chief to cut his editorial to  a single line to suit a more dramatic design effect we conspired. Design eventually turned us into writers and editors.

Soon our fellow activists criticized our work for being self-indulgent and lacking propaganda value. But we were vindicated when e we won awards twice for Best Magazine during the national conventions of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines.

Even as we worked with the student paper, we found our way into the air-conditioned cubicles of ad agencies and newsrooms, designing print ads and newspapers. With equally talented Adonis Durado (who  recently made waves in the international newspaper design community), our collaboration would produce many design projects, although I would later lean more about  illustration.

Yet perhaps because the  local industry has been largely ungrateful (at times, hostile) to  creative minds, Norman and Adonis would soon leave Cebu to work abroad. Norman left for the United States after his wife got a job there as nurse. He worked as a freelance graphic designer while his wife worked in a hospital in upstate New York.

On weekends and holidays, Norman would drive his wife and kids to  New York City for  regular visits to the museums and galleries. Or to take pictures that themselves deserve a gallery show.

About a year ago, the Nimers packed their things in a U-haul and drove  from freezing New York to warm Texas. Their Facebook photos tell of how the family managed to enjoy life despite the uneventfulness of American suburbia. And perhaps for this reason, my friend is not so keen about swearing allegiance before the Stars and Stripes anytime soon. Although he admits it has nothing to do with our juvenile nationalism, he still longs to come home for good.

In fact, this week, he is back for a short vacation with his family and  to check some local projects that he did online. One is the publication of “Isla del Fuego,” a travel guide book about Siquijor province that is bound to make voodoo spells on local book design practice (but that is another column). Another is to start his own local shirt business called “Brand Turismo.” As the name suggests, it will be aimed at the tourist market, using purely typographic (text only) designs.

But whatever Norman is doing, I’m sure it’s bound to be something beyond ordinary. With extra-human skill to concoct words and images into some kind of voodoo soup, my friend is certainly turning into something neither monster nor man.