Young Pinoy Artist Placed Highly in UNIQLO’s Global T-Shirt Design Competition

Wazzup Pilipinas!

 He may have ended only as runner-up, but for Filipino graphic artist Karlo Victoriano, it’s already a big accomplishment for his design to be chosen out of thousands submitted by other designers from all over the world—and eventually ending up among the top.

For Karlo, being shortlisted at the top of UNIQLO’s UT Grand Prix 2013 (UTGP ’13) t-shirt design competition and competing against the best of the world is indeed a dream come true for him and for the country. Never in his wildest dreams did he think his work would be considered as among the best of the best.

Young Karlo currently works as a motion graphics designer in one of the country’s biggest TV networks. With a degree of Bachelor of Arts major in Multimedia Arts at Asia Pacific College, the man exudes a strong and determined passion about visual arts and pursued an active participation in various visual arts contests such as photography and digital design. When he heard about UTGP ’13, Karlo took a chance hoping to break into his first international design competition.  

UTGP is an annual competition in which design professionals and enthusiasts from all over the world are asked to design a UT (Uniqlo T-shirt) centered on a set theme and submit it to the contest. The submitted designs are shortlisted and then judged, and the winning designs will become part of UNIQLO’s UT Collection that will be sold globally.

This year’s theme for UTGP centered on iconic music artists of the past decades, namely, AC/DC, David Bowie, Madonna, Kiss, Sex Pistols, and The Who. The beauty of this year’s UTGP edition, however, is that not only are these artists going to be featured in UNIQLO’s UT shirt but they will also be judging the submitted UT designs themselves.

There were two winners for each music icon—the Artist’s Choice Award where the winner received $4,000 and the People’s Choice Award winner who received $1,000, for a total of $30,000 cash prize for the winning designs. UNIQLO also selected an additional 12 entries as runner up winners, which included Karlo’s.

At his young age of 23, it was really hard for Karlo to choose which music icon to design. He chose Madonna among the other artists because most of them were unfamiliar to him—except for the Queen of Pop. Karlo based his design on the portrait of Madonna seen on her “True Blue” album, her third studio album released back in 1986. The portrait was drawn with various geometric shapes overlaid with colored triangles.

Karlo was ecstatic that his design was among those chosen by Madonna herself. “It was exciting to know that the entries were judged by the music icons themselves and will become a part of UNIQLO’s UT collection. To be chosen by Madonna herself is a big honor already,” Karlo shared when asked about his motivation for his design.

“UNIQLO’s UT, specially its designs, are very youthful and eye catching,” Karlo said when asked about his thoughts on the quality and designs of UT, “It is also very comfortable; really perfect for summer!”

Catch the winning and runner up designs, including Karlo’s, which will be available in all UNIQLO stores worldwide this summer. To see the designs and other winners go to http://www.uniqlo.com/utgp2013/.

About "WazzupPilipinas.com"

WazzupPilipinas.com is the fastest growing and most awarded blog and social media community that has transcended beyond online media. It has successfully collaborated with all forms of media namely print, radio and television making it the most diverse multimedia organization. The numerous collaborations with hundreds of brands and organizations as online media partner and brand ambassador makes WazzupPilipinas.com a truly successful advocate of everything about the Philippines, and even more since its support extends further to even international organizations including startups and SMEs that have made our country their second home.