Spirit of collaboration permeates Industria Edition’s showroom
By Alex Y. Vergara
After decades of designing and producing a number of the most iconic furniture and accent pieces made primarily of metal in his home province of Pampanga for the world market, designer-entrepreneur Jude Tiotuico has made his products more accessible to fellow Filipinos, particularly those living in Mega Manila, with the recent opening of Industria Edition at The Residences in Greenbelt, Makati.
Adjacent to Kenneth Cobonpue’s showroom, Industria Edition is the realization of Jude and business partner Arthur Viray’s dream of opening their own showroom in Manila. The two have been in business since the early ’90s, producing lighting fixtures, dividers, chairs, sofas and coffee tables made primarily of treated metal heavily influenced by nature and mid-century design, and mimicking various patinas or looks such as polished stainless steel, copper, brass, bronze and even “rusted metal.”
Through the years, many of their pieces, which are often paired with other materials like glass, wood, leather, foam and fabric, have won awards or earned rave reviews from local and international magazines and award-giving bodies. While Jude is Industria’s chief designer and creative director, Arthur, in Jude’s words, is the business’ “money guy.”
“We do a lot of hammering at our factory in Pampanga, which employs around 80 people,” says Jude, who draws most of his inspirations from nature. “It didn’t belong to either of our families. We started the business ourselves.”
Among Jude’s featured pieces are the Starburst, a series of lighting fixtures each composed of various star-shaped metal elements in various sizes that make up a circular whole, and a series of coffee tables, also made of metal, reminiscent of tree stumps.
They’ve been searching for an ideal location for their Manila showroom for quite sometime until Kenneth, a good friend of Jude, informed them of the space’s availability.
What makes this development more noteworthy is the spirit of collaboration, which permeates the entire venture. Using metal as their main material, fellow designers such as Budji Layug, Eric Paras and Lilliana Manahan are also onboard with their respective designs.
The legendary Budji, one of the founding members of Movement 8—a group of Filipino furniture designers credited for producing cutting-edge designs, which have gained the world’s attention starting in the late ’90s—designed the Molave, a glass-topped dining table with sculptural metal and wooden legs the resemble a tree trunk connected to a network of branches.
For his part, Eric did a number of statement chairs and lighting fixtures, including a series of lampshades made of oxidized metal and shaped like mushrooms. Apart from their handmade quality, the series of lampshades are designed in such a way as to allow shafts of light to shine through a corner or section of the showroom.
The youngest in the group, 33-year-old Lilliana designed a chair she dubbed as “The Umpire.” Made of woven black leather and supported by metal tubing, which has been treated to look like copper, the piece, says the designer, is in keeping with Industria Edition’s mid-century aesthetics.
“Jude pretty much gave me the freedom to do what I wanted,” says Lilliana, who, as one of the featured young designers of Manila FAME several years ago, also once trained under Budji. “But I also kept in mind what Industria Edition’s look is. Since the featured material is metal, I was mindful as a designer to bring its beauty out.”
A Business Management graduate from the University of the Philippines San Fernando, Jude, whose love for “beautiful things” eventually led him to a career as a furniture designer, is largely self-thought. He credits the likes of Budji and Eric for inspiring him and teaching him the finer points of design through the years.
“I later took up a course in Industrial Design in the US,” Jude shares, “but I was unable to finish it because I was already working. It was in the ’90s, and we were already selling pieces to foreign buyers. I had to go back home.”
Jude’s journey as a designer began a bit earlier when he and Arthur started procuring various pieces from local manufacturers, which they later sold to buyers abroad. Since times were good, they had a relatively easy time selling them.
Since he felt he could do much better, Jude hit upon the idea of designing and manufacturing the pieces himself. Soon enough, Industria was born.
“There I was, a non-designer who simply loved beautiful stuff,” Jude recalls. “When you’re young and starting, more often than not, you try to feed your ego. In my case, the result was my pieces came out as over designed.”
But those were boom times when almost everything they displayed on the floor at Manila FAME and other furniture shows got sold. It went on for several years until the early 2000s when Jude and Arthur had a realization.
The European buyer which bought the bulk of their pieces sold his business to somebody else in 2004. Unfortunately, the new owner of the company wanted to pursue a different direction in order to survive the tough times. Jude and Arthur panicked. It was only then that Jude realized that other than this company, hardly anyone had bought his rather whimsical pieces in the past.
Not only did he realize that he failed to expand to new buyers, he also failed to diversify his product line. He was thinking more like an artist than a designer who was expected to study, know and respond to what his target market wanted.
“That’s why when I give talks today to young designers, I always tell them that if you let your ego get in the way and fail to listen and study your market, the same thing will happen to you,” he says. “We’re designers, not artists. If you’re a designer, you need to create pieces not for yourself, but for a market.”
Jude had to overhaul his thinking overnight. Fortunately, with the help of friends like Budji, Eric and Kenneth, who provided him with sound advice as well as words of encouragement, he and Arthur were able to eventually bounce back.
“Eric, for instance, helped a lot to tone me down in terms of design,” says Jude. “Designing is not just about putting various design elements in one piece. It’s also about learning how to restrain yourself, which is harder.”
These days, the word Edition was added to Industria to reflect the collaborative nature of the entire venture. Apart from Jude working on his own designs using his favorite medium, which is, of course, metal, it also involves him working with other designers “that have their own editions or designs,” he says.
Although it’s important to listen to your target market, Budji also reminds fellow designers, especially those who seek his advice, to “listen to their hearts” first. It’s important, he adds, for a designer to also enjoy what he’s doing.
“It’s still important to listen to your heart. Otherwise, you lose yourself. You listen to your clients when you need to do good business,” says Budji with a knowing smile.
As a designer himself, he never tires of reminding fellow designers to also practice restraint. Although a good design is always a matter of debate, as a designer you would feel if what you’re working on is already over designed.
“With regards to creativity, you have to explore your creativity first,” says Budji. “You have to experiment. As time goes by, you will soon know which is the real you.” Only then can a designer speak with originality and authority through his works.
Industria Edition is located at the ground floor of The Residences in Greenbelt, Arnaiz Avenue (formerly Pasay Road], Makati.
