A feast of various creations from different artists and designers graced the halls of Waterfront Cebu Hotel and Casino from June 19-June 20 as one of the exhibits for Cebu Design Week 2018. Cebu’s creative scene has been flourishing with award-winning designers and creatives recognized not only in the Philippines, but also around the world.

Incorporating a number of different elements such as the use of rattan, shells and weaved cloth, designers surely made waves with their modernized nature-themed crafts. Playing with color and a number of different shapes and sizes for their chair, table and cabinet furniture designs, the Cebu Design Week’s Special Settings display was a testament of these visionaries all over Cebu.

A collaboration with different companies, the designers made the designs exude the aura and image of Cebu and its bountiful natural resources useful for sustainable design. A hub for the creation of cutting-edge ideas that echo a vision for inclusive progress, Cebu’s growth in the creative community is deemed to be rapid.

Apart from top-of-the-line furniture and home decor designs visible to a number of enthusiasts, a caucus of artists who took their creative eye and skills to greater heights by going in on a business venture filled the Maker’s Market. More than being awed by their designs and innovative creations, art bums and adventurous people alike had the chance to take one home with a fair price.

From temporary tattoos designed to match your everyday get-up to a concoction of ginger ale and lemon made into the perfect afternoon drink-outs, the bunch was a truly a hodgepodge of great money-making ideas that catch consumers’ attention.

Dawn Sy, a culinary graduate and owner of Mister Garfield’s Old Fashioned Ginger Ale, made up the business idea to pave way for other beverages in the food industry.

“‘Cause usually, you find alcohol, sodas, water and juices, yet no one is making hard sodas,” shares Dawn.

The idea was to come up with a product that is just in the middle of alcohol and sodas that would surely be a treat for drinkers anytime of the day. It’s designed to get the feel of soda, but a kick of alcohol that doesn’t mess up your busy day with the typical weekend mood, adds Dawn.

Only a year on its run, the beverage is available at Albur’s Restaurant, with its 2 flavors, original flavor and the Sagada orange.

Seed Studio PH’s wooden toys—made from natural, untreated wood—were a show stopper for those looking for exquisite gifts. Toys in different forms such as wooden cooking sets, cone ring stackers and balance blocks, to name a few, were some of the displays in the market.

In contrast with battery-operated, automatic, and plastic toys, wooden toys are simple, which is an advantage as they bring children closer to nature, having endless possibilities for their imagination to soar. Simple toys are often those that stay with the children through many years of play, and that is the idea that gave birth to the Seed Studio PH’s vision.

Wanting to get a tattoo so bad but not yet sure if you’d want it with you for the rest of your life? Inklie developed an innovative way to experience the feeling of having a tattoo and to able to express themselves in their own unique way—without getting the actual one!

“It started with the goal to get away from the stigma of having tattoos, which are literally everywhere,” says Katrina Codera, an Advertising Arts Intern, when talking about the craft’s humble beginnings.

This mix of over-the-top ideas from homegrown innovators give Cebu’s creative community something to take pride in. When there’s the passion to create, the opportunity to connect and just the right luck to cultivate your idea to a piece that your market has been looking for, that’s when makers get the most out of their art and craft.