Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Multiply Avlack Theme: Created by a Filipino? (from Inquirer)
(//*,) still talking shit -> (//*,) diced out diane at 6:27 PMMultiply guy
By Ron Cruz, Pam Pastor
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Last updated 16:59:00 07/11/2008
MANILA, Philippines—The next time you decide to change your Multiply theme, scroll down and look at the template Avlack—that template was created by a young graphic designer from Makati.
In 2005, Dave Hersh of Multiply came across Jolo Santos’ blog and liked his design. “He e-mailed and asked me if they can use my design as a working Multiply theme.”
Jolo then tweaked the design to make it compatible with Multiply’s theme system. Since then, countless people from around the world have used Avlack as their Multiply design. “I’m glad and proud that they like my theme, especially when I see that they’re Filipinos. I love it when people customize my theme.”
Memorable creations
That Multiply theme isn’t Jolo’s only creation. The 22-year-old designer counts the Penshoppe 2007 campaign website and The Shopify theme as some of his most memorable creations. “Penshoppe gave my partner and I creative freedom while The Shopify Project has given me clients abroad.”
Jolo, who has an International Advanced Diploma in Computing from Informatics and who studied Enterprise & Mobile Development on Java Technologies at NIIT, has always wanted to be a designer. “I love solving things, building things and being creative.”
This self-declared geek traces his design roots to his days in high school. “I loved the nitty gritty of computer programs. I was also active in design contests. But it was in college where my enthusiasm for design and geekiness collided. That’s when I fell in love with building and designing web pages.”
Start-up company
Jolo began as an entry level designer for a small advertising agency before moving to a corporate domain merchandising agency as a junior graphic and web designer. Since then, he co-founded his own start-up design company Xackup Inc. where he works as the visual design lead. The company’s clients are mostly based in the United States and Europe. “We built a backup application for Mac called “Bandwagon” and we’re currently working on iTenna—a “sharing & syncing” application integrated on OS (Windows and Mac) and iPhone.”
Despite being currently busy with Xackup Inc.’s projects, he also helps his friends build websites. “I’m working on a toy camera shop website and a school website. I love to work on both ’cause they’re giving me creative freedom to infuse my own ideas and at the same time I get to learn a lot of technical programming and design stuff from these collaborations.”
Jolo describes himself as a minimalist and says he finds inspiration in simple things. “I get inspired by IKEA, Muji, Apple, Google, 37signals’ products, all the stuff in swissmiss.com and readymademag.com. I love them.”
Loving the job
There’s no doubt that Jolo loves his job. He says that the best part is “meeting people and building something.” Jolo adds, “I love the notion of giving design solutions to solve the client’s problems with their websites. There’s that sense of achievement and pride when you know you’ve become part of the success of people or companies because you were able to help them meet their site goals.”
No wonder he is often referred by his past clients, colleagues and friends to other people.
Jolo has big dreams design-wise. In the future, he hopes to build websites for IKEA, MUJI and Levis and work with Pentagram, Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister, Paula Sher and James Victore.
He may be busy building countless other websites but he hasn’t turned his back on Multiply. It serves as a personal homepage where he shares videos, music, reviews, links and photos with his friends. “Multiply makes it so easy for me to play around with graphics, mix and match all the blogging and sharing elements. They made it so easy that some independent designers, young entrepreneurs and realtors use Multiply to sell arts and crafts, clothes, and even show off their portfolio.”
Offline life
Jolo has a number of other passions. “I love taking pictures. I love lomography. I love to travel. In the future, I want to try making films. I love watching movies.”
Because of the nature of his job, Jolo spends six to eight hours a day online. To relax, he does things offline. “I sleep all day, watch DVDs, read books or go outside with friends and take pictures.”
E-mail jolo.santos@gmail.com or visit his multiply page at http://avlack.multiply.com.
