What does a graphic designer do? More than create art, a designer creates the most breathtaking ideas known to man. A creative team is essential to every endeavor today. We’ve created our own creative ecosystem, milling ideas in and out. But it’s not perfect yet. Designers are still plagued by an employer’s misconception that they just create art. Someone needs to stir the pot of this up-and-coming community. Designers aren’t getting supported and companies have trouble finding these people. That’s what PortfolioMNL is trying to solve. It’s a platform for designers and writers to showcase their portfolios while giving hiring companies the resources to tap this community. We caught up with PortfolioMNL CEO, Rina Malonzo, to learn about her solution and her dreams for the Philippine creative ecosystem.
Q: What is PortfolioMNL?
A: Portfolio MNL is a platform for a hidden workforce, the creative community. We’ve created a niche specifically for them because the way you hire them is very different from the norm. No one addresses their needs.
Q: What is your background? And how did it end up in the startup life?
A: I am a graphic designer for logos and packaging. I had my training in New York. Seven years ago, I started going up management, landing art and creative directing roles at a few fashion corporations. And then I left. I started my own studio to help companies brand themselves. When I reached 40, I started asking myself what I can do to give back. I did a few volunteer projects where I taught photography and design. But I really wanted to do something for the Philippines because it’s very dear to my heart. Coincidentally, I wanted to move here and put up my own studio. When you run your own studio, you need to find talent. But how do I find new talent? In the States, there are platforms, but not here.
Portfolio MNL started as a personal need for my studio to find graphic designers beyond the recommendations of friends (which I didn’t have a lot of when I arrived). When I got here, I also taught at the Benilde School of Design and Arts. I saw some of my best students go to call centers. That was very disheartening. It just became apparent that the need was there. I thought it was going to be as easy as build it in three months and they’ll come running. But in reality, it was very difficult.
Q: What were the difficulties you’ve experienced in putting up your own startup?
We were front-end designers so we didn’t have any experience in programming. It slowed us down because we never found the right developer. Some would join us in fits and starts. But it’s not like a construction project where anyone can pick up where the other left off. If someone leaves, the next guy has to start over. Also, we didn’t have any funding. I put in my personal money but it wasn’t enough to hire. We needed a very skilled team who can fix the troubleshooting of the site.
We had to rely on tenuous angel investments. It’s like dating. You can’t expect every date to go right the first time. And angel investments like that take six months. In our case, we went through four rounds of possible partners. IdeaSpace really helped us out. If we didn’t enter the program we wouldn’t be here right now. An incubation program really takes out a lot of risks that come with angel investors, like personality conflicts.
There’s always the risk of a competitor. If Behance, our international competitor, gets more aggressive or a better one comes along, for example. It keeps us on our toes and makes sure that we constantly fulfill the need that no one’s addressing.
Q: Whose problem are you trying to solve? How do you solve it?
A: We’re helping out corporations entering the digital age. Branding has become a very important part of the corporate strategy. You need a creative team for that. The creative team has become as essential as the finance team in the corporation. You really can’t function without that team. The traditional thinking is that they just create art. But modern creative thinking understands the value of a creative team. Even small businesses now are investing in branding and creative teams.
Our first step is to create a meeting place. If you don’t know how to find them, then you’re stuck. PortfolioMNL is there to give you more options apart from word of mouth. We empower creative hiring. By delivering more jobs, two things happen. A creative person gets to practice and level up his or her skill. And we’re now driving a new type of economy which schools are now putting money in: creative graduates. We have over 100,000 graduates but we haven’t addressed how to get them to the workforce.
Q: How are you reaching these designers and graduates?
A: The first thing we did was to create our Network feature by offering schools their own free platform. For example, every semester, each school will have their students upload work and they’re part of their school’s network. You can see it in their portfolios. We really focused on getting these networks going. Besides that, I do a lot of talks. Primarily, in schools but also in creative organizations on creating a portfolio, entering the creative industry, dealing with clients, and pricing themselves. The third thing is posting through Facebook groups of creative organizations. We also do a lot of design contests, which drive a lot of traffic to our site.
Q: How big do you want PortfolioMNL to be?
A: Our vision is that every school has a portal on our site. We want to help these schools level up and be part of enhancing the creative community. The other goal is to get the Philippine market into the international economy. Right now, we’re focusing on the local partnerships, but we’re confident that within a year, we can start on international partnerships. In five years, my dream is that it becomes a platform for the world to mine great ideas that they’re not looking elsewhere anymore.
Q: How can we work on getting into the international market?
A: Our advantage is our language skills. Ironically, our weakness is communication. We have a culture of hiding from conflict and missed deadlines. A lot of us disappear when the first conflict or missed deadline appears. We’re partnering with schools to breed good practices because people prefer hiring mediocre people who meet deadlines rather than the best talent who can’t.
Q: What would you say is a recipe for success in startups and in PortfolioMNL?
A: Simply, don’t give up. You work in such an isolated state that no one knows about you. There are so many challenges, like money and unlearned skills. In our case, we didn’t know anything about finance, finding investors, governance, and sales. Have the willingness to grow into those uncomfortable roles. Because it’s not like you’re selling something you don’t believe in. I’m sharing something I’m passionate about. It doesn’t feel like a job when I’m sharing it with like-minded people. Once you’ve grown into those roles, you can start hiring the right people. I can hire a sales team because I know about sales. I teach them about the business, rather than relying on them to teach me, which is risky for a startup.
Q: What is your dream for the Philippine creative economy?
A: My dream for the Philippines is to be the number one artistic country in terms of design innovation. Right now, our design is copying that of the US. We have to create our own voice. But that takes time. We’re just in Grade 1. We’re still teaching them the ABCs of getting into the creative economy. When they graduate, they’ll be independent thinkers capable of realizing innovations. That’s how Italy did it. They used to be the sweatshop of Europe, making all the designs for Paris and London. But they practiced their skills, did the work differently, and created their own. Now everyone’s salivating over Italian design. I see that as a pattern for the Philippines. Eventually, we’ll come up with our own ideas. We just need to have the confidence. It’s a skills and confidence game. Once the skills are known, the confidence follows. And from confidence comes innovation.
