THE KIDLAT LIST…

IN HONOR OF STEFAN SAGMEISTER WHO LOVES TO MAKE LISTS, DM9 JAYMESYFU MANILA’S LOUIE SOTTO MADE ONE OF HIS OWN AFTER RETURNING FROM THE KIDLAT AWARDS:

What I have learned in Boracay so far:

I. Complaining isn’t always silly. I got upgraded to a better room.

II. Abusing the breakfast buffet can come back to you, as my partner later found out.

III. Not bringing a camera works to my advantage.

IV. The internet stifles a vacation. (Within minutes of landing, one of our Account Directors was hounding us to email revisions.)

V. Making a Hall of Fame t-shirt for our boss, Merlee, in one day is not easy. But thanks to iron-on decals it is possible. (Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone got the Bob Marley reference.)

VI. Beer and mojitos do not mix.

VII. Trying to work on the beach is stupid. Especially when you have half-naked women all around.

VIII. Reef walking is a total waste of time when the reef’s only as big as a coffee table.

IX. Droga unfortunately had to cancel and that was a drag. (We heard a member of his team got into an accident. Hope everything is okay.)

X. John Merrifield first went to Boracay, before many Filipinos had even heard of the place. (And before many of the young creatives were even born.)

XI. Stefan must have hated the design of our “Kidlat” trophy.

XIII. Stefan has a 3 month lead time per project. We’re lucky to get 3 days! (On top of that, on every 7th year, they have a client-free year, working on anything they feel like. He showed us what he was working on at the moment, which was a coffee table for his office. It’s brilliant!)

XII. Don’t enter a young creatives competition if you’re overage. It’s unfair to your partner. (Unfortunately, the winning team was disqualified. And so was the second place team on account of a technicality.)

XIV. Having guts did work out! Took a chance and kissed the lovely awards presenters. (Sorry about that ladies.)

XV. Making a list about the Kidlat Awards is so much easier than writing a whole damn article.

Photos: Sotto is pictured in the middle of the top photo; The legendary T-shirt; DM9 with awards host BB. Gandanghari.