The Goldfish Pool

carlo and chrissele pre-nup project

2012-01-22T12:46:00.000-08:00

somewhere between lying on the sofa and drinking beer and wedding prep errands, chrissele announced that her pre-nup shoot will just be done in a studio. she is one of my boring friends, meaning, her taste is definitely not as colorful as mine (she actually knows that i think she is boring! hehehe!) she prefers the simplest of things, but still she asked for my opinions and suggestions on what the concept should be. we decided on echoing images that will be consistent during their wedding. simple da vah??LOL.

see that painting on the 2nd photo? here it is again. and there were 2 of them chubby birds, but i didn't get the photo! boo! haha!

credits go to my goldfishlings, Kim, Joey, and company.

they may be nice, but they eat too much pancit canton!

we have no standard rates for projects like these, but we can talk about it. please let us know at least a month and a week (2 months is really good,too) in advance so we can discuss ideas, budgets, prices, and have enough time to actually work. my minions can get very busy, so right now we can't do rush jobs. =)

dean and jehan

2011-12-30T12:20:00.000-08:00

jehan wanted shabby chic and was so full of wonderful ideas. it was great and funny and crazy at the same time. almost ran out of time because it took us along time to settle for this bi-fold after so many also nice prototypes. blame my day job for sending me out of the country suddenly. but of course, nothing will stop me from delivering on time, not even distance.

cover art

a closer look

got this neat set of embossing stencils from germany. am getting more on february. but for orders for more than a hundred, this needs time to make as we do it by hand.

jehan and dean's invites are the first ones with the TGFP logo =)

i have a new addition to TGFP, my pretty niece Kim, is now my apprentice. she'll brave the traffic just to do the deliveries, too. LOL. She's also in charge of the other stuff that we do. here's a teaser:

dean and jehan and their faux plaster baroque frames

yup, i have minions who make props. will post photos of those soon. haha. my old highschool students have started working on teeny projects like this.

Chloe is turning 18!

2011-12-22T09:43:00.001-08:00

i love Chloe's fabric envelopes. i love how they look and how they feel. my envelope maker rocks! she was

stressed like crazy, but she rules. LOL.

Chloe wanted something like VIP access to the backstage of a fashion show. and it has got to be french( haha, her second name is France). Here's what TGFP came up with.

Shelah and Ivan vintage retro disco yeah!

2011-12-22T09:40:00.000-08:00

Shelah wanted retro and disco and i love prints. we make a good team! but ivan is marrying her, and i'll settle for cardamom. LOL. this project was a breeze, but we had to hold our breath because philpost snail mail almost didn't make it on time to sweden. anyway, i hope you love this one. credits to the guy who made the patterns. in the future, i'll make my patterns, too. was just really busy these past few months.

stole the next photo from FB, this is the other side of the envelope. love the stamps and shelah's handwriting.

watch out for photos! coming soon!

2011-10-01T08:16:00.001-07:00

lyn and brian

2011-09-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

japanese kitsch. as inspired by yoshitomo nara. for lyn and brian. had to blur some details, though. don't want anyone gate-crashing.

chrissele and carlo

2011-07-27T09:48:00.001-07:00

i finished painting and processing the artwork in a 3 days i think. the monogram, now that took a long time. i did a couple of designs, but they didn't fit carlo and chrissele's personality. chrissele spent hours here working on her monogram. haha. here's what we came up with:

getting this printed this weekend. i'm excited!

Mira and Godie

2011-06-12T09:49:00.001-07:00

around the same time i was working on lanie and ryan's invite, i received an email from mira. mira is based abroad and i was also moving from one city to another, so we just corresponded through email. this invite was both fun and challenging. i had to completely scrap out the first cover art as i felt that mira deserves something more colorful considering her bubbly and friendly personality. mira had the invites printed at SG. TGFP only provided the art.

the cover art for a bear-y special couple. tamis!

and the rsvp and map page. i love the map. haha

thanks to mira for providing the images. good luck on your wedding day!

carlo and chrissele save the date

2011-05-19T10:38:00.000-07:00

my lovely friends are getting married. still haven't thought of the complete invite design concept yet. but it's gonna be just a postcard type one with a separate rsvp card and envelope. this is very challenging for me because we've been friends since we were teenagers. i hope i can make them happy. LOL. oh, and i'll be a bridesmaid, of course. i need to diet!

Lanie and Ryan

2011-05-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

hello! i really love my printers. they keep saving my life ( i was going to say ass, but you don't say ass in wedding blogs, right?). anyway, here is lanie and ryan's invite. i didn't post the inside as we don't want anyone to gatecrash, do we? i love love the printing. love it. love love it.

here's the design for the invitation cover art.

and what it looks printed. this invitation type consists of a card-type cover art with both sides in full color, 2 sheets of parchment inserts, and an envelope. (prices start at Php 85)

this project was completed while i was still suffering from jet lag from 4 different timezones. haha! i was really happy with lanie and ryan's feedback. only good words. lanie was so excited and already wanted to give them out the day i delivered the invites. haha! makes my heart feel good.

Lanie and Ryan save the date

2011-04-23T11:19:00.000-07:00

the last quarter was full of surprises for me. it's been a long time since i had a wedding invitation project(although wedding album layouts were aplenty). first surprise came from lanie. then mira. they contacted me a few days before i flew out for a business trip. imagine the pressure! plus the fact that both girls were getting married in less than 6 months, my, i was on my toes the whole of march! so here is lanie and ryan's Save the Date. i lost the pic for the formal invite so i'll post that one when i get back home (yup,i'm away again for work). lol.

but the thing is, even though i'm always flying out, i never fail to deliver on deadlines. i'm so amazing. haha! chee!

New year!

2011-01-21T13:01:00.000-08:00

Hi, everyone! It's a new year and we're still here. haha, yup, stuff have been slow, but we do move. 3 projects for january! yey! i hope this year will be a busy one.

love to everyone.

my invite was supposed to look like this.LOL

2010-07-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

who says i can't make one up? LOL. actual painting of an idea for MY wedding invite(sorry, girls and boys, the groom wasn't able to make it!haha)

magazine lay out project

2010-07-29T13:21:00.000-07:00

notice

2010-04-06T01:50:00.000-07:00

hey! i'm going to the land where no blogger has access. haha, i'm going to a china trip for a month, so , if you have any inquiries, please email me at thegoldfishpool@gmail.com and i will get back to you immediately. thanks!

painting!

2010-03-31T17:56:00.000-07:00

bim and gen, they love me. haha. this is a triptych for PTV's office, inspired by gustav klimt's 'the kiss'. enjoy. collaboration with one of my favorite people, samio.

untitled
samio odono and abba mendoza
3 pieces, 3ftx5ft panels
mixed media

please comment, gen likes comments. lol

portfolio's growing!

2010-02-24T11:41:00.000-08:00

just finished my second album. this one's for a wedding.

updates and new services

2009-12-10T06:46:00.001-08:00

finally, bim and gen got hitched. we also are looking forward to painting their office's (PTV) wall.

we are also pleased to announce that we now do wedding album lay outs. we just finished one, but it's actually an engagement album. here are some of the pages.

anna and roddy's final draft

2009-07-28T02:18:00.000-07:00

This was quite challenging for me. Anna is very much into the arts and its different schools. From abstract impressionism to conceptual art, the fine arts to architectural inspiration, nosebleed! I spent a lot of sleepless nights thinking about this one. i was even going to use plaster and wires on this one. Ang Bog was MIA the whole time!

I finally was able to corner Bog and discussed this with him. I told him about the influences and the colors(daffy blue and oyster gray etc.) and my dilemma. And he goes, "Ano ba, Tita. Make it like a blueprint". Ah... yes, of course. Silly me, growing up with my dada, an engineer, and rolls of blueprints around the house. Why didn't I think of that.

Here it is:

Was able to email all the files to Anna tonight.

"We're good, we're good!:) It's perfect!:) Thank you so much again, Abba!:)"
--Anna

Lol. We are grateful.

Tin and KC's invites next.

Tin and KC

2009-07-20T02:26:00.000-07:00

first draft of the cover page for my most kiligin client, Tin. LOL. Love this girl to bits.

the front

the back

gotta do a coupla more revisions and we're all set.

currently working on anna and roddy's. will finish that by wednesday.

Bim and Gen's Save the Date Cards print outs

2009-06-07T09:56:00.000-07:00

vacation :) and anna & roddy's STD cards

2009-06-04T12:58:00.000-07:00

hi kids.

i'm going to china on monday, so i'm turning everything over to the lovely Yoshie (my future digital printer/envelope maker/tour guide/consultant) for the next two weeks. been busy with too much vacationing and two active projects. still trying too hard to make the perfect artwork for anna and roddy's formal invitation. in the meantime, here's what i've come up with the STD design. i was supposed to have it silkscreened but my silkscreen team can't figure out where to get the materials. did a sample print using a digital printer on 180 gsm watercolor paper. turned out lovely! will put them inside turquoise and apple green striped transluscent jacket-type envelopes. i hope anna will love them as much as i am loving the simplicity of the design and the kilig of the poem by rainer ma. rilke.

see you in two weeks!

sy-flores update

2009-05-07T11:05:00.000-07:00

marijhune decided to go with something like this:

i misjudged her. i thought she was more into cutesy stuff, but turned out she prefers solid and bold colors. haha. Save-the-date cards usually just show names and the date, but due to our bride-to-be's request, i had to include the information.

working late

2009-04-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

hi. i'm getting the hang of this and i am happy to say that i am almost done with the computations and can soon give everyone my standard rates. tee hee. this is so embarassing. i am currently still haggling with printers but things are looking bright. now, if i could just finish writing the contracts...

sy-flores save the date versions 1 and 2

2009-04-21T12:37:00.000-07:00

here are the versions that weren't approved, but i think they're worth posting here. the info on these are rather complicated since they will be giving the cards out in palawan, but the wedding will be somewhere south of manila. they just didn't want to confuse their guests.

they look sweet enough to eat.

mark rothko

2009-03-30T15:09:00.000-07:00

hey. last year, my friend, yoshi, got married. i tried to offer my services to her, but she was really looney and floatey before she got married. too bad this never got the chance to get printed on paper, and worse, we had to run around glorietta and sm to get the misalettes ready the morning before the wedding. this is inspired by one of my favorite artists, mark rothko. i love minimalism.

bim + gen

2009-03-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

hey, kids! here are the photos of the cover of bim and gen's invites. gen was really meticulous and noticed all the details. we had to make a coupla revisions and this is what came out. bim, on the other hand, just loves me to bits. never noticed nothing. haha. i bet he had a crush on me before gen got hold of him. haha! all other details will be printed on loose leaves but we still have to decide on the paper.

enjoy!

the outside:

and the inside:

gonna post a coupla samples next week. see you then!

our very first

2009-03-23T06:10:00.000-07:00

hi, everyone!

and for my first entry, the Save the Date card design for my dear friends, Bim and Gen.

let me introduce ourselves. i'm abba and i have a nephew, who is also my partner. his name is vaughn, a.k.a. bog. but he's sleeping now because he has school tomorrow. our relationship is more of like friends than the mentor-student, guru-cricket,or tita-baby boy kind.

so i make the original artwork and bog manipulates them on his really hi-tech computer.

for bim and gen, we are making the invitations, too. i will post that after we get the test print. we'll also do the the place cards and the menu cards.

oh. so there. see you around!

love and kisses,

abba