University of the Philippines Cebu Product Design students flaunt their creativity and artistic vision at this year’s UP Cebu’s Design Week 2025, DES/INYO 2025: Pulso sa Desinyo, AMO-IMO Fashion Show 2025, held at Ayala Malls Central Bloc.
Now on its third year, DES/INYO 2025 brings out the human aspect of design, highlighting the importance of the persona in every stroke, stitch, and silhouette.
“In product design, we are very intentional in saying that for us to be productive and responsive to social needs, we have to design with the other person in mind,” says Asst. Prof. Jay Nathan Jore, Coordinator of the UP Cebu Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts.
A culmination of collaboration and artistic expression
At the UP Cebu, fashion becomes more than fabric — it becomes a dialogue. Amo-Imo takes its name from the Cebuano phrase meaning “yours and mine,” capturing the dual spirit of collaboration and personal artistic expression.
As the culminating show of UP Cebu Product Design students for VC 126 – Fashion Design, each designer presented two looks: one co-created with peers from allied design courses, including Material Manipulation (D125) and Textile Printing (VC 142), and another crafted independently to reflect their individual design voice. Together, the pieces tell a story of shared creativity and personal exploration.
What sets this show apart is that it is fully student-led, from concept to runway. For many, it is their first time showcasing work to a live audience. Yet every detail, from stitches to stage lights, stands as a testament to their passion, teamwork, and growth.
Design for the people
DES/INYO 2025 is not your typical art exhibit; it showcases art and design intended for the people. It adopts a user-centered design thinking approach, ensuring that every design responds to a particular social need. In true UP Cebu fashion, it is a curation of pieces designed not just for the sheer enjoyment of producing art and design, but art and design with a social intention of helping others.
In an exclusive interview with Assistant Professor Jay Nathan Jore, he emphasized that in DES/INYO 2025, the artists know that there is an actual, rather than an induced, need for design. According to him, “In the general concept of DES/INYO 2025, that is actually ‘design for you, design in you,’” stressing that there is always a community — that there are people in every discipline of design.
The three-day exhibit hopes to capture the essence of the human in every design. It expresses that design is collaborative, as it is dialogic in solving even our day-to-day problems. “What we realize in the course of all of these things is the centrality of design in many of the things that we do now, and how design thinking can cut across many disciplines… how designers solve problems of organization, how design can solve problems in gender inequality, how design can solve traffic or urban [issues] or all of this migration, for example, and even good governance,” Jore added.
As a public university, the faculty of the UP Cebu aims to express design for the people beyond the four corners of the university. Through public exhibits such as DES/INYO 2025, the UP Cebu Art and Design Faculty hopes to expose its students not only to the public but also to the practice of discipline, responsibility, and accountability of design to the people.
