DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/08 December) — In a bid to inspire more young artists, an award giving body on the digital arts has tapped a graphic who is making waves in social media.
The National Digital Arts Awards (NDAA), launched by Globaltronics, is the biggest award-giving body that honors the Philippines’ top digital artists. For the 2017 edition of the awards, NDAA taps graphic artist and social media influencer Cyrene Quiamco (CyreneQ in Snapchat).
The 27-year-old artist from Bacolod, who is now based in the US, encouraged young artists to join competitions to hone their craft.
“Competitions help me grow,” she said, recalling experiences from the past that she said helped her grow as an artist. “Win or lose you learn from them and get that competitive edge.”
Cyrene is a graphic designer by profession but she quit her corporate job in October 2015 to explore opportunities which are found in social media. She also does web design. She is adept at visual arts and has a degree in painting and ceramics.
Cyrene excels in her craft because she is able to “translate” her skills across different media.
“Snapchat is my current medium,” she said. “I create engaging stories and an immersive experience.”
Snapchat is an image messaging and multimedia mobile app that is home to a mix of private messaging and public content. A notable feature of the app include exchange/broadcast of “snaps” or self-destructive and short lived content (that’s only viewable for 24 hours). The app also has live camera filters and digital canvasses for images and videos, allowing text and drawings slapped over these.
Cyrene creates her portfolio by saving her images and videos and uploading these to YouTube.
The district Snapchat experience that she creates has a sense of “live” in it.
“Snapchat gives that feeling of anticipation among people,” she said. “It’s in the now and fresh.”
Each of Cyrene’s snaps gets more than 100,000 views before these self destruct.
She said that she stands out from the social media clutter by using her platform “out of the box.”
“I created art and community in it and went beyond messaging,” she said, mentioning the importance of finding her own voice and sticking to it. “If you tell your story then you’ll stand out.”
Being the global ambassador of the National Digital Arts Awards 2017, she encourages young artists to continue pursuing art.
“It’s a good hobby that you can keep pursuing,” she said. “It’s a good stress reliever and a potentially lucrative skill. If you’re passionate about it you can create something out of your skills that people want.”
Her skill of capturing an audience on a mobile platform earned the trust of big brands which collaborated with her for campaigns and projects.
Cyrene has been featured in Cosmopolitan, Forbes Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly as the 26-year old who quit her job to become one of the most sought after social media influencers in the US using mainly the Snapchat app. Cyrene makes $500,000 a year doing Snapchats for major brands like Disney, Pixar, Samsung, Walmart among others.
Cyrene is also set to release her book called 11 Seconds to Success.
NDAA deadline of entries is on March 15, 2017. Visit ndaa.globaltronics.net and Facebook: National Digital Arts Awards. (Jesse Pizarro Boga / MindaNews)
