Sorry for such a long email.

Each year I research and write an extensive educational Curriculum Guide for the Memphis in May International Festival, which honors a different country each year. In 2012, Memphis in May will be honoring the Republic of the Philippines, with a month of exhibits, performances, demonstrations, etc. The Curriculum Guide is distributed to all K-12 grade schools throughout the Memphis area for teachers to use to teach their students about the honored country. An online version of the 2011 Guide honoring Belgium can be viewed at http://www.memphisinmay.org/curriculumguide

I am amazed at your designs, and intrigued that they incorporate the ancient Philippine Baybayin script, and that the jewelry utilizes traditional Philippine materials like bamboo and mahogany. You can see on the Guide honoring Belgium that, each year when I develop one of these guides for Memphis in May, I utilize some iconic symbols, graphics or emblems to designate between the 6 different divisions of the book (Intro. Grades k-2, Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, and Info). For Belgium, I had to settle on different shapes of traditional Belgium chocolate. Several years ago for Costa Rica, I used different creatures from the rainforest (butterfly, gecko, tree frog, etc.). While I want the icons to be unique to the country, I try to keep them from being unpreferably stereotypical (like a “camel” for Morocco).

I would love to utilize 6 of your graphic designs… just like the Malaya Designs logo below. They are simple, beautiful, truly representational of the Philippines, and, I suspect, would appropriately express a country’s pride. The shape and dimensions of your logo are perfect, as well, because its slightly vertical design would allow each symbol to fit nicely in the top corner of each page. If you are willing, I would also like to incorporate one of your full-color designs, or a photo of one of your pendants, on the 4-color cover of the Curriculum Guide. While Memphis in May is a not-for-profit organization, and the budget is limited for the creation of this Curriculum Guide, I would certainly be willing to pay you for the 6 high-res artwork designs and for a full-color version or high-res photo of one of your pendants for the cover.

Additionally, while I do not currently work directly on the Festival staff (I used to be their Vice President of International Programming), if you are interested I would like to pass your name along to the current VP of Programming. It would be such a great addition to their Festival if they would consider bringing you to Memphis one weekend next May to demonstrate the unique BayBayin writing style… or to purchase your pendants for VIP gifts for Fetsival Board members and sponsors.

Thank you for your consideration about the artwork. Unfortunatley, I am working on a fairly tight deadline, as Memphis in May would like for me to deliver the finished Guide to them by July 1 so that it can be reviewed by the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC and then be printed in time for the Fall school year.

Thank you again for your consideration.
Sincerely,
John Doyle
barkingdogagency@bellsouth.net
(901) 485-6995