Womxn in Seattle: Janelle Quibuyen (by Emma Eekhoff)
/You probably know Janelle Quibuyen from her graphic design work with the Wing Luke Museum, WoodWork Tattoo in Bremerton, Hood Famous, or even her branded Barrellman stickers. Presently Quibyen is the Creative Director at Hood Famous Bakeshop / Cafe + Bar, which encapsulates many things - marketing, content creation, HF’s merch line, and day-to-day social media. But throughout her life, she has had a love of graphic design, dating back to when the program Paint first came out. Quibuyen left the big city of Bremerton for Seattle to begin the Graphic Design program at Seattle Central.
After Seattle Central, she began at a design firm then transitioned into a freelance position that opened many more doors for her within Seattle’s community.
Who are your inspirations?
When I first started studying graphic design, there were three artists that I looked up to
Emory Douglas - Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party
Favianna Rodriguez - Oakland based artist, cultural strategist, and social justice activist
Orlando Castillo - part of the group, Concerned Artists of the Philipines
But now with social media, a lot of the artists that I come across, I’m inspired by, like 2nd generation Filipino Americans. Especially kids of 1st generation immigrants; I’m seeing an entrepreneurial spirit through them, mimicking their parents who came to this country with very little, but making the most of it.
What are you reading? (This could be podcasts, magazines, etc)
Books:
Buying in by Rob Walker
Podcasts:
-Long Distance Radio
-Hilarious World of Depression
-How I Built This
-The Blow-Up
What’s on your playlist?
Burna Boy, Megan the Stallion, Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer, and Cautious Clay.
in 2019, what has self-care looked like?
I feel bad because I make fun of this term a lot, “self-care” has been overused I think that it has become commercialized and overused. I don’t like the commercialized version of self-care, you don’t need to buy anything to take care of yourself. I don't need to buy another face mask, I don’t have to buy a $50 jade roller for my face, I don't have to go to the spa. I think for me self-care looks like self-accountability.
I think self-care is a balance.
When I say self-accountability, I mean like doing the things that I know will make me feel better in the long run.
Self-accountability to me looks like doing a least one of three things a day, something physical, something spiritual and something social. Physical for me is exercising, trying to lift is a personal record at the gym or as simple as walking my dog Koa.
Something spiritual could be meditation for 5 min, yoga for 30 min, or gardening with my mom.
Something social, I think it's easy for me as an introvert to isolate like I could spend the whole weekend on the couch with my dog. So I challenge myself to do something with other people, it could be a date night with my partner, could be a kamayan with coworkers or simply going out.
Freelance taught me…
That it sucks.
Freelance is idealized and romanticized by our generation because you get the idea that you are your boss on your own schedule - those things are super appealing, but as you get older you realize that you need health insurance, the stability of income and need employers to take responsibility of where you get your work done.
So transitioning to full-time work is *chef’s kiss.*
Dear Young people…
Don’t listen to old people.
