By Holly Burns
Issue 7 Spring 2011
A Pratt Institute Design Management Class of 2010 graduate, Brian Tenorio currently wears many hats, operating as the Design, Branding, and Identity Consultant for the Asian Development Bank and as the chair of Designers for Development Network. He also continues to be active with his design company, Tenorio Manila, the most premium men’s shoe brand in the Philippines, designs shoes, and most recently, a line of luxury designer caskets and urns . Born in Tehran and raised in the US and the Philippines, Brian had exposure to multiple cultures, which shaped his design philosophy from a young age.
He graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University in 2000 and finished the Managing Arts Program at the Asian Institute of Management a few years later. He has trained with the Language and Communi-cations Programme of the United Nations, while doing extensive research on national design policy frameworks for developing countries.
In the first quarter of 2011, Tenorio will aggressively introduce strategic design in the Philippines via three major events: (1) “The State of Philippine Design,” (2) an exhibition he curated, “Ambassadors of the Philippine Brand,” and (3) a round of sector-coordinated Designer Mixers and sponsored cocktails – “Design+Tech,” “Pride in Design,” “Designing Youth,” and “Design Loves Business.” (Full details at http://www.briantenorio.com.)
By the second quarter of 2011, he will collaborate with UNESCO Korea and the Young Artists Fellowship for the Environment (YAFE) to innovate on new uses for water lilies, which are becoming a nuisance in agriculture because they strangle native plant crops and have few natural enemies. Brian will design products that use the by-product to create fabric for the Barong Tagalog – the national traditional costume of the Philippines.