Kara Bermejo: On a brilliant trail

In pursuit of her dreams, Kara Bermejo is now in the US, blazing a brilliant trail in New York City. This exceptional young lady is a communication designer, a strategist with endless excitement for design innovation and an avid social entrepreneur.

Prior to completing her MFA in Design Entrepreneurship at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Kara ran her own design practice, Manifesto.PH, focused on brand strategy.

With a passion for learning and a compulsive habit of absorbing large amounts of information, Kara has completed two other design programs on full scholarships at School of Visual Arts in New York: SVA’s Impact! Design for Social Change and SVA’s Design Writing and Research. She is now a teacher at the prestigious  Parsons’ School of Design Strategies, loving every single moment of sharing her ideas with others.

Kara is co-founder of MakeManila.org, a platform that facilitates public space improvement projects through community action and transparent fundraising. She is happiest pursuing similar community-driven projects with the goal of helping others leverage technology and design innovation in achieving social impact.

Kara’s background

Kara was born on Jan. 7, 1987 to loving parents Jun and Gigi Bermejo. She is the eldest of three children. Her sister Cheska, 25, is a center manager for V office, a business support company; and her brother Marco, 21, is taking up Dental Medicine at the University of the Philippines.

Kara received her elementary education in a Chinese school in her father’s hometown Roxas City. They lived happily in a beautiful home by the beach filled with lovely antiques and artworks. For her secondary education, her mother enrolled her in an all-girls Catholic school, Assumption Convent San Lorenzo in Makati, where she adapted very well.

“As parents, we firmly believe that if our children are strong in faith, our mission on earth is done. To be able to make our children feel our Lord’s love personally will literally make our children richer than all material wealth can ever give them. God is the answer to our existence. He made us. He knows us. ‘If you can’t see His hand, if you can’t understand, trust His heart’ is our motto.

We always remind our children to be thankful and to give back by using the talents that was given to them for His greater glory,” says Gigi. 

Jun adds, “We instilled in our children that family is always a priority. That if the family is closely-knit, it will make them confident and secure. We encouraged them to always do their best in anything they do. To never give up a fight. To listen. To fly. To always stay hungry in learning and improving their craft.”

Always an achiever

According to her parents, Kara is always challenged by an assortment of graphic design projects. She loves figuring out solutions and effective ways to efficiently communicate a project’s concept and objectives to its market. Graduating with two college degrees at the Ateneo de Manila University (Communications Technology and Information Design) prepared her further in her field.  Knowing what she wanted to be early in life was a big help in achieving her place. Other plus factors for Kara, she is a good-natured team player, a positive worker, a thinking soul.

 After her first year of masters at the School of Visual Arts in New York, she joined Adobe Design Achievement Awards with over 3,000 participants in about 10 design fields. She made it to the semi-finals for her digital magazine on jewelry named Element. All her projects are noteworthy.  Never forgetting her country, she did MakeManila, a project in collaboration with architect William Ty, as her thesis. After being invited to talk about this, she was asked to teach Design Strategy classes at Parsons The New School for Design. 

“My family is very entrepreneurial in nature and I grew up being exposed to that sort of mindset. Every Christmas we would join bazaars. Mom and I always had something new to sell,” quips Kara. 

Gigi shares, “Kara enjoyed designing vintage jewelry. She reworked them making the vintage look contemporary, more youthful yet keeping that nostalgic look of old. These bazaars were platforms for her art.”

Kara designed calling cards and other needs of all their family businesses. “This is why it makes sense that my MFA is in Design Entrepreneurship because it came to the point where I really enjoyed not just launching my own venture but helping others launch and design theirs, too,” says Kara. 

Kara has done a lot of projects within the non-profit, cultural, and civic sector. When she was in Manila, she did a lot of pro-bono work for the Cultural Center of the Philippines and was involved in projects like University of Santo Tomas’ Lumina Pandit exhibit and book (with her B+C design firm). Now that she’s in New York, she’s pursuing the same thing!

“I’m currently working on projects with the Brooklyn Historical Society (I’m a senior designer at Pure+Applied design studio) on the exhibit they’re doing at the Empire Stores at Dumbo. As well as an exhibit at the New York Public Library for the 100th anniversary of their Picture Collection. Through my experiences here, I’m happy I’m able to learn how to promote our Filipino culture in a more progressive and technologically current way, too,” Kara says.

Turning point

 Before Kara left for New York, she handled numerous projects launching brand identity systems and communication campaigns for multimillion dollar real estate projects of SM and Robinsons Land. Other satisfied clients include Directory Philippines Inc., Corinthian Subdivision, Institute of Culinary Arts and Food Service, various restaurants, salons, condominium developments and more. She had to make a choice between keeping her flourishing design business in Manila or further polishing her passion. Being one for studying and always hungry for knowledge and experience, she flew to New York City in 2012.

It was a difficult time for Kara’s family adjusting to her move to a far continent. Her mom says: “She is our first child. We are a closely-knit family. It was a test of resolve. But as parents we knew we had to allow her to spread her wings and fly. See where God wants her to be. Thanks to Viber, Skype and FaceTime they are constantly in touch. Visiting NYC became a must, too. Our whole family saw her at her graduation. She is a good inspiration to her siblings.”

Kara is humbled by her family’s loving support and shares what she dreams of. “Honestly, I would love to give back to my parents and to continue to uphold the values they’ve taught me. Ultimately, I’ve learned that everything I’ve done is actually about family, or associated with family values. When I design an exhibit, I often think about my family someday visiting that exhibit. I just want to make them proud of their daughter! And I’d like to be great at raising a family, too, just as much as they have. That’s really the bottom line, amazingly so,” says this brilliant young designer.

(Would love to hear from you at miladayjewels@yahoo.com.)