TAYO: Designing Through Culture, Ecology, and Community
TAYO has developed from a youth movement to a design agency rooted in the archipelago.
Words Art+ Magazine Team
Photos courtesy of TAYO: Archipelagic Design Agency
May 18, 2026
Founded in 2018, TAYO began as a sustainability and creative consultancy formed by years of youth-led organizing, cultural work, and environmental advocacy. In 2026, the studio reintroduced itself as TAYO Archipelagic Design Agency, a practice focused on developing visual identities, strategies, and immersive experiences grounded in culture, ecology, and community research.
The agency’s origins trace back to 2015 with Kids for Kids, a movement started by young organizers advocating for children’s access to safe and creative spaces. What began as a grassroots initiative eventually expanded into projects centered on culture, education, design, and environmental awareness.
Isla Halian School Design
In 2016, the group launched Kamalayan, an art festival exploring climate and cultural awareness, with particular attention given to Indigenous knowledge and ecological practices often absent from formal education. Two years later, a visit to Siargao during a period of rapid tourism growth highlighted the lack of localized environmental education in many island communities. This led to the creation of Habilin, an initiative that explored alternative forms of learning through youth-developed curricula and intergenerational dialogue.
As these projects evolved, so did a broader understanding of the ecological crisis and its relationship to systems of colonialism, extractive economies, and Western-centered development models. This perspective informed later initiatives, including Retaso, a community-led project that transformed textile and plastic waste into functional products through upcycling and collaborative design.
Kamalayan 2016
These experiences ultimately shaped the formation of TAYO as a design studio that approached sustainability not as branding, but as a long-term cultural and ecological practice.
Today, TAYO’s work is guided by what it calls Archipelagic Design — an approach that views creativity as interconnected rather than segmented into separate disciplines. Drawing from the biodiversity, histories, and material cultures of island communities, the studio develops projects that move across branding, product design, exhibitions, digital media, and spatial experiences.
For MESY x Artifeks Design Week: Lucky Hands Club
Rather than treating design as a purely visual exercise, the practice emphasizes relationships: between people and place, tradition and contemporary expression, ecology and everyday life.
On May 8, 2026, during National Heritage Month, TAYO marked both its eighth year as a studio and eleven years since the beginning of the movement that shaped it. In collaboration with the National Museum of Natural History, the agency launched the Archipelagic Design Living Lexicon and Archive through an event titled Salu-Salo TAYO.
Salu-Salo TAYO Series
The Living Lexicon and Archive is a research-based collection that documents and develops a shared vocabulary for Archipelagic Design. Central to the framework are the “8 Pulses of Filipino Design,” principles that inform the studio’s approach to projects ranging from hospitality branding to sustainability strategy and exhibitions.
The launch was designed as both an exhibition and a communal gathering. Structured around water as a cultural and ecological motif, the event included presentations, installations, food experiences, and collaborations with artisans and designers from different parts of the Philippines.
For NOM
The second half of the gathering, referred to as the Salu-Salo, brought together food, craft, and material traditions inspired by island communities including Halian, Anajawan, Mam-on, Suyangan, and Simariki. Ingredients sourced from local fisherfolk were incorporated into dishes developed with Fia’s Food, while custom vessels by Manibalang reflected forms and textures inspired by water and ripples.
Additional collaborations included hand-dyed indigo textiles, stained glass lighting made from scrap materials, and capiz installations from Lumban, Laguna. The evening also featured live performances by Bjork Calao, Miko Reyes, and Jacob Mendoza.
For Retaso
With its reintroduction as TAYO Archipelagic Design Agency, the studio positions itself as a multidisciplinary practice working across branding, product development, exhibitions, and cultural strategy. At the center of its work is an ongoing effort to develop forms of design based on the realities, histories, and ecosystems of the archipelago.
“It is our duty as designers and creatives to root all our systems back into the nature and culture that keeps us thriving, a way of life that reminds us to look beyond western standards and into what is true to our land, sea, and people.” says Bella and Tasha, co-founders and creative directors of TAYO.
