Cobonpue: The designer boss and educator | ABS-CBN

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Cobonpue: The designer boss and educator

Cobonpue: The designer boss and educator

Jan Yumul,

ABS-CBN News

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Calmness and bright colors in mostly non-conformist shapes command the mood at The Residences in Greenbelt, Makati, where Cebu-based Kenneth Cobonpue's The Hive showroom is located.

In a visit by The Boss to the widely talked-about design space, we also got to hear Cobonpue's education advocate voice as chair of the Industrial Design Department at the De La Salle College of St. Benilde.

For an internationally celebrated and in-demand Filipino designer like Cobonpue, with royalties and some of Hollywood’s biggest stars gracing his list of clientele, it's hard to imagine him adding more commitments to a seemingly packed list, with exhibit invitations left and right, let alone teach.

But it is beyond the walls of a classroom, too, where Cobonpue aspires to revolutionize the local design curriculum.

“I’m spending a lot of time with the faculty. We’re changing the curriculum to make it more adaptive to the industry, to the needs of our country,” said Cobonpue.

“All of the design curriculums have been patterned after Western models and it’s different because they have an industry. Here, we’re craft-based. We generally do lower volumes,” he added.

Cobonpue also suggested that the approach be “artisan”, more “form related”, and “not so much on technology” – not yet – he was quick to add, because “we don’t have it yet”.

“We don't have an industry. So, part of the key there, to face the next century, all the curriculum should be changed to suit our industry,” said Cobonpue.

When asked what to him is a boss, Cobonpue said a boss should be a leader and a person who inspires other people to go beyond what they can be.

But it does not end there.

“I think a boss is both a mentor, a friend, somebody who allows you to reach, to allow you to always go beyond who you think you are,” said Cobonpue.

Catch "The Boss" every Wednesday on ANC at 7:30 p.m. Manila. Hit us up on social media by using #TheBossANC. Catch our replays on Wednesdays at 11:30 p.m.; Thursdays at 4:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.; Fridays at 11:30 a.m.; Saturdays at 4:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

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