Designer by day, illustrator by moonlight

Gica Tam is an illustrator and graphic designer born in New York and raised in Manila. Based on a figurative and contemporary style, she specializes in digital illustrations in beautiful and satisfying color palettes. When I stumbled upon her visual diary, I immediately fell in love with her art. I felt like I was transported into someone else's dream, not wanting to leave. But never mind what I have to say, the work speaks for itself.

She graduated in 2015 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Information Design from Ateneo de Manila University. During the past years, Gica has worked for brands and publishers such as Airbnb, Havaianas, Nike, Under Armour, Adobo Magazine, CNN Life, Summit Media, Young STAR, GRID Magazine, and Macmillan Publishers.

If you're a fan, like I expect you should be, follow her on Instagram for more art and inspiration.

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Weirdly Charming

If you’re a fan of art that makes you do a double-take, you need to check out Richard Brener . Based in the UK, Richard is an internationally collected artist who works primarily with ink, fineliners, and gouache. When you first see his pieces, they actually look pretty playful. Then you realize the entire canvas is packed with thousands of tiny, ghost-like shapes he calls "champs." They’re all squeezed together like commuters on a rush-hour train, and the level of detail is honestly mind-blowing. Richard spends hundreds of hours drawing these little guys over and over. It’s obsessive, very intentional, and a little bit wild. The cool part is that the longer you stare, the more the vibe shifts. Check out more photos below:

Where Bad Space and Good Music Collided

My first apartment was in Malate, and calling it “small” would be generous. I lived there with two girls and one guy, and to this day, I genuinely don’t know how we all fit. It felt like a magic trick. Or a health hazard. We were a musical mess. One roommate lived and breathed ’70s classics. Another was permanently blasting Korn and Slipknot. One survived solely on cheesy love songs. And me? I was floating somewhere between new wave and folk rock, pretending that made sense. Somehow, despite the noise and the chaos, we all lived together in this weird, mismatched harmony. No murders. No lawsuits. A win, honestly. My music taste now is nothing like it was in my twenties. Not even close. But I’ll always be grateful to Jacqueline for introducing me to this song in particular. It was playing when I woke up from a very memorable sleep in 2002. I was 21, half-awake, probably confused about life, and that song stuck. It still hasn’t let go.

Rapid-Fire

I was watching a replay of The Graham Norton Show the other night when this singer I’d never heard of completely grabbed my attention. Her name’s RAYE, and yes, I know I’m embarrassingly late to the party. I only discovered her a couple days ago, and now I’m a full-on fan. Her funk-soaked anthem hooked me right away. Her vocals are rapid-fire and confident, with just enough rasp to give the whole thing a playful, gritty kick.

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