Designing with malasakit & pre-selling our 2nd edition reprint!

May mga kinikilig kaming i-share sa inyo. :)

Hello, mga ka-Ugnayan!

This is a major #uwugnayan moment for us, and we wanted to celebrate it with you!

Ugnayan Cards pictured here with Good Design Award (GDA) trophies designed by Arturo Luz. GDA is a national biennial design excellence award, established by Department of Trade and Industry - Design Center of the Philippines in collaboration with the Japan Institute of Design Promotion (JDP) and ASEAN Japan Centre (AJC). It honors exceptional designs that addresses real-world local and global needs with a strong focus on economic, environmental and social sustainability. and elevate the quality of life.

Designing with Malasakit

Good design starts with malasakit. This was the key message of Good Design Award Philippines, and it felt really validating for Ugnayan’s design intention to be recognized in this way.¹

When we created Ugnayan, we recognized that the root of many of our social problems is disconnection. Disconnection breeds loneliness, apathy and soul loss, stripping away the humanity and empathy that we need more of in this world.

We learned that:

Social isolation and loneliness are “global public health concerns”, with an estimated 1 in 4 older people experiencing social isolation and 5-15% of adolescents experiencing loneliness. This impacts physical and mental health, quality of life, and longevity -- with effects comparable to smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity.

This makes high-quality social connections essential to our mental and physical health and well-being.²

Malasakit starts with connection. In those few minutes or hours of playing Ugnayan Cards with someone, we get to see, hear and value others, and be seen, heard and valued by others as well. We hope this connects us with a shared desire for all of our kapwa (fellow beings) to live a “good life”.³

By having conversations that connect rather than isolate us, we can help each other increase collective wellbeing and community cohesion, one conversation at a time.

It was also encouraging to see other Filipino designers across a range of disciplines, designing with malasakit. Pictured here with fellow winners, jurors and some of the organizing team behind Good Design Awards Philippines 2024 (Photo c/o DTI-Design Center of the Philippines)

Winning beyond awards

The real reward of Ugnayan for us as its creators are the #uwugnayan stories and testimonials shared with us by you, our ka-Ugnayans.

We’ve loved learning about all the different ways people have connected with strangers, or deepened relationships with friends and family using the cards — in moments of laughter and tears; sa mga kwentong nakakakilig, nakakakiliti at nakaka-🥺🥹.

We hope you’ll continue to share more of those stories with us (as words of affirmation girlies), and @ugnayancards PDA is also most welcome! So please tag us when you share. 🤗🥰

Pre-ordering our 2nd edition reprint

Kinikilig din kaming i-share: We're currently out of our original, first edition deck!!

DON'T PANIC...we're coming out with a 2nd edition reprint! 😊 It will be pretty much the same original Ugnayan deck you love, with some small tweaks for improvement.

We're expecting it to come out by the third week of August, and will be out for delivery between August 26-30. 😉

You can pre-order now via ugnayancards.com to be one of the first to receive our reprints when they come out!

We’ll also be raffling off some new Ugnayan Cards products to those who place their pre-orders between July 13 to August 13.

From Pahayagan to Liham

One last thing…we’ve renamed the Ugnayan newsletter from Pahayagan ng Ugnayan (as in newspaper) to Mga Liham ng Ugnayan (as in love letters).

It may not seem like a huge difference, but it more accurately describes the essence of what we want to do with our newsletter. 🤍

This is not just a space for news (although we had big news to share with you today!), but really a space for us to connect more with you, to remind you that we’re here, we care, and we appreciate you for your own efforts in connecting with and caring for others.

At the end of each month since we started this journey, we’ve written to you, hoping that you’ll take our invitation for pause and reflection, so that you can continue to show up more intentionally, courageously, and joyfully human into this world. We all know how desperately we need more of that. 😊

Hanggang sa susunod na liham,
Jen Horn | @pagbubuo
Tagapagpadaloy, Ugnayan Cards | @ugnayancards

1. See our Good Design Award post on Instagram for more on our design challenge and response.

2. According to WHO here: https://www.who.int/teams/social-determinants-of-health/demographic-change-and-healthy-ageing/social-isolation-and-loneliness

3. See our video entry for Good Design Award Philippines 2024.