Annie Pacaña Lumbao graduated cum laude with a degree of Fine Arts, major in Visual Communication, from the University of the Philippines. Annie works as a graphic designer and is the president of GraphicDesignPilipinas Inc.
ANNIE PACAÑA LUMBAO:
As a graphic designer, keeping things simple to make it more understandable is something I love to do, especially in creating company/brand logos. Stories, to me, also come as visuals and I find it easier to convey them as visuals. But, writing for children, because of its objective of making things simple for the young reader, keeps the chosen words and their visuals close in simplicity to each other, though even a story without words is something a child of any age can easily understand and relate to. Writing for children makes me think of my childhood (myself as a child, how I grew up and how my parents brought me up) at the same time that I witness my own children grow and watch as their stories unfold.
There are stories I would like to share because they are dear to me and I feel other people will also find it endearing to share to their little ones. As a parent, I advocate storytelling as an activity that both children and parents will benefit from. My first published story “But That Won’t Wake Me Up” is all about that. I wanted to share my experience and difficulty of sending my child to sleep at night and how storytelling (about waking her up in the morning) worked its wonders to skip the restlessness and resistance at bedtime. It also engaged my child in an interactive play of imagination which made her like to sleep and dream about the story we just made up.
Annie’s workplace. On the shelf are pencil portraits of her children Eco and Anelka which she did herself. (All photos on this page courtesy of Annie Pacaña Lumbao).
