Christine Mangosing is definitely one of the most beautiful girls I’ve ever met. Her genius translates through everything she does and her radiant smile is one of the most contagious instruments she posses. This is true.

Born in Manila, Philippines, Christine’s childhood and early adolescence took place in North America’s left coast. Christine went back to Manila for high school and then returned to the states, spending formative years in Cali before traipsing her way up to Canada’s left coast.

This dainty bundle of passion follows life as it unfolds. Now, Christine joyfully spends her days at Toronto’s own Exclaim! as Art Director and her nights causing mischief. Through her way of dress to her choice of font for design work, you can tell Christine has it together. A designer with purpose, she balances intent with whimsy communication ideas for clients in ways that are sensible, mixing in her fancy brushstrokes.

Her palettes are refined. Whether referencing colour or dining, she’s a woman I’ve come to trust with the most important of decisions. A brand manager, an artist, a designer for print and web, a friend, a sister, and a thousand more titles and descriptions, Christine Mangosing is a joy! I’m excited to share Christine with you.

1. What is your earliest memory of art?
I was surrounded by art and art-making for as long as I can remember. Having two older sisters, who were both in art school while I was quite young, meant that I had access to tools for creating, their sources of inspiration, as well as their subsequent creations in a variety of mediums. I also had a voracious appetite for reading from a very young age, which my mom fed with a constant stream of books. As is what you would expect from a child, I gravitated towards the heavily illustrated versions of longer books — the more fantastical and hyper-detailed, the better.

Children’s book illustrator, Eric Kincaid, was a particular favourite and I soon accumulated a pretty sizeable library of children’s classics illustrated by him. I loved how his illustrations brought a whole other dimension to the stories and in many ways, could stand on their own. After reading all the stories, I would go back and stare at the illustrations for hours. Also piquing my interest was a delivery of illustrated books on Filipino mythology sent by relatives in the Philippines. In addition to introducing me to a culture I didn’t know much about at the point in my life, the books were filled with beautiful hand-painted illustrations of heroes & heroines that looked like me, and intricate ornamentation that was so unlike anything I saw in my immediate surroundings.

I eventually started to attempt to re-create the illustrations myself and for a while, had my heart set on being a children’s book illustrator when I grew up. Alas, that aspiration wouldn’t last too long but it was definitely a starting point for my fascination with visual storytelling.

2. When did you know you wanted to be an artist?

It’s hard to say. I don’t know that it was ever a conscious decision, aside from choosing what I wanted to study in college. Fields of study I wanted to pursue had included creative writing, fine arts, and history. I even entertained the idea of studying law. Disparate as they were, all revolved around the concept of telling or revealing stories in one-way or another.

My oldest sister had gone to art school for graphic design so I was familiar with the field and had inherited a box of paper stock scraps, letrasets, and a paper cutter. Armed with those tools as well as multiple prints from my other sister’s photography assignments and stacks of magazines, I dove into collaging, which naturally led to me pursuing graphic design in school and as a career. I realized that graphic design was the perfect intersection of my interests in words, images and history.

3. What is art to you?

On one end, art is open-ended expression – a means of commuting opinion, emotion, or experience through experimentation without adhering to boundaries or convention. As for applied art, it is a means for manifesting a vision, making tangible what exists in the imagination and creating meaning in the everyday.