The Rare Studio

We believe in Poetic Anthropology,
which is the study of how design
evolves human experiences with
everyday spaces, objects and
materials. It develops uncanny
places, tools and transformations through various design processes.
The Rare Studio is a studio for design and research that works within graphic design, interaction, and architecture. Rare works in a broad range of media including printed matter, interaction, urban space, digital landscape, rapid-prototyping, and design research. Rare follows hunches, embraces curiosity, and facilitates gaps to avoid complacency. Rare is not just a studio, but a place to learn, grow, discover and break expectations. Rare is deeply interested in new ways of leveraging the imagination through visual information, revealing and exploiting non-space through physical experiences, and provoking paradigm shifts on technology through affective and presence-based interaction.

Profiles

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Rare began with three graduates from the Grad Media Design program at Art Center College of Design in 2012 by Mike Manalo, Ricardo R. Bojorquez and Salvador Orara
in Los Angeles.

Michael Manalo

Michael Manalo is an environmental designer focused on merging architecture and urban design with interaction and communication design. After receiving his Bachelor of Architecture from Woodbury University in 2008, he has collaborated with Urban Operations Studio to create the Skyscraper Pamphlet series — a zine dedicated to future speculative programming of 20th century modern skyscrapers. His collaboration with Los Angeles based designers Vince Akuin and Wilson Rodas-Corado; have produced speculative works about issues of USGS registered contaminated sites and developed memorials for civilian victims of the Iraqi-War conflict. He received his MFA in Media Design from the Grad Media Design at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California, 2012.

Michael's work has been featured at WUHO (Woodbury University Hollywood Gallery), Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery (University of Nevada, Reno), Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts/Projects Space (New York, NY), and Works/San Jose (San Jose, CA). Other portfolio work includes workshops in urban housing development in Paris, France and Nanjing, China- along with communication design seminars at Woosong University in Daejon, Korea.

Ricardo Buddy Bojorquez

Ricardo Buddy Bojorquez is an artist, sculptor and graphic designer in Los Angeles. He was born in 1985. He earned a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Fiction from Azusa Pacific University in 2008. Immediately after graduating he worked at Studio Dror in New York City where his knowledge of design was applied to a range of design disciplines from traditional print design, brand development, web design, product design and research. Buddy received his MFA in Media Design from the Grad Media Design program at the Art Center College of Design in 2012.

In 2011, Buddy was invited to the Werkplaats Typografie/ISIA workshop in Urbino, Italy, where he studied under the mentorship of Armand Mevis, Maureen Mooren, Leonardo Sonnoli and Karel Martens.

He has worked on projects for Target, Kasthall, UCLA Architecture and Urban Design, Yigal Azrouel, Deere Colhoun, and The Lady Liberty Building.

Salvador Orara

Salvador Orara is a creative technologist and cross disciplinary designer whose work encompasses strategy, design, science, and technology. His projects range from traditional print, web design and development, brand strategies, tangible and intangible interaction, experience design, information architecture, sonic interaction and sonification. Salvador received a BFA in Graphic Design from The University of the Arts in 2005. Between 2005 & 2010 he worked with Eddie Opara at The Map Office NYC, until Eddie's partnership with Pentagram, NY. Salvador received his MFA in Media Design from the Grad Media Design Program, at Art Center College of Design in 2012.

His clients have included the Studio Museum in Harlem, Halstead, UCLA Architecture and Urban Design, the Queens Museum of Art, The St. Regis Hotel NYC, (ARO) Architecture Research Office, the Corcoran Group, JWT, Nokia, The University of the Arts, and Art Center College of Design.