Cover Photo By Kat Mariano
Cover Photo By Kat Mariano.

Karl Castro: Life with Books


Karl Castro stood before an audience of different ages to talk about his journey towards becoming a book designer.


By Benildean Press Corps | Friday, 3 June 2016

Book designer Karl Castro delivered a speech about a glimpse of his life with books on the first day of “Secret Lives of Books,” a series of talks presented by the Filipinas Heritage Library at 3/F Ayala Museum last May 26 as part of an exhibit on Filipino book design and production.

 

The beginning chapters

Working with books has always been a delight to the Angono-based graphic designer as he has been having an intimate relationship with it since he was of young age. Having a mother who is in the advertising industry, Castro had been more engaged with books, and even admitted on being a nerd. To name a few of the collection of books he had read from his kin’s possession, there are several sets of encyclopedias like Collier’s, Charlie Brown’s, and even Disney’s, and there are also thinner materials like National Geographic magazines, and Reader’s Digest.

 

“Being a reader prepared me to be an artist and a designer,” shared Castro. Among his favorite subjects were country and cultures, history, world records, and any other random topic that challenges him. For Castro, books have always been a very flexible thing – it can be a terrain, a side table, a trophy to share with friends, a tool used to flatten an object, or even a money keeper.

 

Standing before a packed area in the museum, the multi-awarded designer shared three phases in his life that molded him into becoming a book designer; his calligraphy phase inspired by a Lasallian way of writing alphabets and numerics, filipiniana phase where he discovered more of the Filipino heritage, and critical phase where upon diving into new perspectives, he realized that books can be both a buddy and a weapon.

 

More than written works

As part of the talk, Castro presented a few of his art. Among these were personal documentaries on mass transportation using photography, and print photography where he engaged in leaf printing through the use of its chlorophyll. The independent artist explained how book designing can create an impression because of its capability to attract a reader’s attention, or basically tell a reader the story of the book.

 

Questions were entertained right after Castro finished his talk. During the forum, Castro talked about professionalism in book designing, and gave a message to aspiring book designers.

 

Karl Castro is a visual arts major at the Philippine High School for the Arts and a film and audiovisual communication graduate from University of the Philippines – Diliman. He designed his first book cover when he was 17, and have been in the industry for 12 years now.


To know more about the artist, visit karlcastro.com.

 

 

 

Last updated: Tuesday, 8 June 2021