The boys at Gunship Revolution (GR) have a plan: World Domination.
It’s simple enough, really. The old saying about a picture painting a thousand words has been commandeered, retro-fitted and expanded to a thousand digital images painting millions of words, across countries, seas and time zones.
Don’t be surprised if pretty soon, 1 out of 3 images you see in a day is GR-made.
The core group is composed of Managing Director Emman “El Heneral” Javier, Marthy “Omniskriba” Angue, and Harvey “Soulspine” Bunda, who have worked together on various personal and professional projects for more than a decade. They would frequently meet on weekends to, as Angue put it, “swap professional horror stories and new art techniques.”
“It was the horror stories that got us thinking, ‘maybe the way we’re doing things now isn’t the best thing for all of us.’ Years and years of horror stories were processed in those meetings before we figured out what we ended up wanting to start.”
Both Angue and Javier had stable jobs that were more or less in line with what they wanted to do, but their vision of creating something greater, a creative space that artists could thrive in and earn from, only got stronger. After years of dreaming, scheming and not so random meeting, Gunship Revolution opened in January 2012.
“By the time late October (of 2011) rolled in, we were deciding on what to call the new group. We put it to a vote, collecting suggestions from the artists, and weeding them down to about a dozen options. The “Revolution” bit didn’t come in until this one conversation Emman and I had about tending our resignations that month.” Angue said.
“I made a reference to Russia’s October Revolution. Emman jumped on the “Revolution” part and suggested we slap it onto the word “Gunship,” which was suggested by one of our artists, Xavier Basa. We posted the shortlist on Halloween and received the results the next day. This is why we call November 1, 2011 the day we became Gunship Revolution.”
So what exactly is the Revolution about??
“Gunship Revolution is a coordinated creative community.” Marketing Director Angue explained. “Imagine an online forum of around two dozen freelance artists, each one with their own set of clients, resources, skills, and so on. Now, imagine that group coordinated by a centralized hub, pooling those assets together and packaging it all under one system. The hub – Emman, Harvey and myself – take stock of everyone’s past clients, list down marketable skills, prepare portfolios and websites, hunt down clients, and designate who’s coming up for which projects.”
“Since we each work from where we live, a typical day for us at the hub usually involves teleconferencing over dinner, or doing home workouts in between writing online articles or introductory emails to potential corporate partners. It’s a packed day but we do, at least, have the opportunity to arrange our schedules around routines that keep us most creative. That’s one of the major reasons why we started GR in the first place.”
This creative kibbutz has attracted some of the best comic artists and digital painters in the Philippines to date. Their Technical Director Harvey Bunda is one of the most successful freelancers in the Philippine comics industry. Kriss Sison, one of their Senior Art Directors, won a Japanese International Manga Award in 2008.
In the past few months, GR has done illustrations for Namco Bandai, and concept art for titles such as the Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Game Guide, Robotech, He-Man, and Max Steel, as well as art for various card games. “Emman’s favorite project would be the ones we did for the SNK Playmore King of Fighters card game. He’s been a huge fan since forever. It’s one of those projects where you imagine your younger self being really proud about what you’re doing,” Angue shared. They’re also currently doing art for some big Kickstarter-backed projects.
GR also has a number of correspondents in China, Germany, Singapore and the United Kingdom. “Our sites abroad are basically occupied by artists who have either worked with us in the Philippines then moved, or are affiliated with one of our artists abroad. If we have someone who decides to move to the States or an American who wants to join us, a US site is definitely possible. A lot of our main clients are from the US, so having someone there would be a plus.”
Not to mention a step closer to global creative-visual-illustrative domination.
—
Facebook | DeviantArt | Twitter
