MANILA, Philippines — Like many fellow OFWs who had gone before him to work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, multimedia artist John NL Leyson steeled himself to the adjustments of culture shock, like the preferential treatment of locals over foreign nationals in incidents like traffic accidents, regardless of who really was at the wrong end of the signal.

But patriotism cuts both ways, and the love that Leyson saw that the citizens of Riyadh had for their country, their Islamic faith, and each other made a strong imprint on his soul.

“What is beautiful about them is that their sense of national identity is very strong,” Leyson recalls. “They wear their traditional robes in the office, not corporate suits.

They’d stop in the middle of the highway to greet a friend, not dictated by the green-red-yellow signal lights of the West. You’d see the latest Mercedes Benz model carrying a sheep [tied to its] back. It was a merging of the modern world and the Arab world,” he says.

Leyson continues, “They had a rich culture, from their malls to their mosques. Nakatatak talaga sa kanila ang Islamic values and design.”

It was a realization that would burn bright within him, to return with him as he replanted his roots in Manila years after designing training modules for the Saudi Arabian Royal Air Force. As a student in Fine Arts in the University of the Philippines, Leyson had studied Baybayin, the ancient Filipino writing. He immersed himself in it, in its research, in his homecoming.

The former hobby has become one of his signature signs in Una, the fashion line he designed to cater to the needs of practitioners of Filipino martial arts like arnis and our indigenous hand-to-hand combat.

Breaking a mindset

Una, launched in 2010, is actually his second company. Leyson first turned entrepreneur in 2006 when he established Liquid and Liquid Creations, a lean and mean design company that includes fellow artists, programmers, copywriters and a sales force in its roster.

Early this year, Leyson added another feather to his cap by putting up Vinta World Innovations Inc., the first local firm to compete in the Tablet market with two Pinoy brands, aptly named Noli 2.0 and El Fili 2.0.

Call it his sense of mission and vision, but all three companies and the products and services they offer share one common purpose: “We have to break the impression that if something is Filipino-made, it is automatically seen as cheap and not durable,” Leyson passionately argues.

Design for this businessman artist is not just a trade or even aphilosophy, but an instrument that can add dignity to Filipino enterprise and empower Pinoys.

His first clients were fellow small-scale entrepreneurs who regarded design as an attractive but dispensable accessory; Leyson taught them the importance of branding, their own corporate look, and how the elements of both could weave to boost their marketing efforts and polish their professional image. “Design,” he says, “is a matter of the heart. It’s an appreciation of care, excellence and respect.”

His clientele has since grownto 100, expanding to include bigtime players and foreign customers from countries like New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia.

Leyson applied the same perspective when he started training in arnis as a hobby in 2008.

It disquieted him that many Filipino youths, while raring to try their mettle in other Asian martial arts, barely knew their own. He realized that part of the problem lay in packaging and marketing. Fighting favorites like taekwondo may boast of centuries of tradition and history, but can still look hip in the 21st century without diminishing or losing its legacy.

Leyson took a look and saw that, in comparison, Pinoy martial arts still had to outgrow its provincial image; in some exhibitions, it appeared downright shabby.

Una’s solution was to create an online store that conceptualized, designed, manufactured and delivered shirts, uniforms and training pants for arnis and Pinoy hand-to-hand combat. While Leyson says that there are only 10,000 practitioners of these martial arts forms in the Philippines, his main bulk of customers come from Filipino communities in the U.S., Italy and Russia. Foreign nationals who had also taken to the sport buy their gear from him.

Pinoy homegrown tablets

Wanting his countrymen to flex their other kind of muscles, Leyson put up Vinta in the first quarter of 2011. Like the famous Zamboanga sailing vessel it was named after, Vinta’s purpose was to open the horizons of opportunity for Pinoys by making technology affordable.

Noli 2.0 and El Fili 2.0 sell much less than the usual Android tablets that are found in the market, and half the price of the latest iPad. They are packed with the prerequisite WiFi, USB port, GPS, in-built camera and stereo, and access to Android applications. The Noli 2.0 has 4GB while El Fili 2.0 has twice that size.

Aside from the price, what sets them apart are original mobile applications that can teach the user something more about his homeland: a virtual tour of the Philippines and its many islands; a visual display of its indigenous birds, flora and fauna; a portal that recommends Manila-based restaurants; and a virtual classroom that teaches young people cloud computing.

Supporting the tablets is the vaunted Pinoy customer service orientation that has made our call center sector the leading in the world. Leyson trains his team to excel in after-sales service, not just in design, haunted by his own experiences as an irate customer in the incompetent hands of a rude serviceman.

“Wala kang matawagan, bastos ang mga kausap mo—you want to change that,” he says. He tells his people, “If the complaint is valid, palitan kaagad; we want to change the rules of the game.”

Leyson is halfway into that arena already. He wants to redefine the parameters further in the near future with more Pinoy tablet applications and an Una-sponsored Filipino martial arts showcase.

His greatest challenge is the changing of a Pinoy mindset entrenched in fear, hesitation, and the false belief that he is mediocre. “Design has a redemptive power,” he says, and that may be the strongest weapon in his arsenal.

For more info, click on liquidandliquid.com.