Filipino Family is Centerpiece of 2016 Pan de Manila Christmas Paper Bags

No other holiday is more awaited and celebrated by Filipinos than Christmas. Playing Christmas carols even with the entry of the “Ber” months and setting up Christmas trees and decorations so early are just some of the things that are proof of the Pinoy’s deep passion for Christmas.

Pan de Manila’s fans will certainly look forward to Christmas time as the country’s favorite bread chain releases its 2016 Paskong Pinoy art, this time by young and promising digital artist Bibsy Ann Torio.  Her art piece will grace the packaging of Pan de Manila, the Christmas paper bags, boxes, and limited edition canvas tote bags containing Pan de Manila palamans.

Bibsy’s work, which took months of conceptualization and days of meticulous execution, centers on the iconic Pinoy Parol featuring a family of carolers, with colors that radiate vivid shades of pastel.  Often captured in fluid, dream-like scenes, Bibsy has always been fascinated by the Filipino family culture, which she finds most beautiful and endearing. 

“I believe my purpose in this life is to show this kind of appreciation to other people. Often whimsical but always with a touch of warmth — this is my happy place, which I hope to share with my audience, wishing that they may find their way home through my art,” she shares. 
 
“In this artwork, I thought of a Filipino family that is freely sharing the spirit of Christmas of giving love and spreading joy.  Christmas is both a festive and sacred celebration, about our love for home; our love for being together; our love for salu-salo. And Pan De Manila is about that, too.  It reminds us to love and preserve our values as a nation with the Filipino family as its core,” Bibsy says of her latest masterpiece.

Bibsy has been doing digital design since 2005, but this is her first time to create a commissioned artwork for a well-known brand like Pan de Manila. 

“Digital art is my life. Because of this platform, I could paint whatever it is that my mind could conceive. I used to paint using traditional mediums yet found out lately that paint has contents I am allergic to. For me, digital art is like a second chance to pursue my purpose,” she says.
 
“My other artworks, apart from showcasing the richness and diversity of our quirks as Filipinos, are also about our culture of close family relationships – the unspeakable bond between mother and child; the love that endures the test of time, we so movingly see every time we look at our grandparents being happy and content with each other.”
 
The exciting design collaboration with Bibsy Torio marks Pan de Manila’s ninth year of commemorating timeless Filipino holiday traditions and customs. The seasonal packaging campaign that began in 2008 has since become a yearly tribute that widely recognizes unique Filipino culture through showcasing artworks by seasoned and upcoming local artists. Among those featured in the Christmas paper bags were Albert Magsumbol, Larry Memije, Rina Albert-Llamas, the late Dante Hipolito,  Amador Barquilla and Jovan Benito.

Bring home the festive joys in colorful paperbags with warm pandesal!  Send as gifts the useful canvas totes with bottled palamans. Share the goodness of Pan de Manila to the entire family and feel the warmth of togetherness.