Unfolding the imagination of Quiccs

From TEQ63 as a character to collaborations that serve as platforms for extended creativity

- By CARL JAVIER

Quiccs shows Manila Bulletin Technews Editor Carl Javier the Mammoth keyboard

When I ring the doorbell to Burnwater Studios and ask about Quiccs, I peek through the door and it doesn't look like anything I expect. I know of Quiccs Maiquez through the figure that he started making in 2012 and that has brought him international renown, TEQ63. So I expected to see a roomful of them.

Later, as we walk around, Quiccs will explain to me that pre-pandemic this room would've been filled with artists creating designs for Burn-water clients. But now it's mostly empty, with artists working from home. Most of this afternoon, talking and seeing the inner workings and aspects of the enterprise, things aren't exactly as I expect, but often surprising and joyful.

I am taken from this first room to another. And later to others. By the end of the afternoon I come to understand that rather than one large office, there's a network of rooms spread across the floor of the office building.

Enter one room and it's a repository for merchandise that's to be sent out, move to another and there's striking artwork and rare toy designs, and yet another is a conference room. Push past what feels like a hallway, and revealed is a special workdesk where yet to be released collabs are hidden from easy view.

This interconnected network of rooms begins to make sense as I keep talking to Quiccs. I'm ostensibly here for this interview because of the new tech-related collaborations he has. But I am also here to learn how he thinks, and how that thinking guides his creativity in building what could arguably be considered a toy empire and what might be my own generation's remix on art collecting.