About
Klaris Chua is a writer, indie music nerd, and design advocate — in that order.
She started writing in the fifth grade when her English teacher dragged her into a citywide inter-school journalism conference (where she ended up with a fifth place finish among thirty or so contestants). From then on, she was unstoppable. She continued to join other writing conferences and essay competitions in and out of school. She wrote speeches, scripts, short plays, spiels, and creative copy for people around her. She spent most of her high school days managing the school paper and plotting campaign strategies and projects for the student government. These activities led her into believing that one day, she would write for Philippine media.
She got acquainted with indie music and graphic design when her father took home a desktop computer back in April 2002. Through self-study (possibly brought about by sheer boredom), she was able to harness the power of the Internet and soon after started devouring whatever good stuff she would be able to find. Her fondness for obscure bands grew around the time when she would spend countless nights working with Photoshop 7, tinkering with cascading style sheets (CSS), looking for design inspiration, and wondering why people bear with Comic Sans.
She graduated with a BS Journalism degree from the Lyceum of the Philippines in April 2008 and just two weeks after, started working for the country’s largest broadcasting company as a news catalog writer. This self-professed media geek once believed she was off to a great start despite being tagged by many as a full-blown corporate slave.
After spending almost three years in a dog-eat-dog newsroom setting, she decided to balance things out by venturing into print media. She devoted a full year trying to gain exposure in various aspects of publication; including jumping from one magazine to another, and even trying to fit into the less-demanding yet equally exciting world of corporate communications. Through these experiences, she instantly found herself in heaven — right smack in the middle of hell. Her lifelong search for balance turned out to be futile; she knew she had to give up being a writer if she wanted to be serious about the visual arts, and vice versa. She can’t pretend to be both, but she’s too darned to comply.
Her conflicting interests may highlight her instability, but instead she brandishes it as her main selling point. She could tap you with a freaking nail gun anytime, anywhere, for no apparent reason, while discussing geopolitics. She could tell you how inferior your music taste is and then tell you what came out in the local news last night. Give her a piece of paper she could doodle into in exchange for insider info on the inner workings of Manila’s elite. But she’s too lazy to indulge anyone outside of her circle and she only does these things whenever the need arises.
Yes, she is offbeat. But she controls her neurosis better than anyone else.