Kara So Kua and Ariane Santos had seen magnetic poetry online and thought that the idea of stringing together tiny magnetic words to create verses seemed fun. They wanted to give it a shot. Although kits weren’t easily available in the Philippines, they were undeterred. They decided to make their own.
Kara, a Management Engineering graduate from Ateneo de Manila University, and Ariane, a Computer Science graduate of University of the Philippines Diliman, soon realized that this could be the business they had been wanting to start. Magnetic Poetry MNL was born.
The two, coworkers who became good friends, have enjoyed great success. Since launching Magnetic Poetry MNL in December 2014, they have sold over 3,000 kits to happy customers who have been using the magnetic words to create poetry and write messages, a lot of which they post on Instagram.
Their Tagalog poetry kit has been a big seller. “We got a lot of positive feedback! A lot of people would send us personal messages saying “salamat, @magneticpoetrymnl” using the word tiles. We were also surprised to learn that it helped some people improve their Tagalog vocabulary. Filipinos living overseas were delighted as well to learn about the Tagalog Kit and they would even excitedly have the kits shipped internationally.”
Other bestsellers are the Starter Kit and the Adjectives Kit.
The girls have their own favorites too. “It’s hard to choose a favorite but my pick would be the Wanderlust Kit because of the travel-related words,” said Kara.
Ariane loves the Tagalog Kit. “Everything sounds more poetic and dramatic in Tagalog.”
The Tagalog kit has been such a hit that they have released a Tagalog II kit. “We decided to make another one due to numerous requests to include specific words like ‘hugot,’ ‘kilig’ and ‘lasing,’ among others. Our personal favorites are ‘torete,’ ‘idlip,’ ‘tampo’ and ‘Pasko.’ We love how there are ‘malalim’ words from the Tagalog II Kit like ‘salimsim,’ ‘siphayo,’ ‘mithi’ and ’karimlan.’”
Other kits include: Foodie, Music, Faith, Office, Taboo, Nerd, The Vow, Nouns, Verbs. They have pop culture-inspired kits too: Friends, LOLCAT , Game of Thrones, Taylor Swift. The Taylor Swift kit includes words like “Starbucks,” “polaroid,” “hey,” “yeah” and “whoa.” “We’re always amused to see how people incorporate the new words from these kits into their old ones.” They also allow people to order custom kits through their website.
And they’re only getting started. “A few more kits are in the works that we’re planning to launch in the next few months. We’re also looking to make the kits available in more key locations in the metro.”
Order your kits through magneticpoetrymnl.com. You can also find Magnetic Poetry MNL at Fab Manila ATC, Fab Manila Glorietta, CO/OP, and Artery Art Space. Follow Magnetic Poetry MNL on Facebook (/magneticpoetrymnl) and Instagram @magneticpoetrymnl.
