Designing to dismantle the colonial systems that trained me.
Designing to dismantle the colonial systems that trained me.
Kamusta! My name is Judith Marie Ortiz, but you can call me Juju. I’m a first-generation Filipino-Australian, a cis woman, a proud mother of two, a daughter, sister, aunty and friend. I’m also a recovering assimilator who’s found purpose in reclaiming my identity while using creativity as a tool for change.
There was a moment that changed everything for me—a moment that exposed the impact of colonialism on my identity and woke me up to the systemic harm embedded in mainstream branding, marketing and design. Since then, I’ve been on a mission to use design and storytelling to dismantle oppressive systems, foster belonging, and center people and the planet.
Based in Meanjin (Brisbane), I tell stories, challenge systems, and design solutions that move us closer to a brighter, more equitable future.
Work with me.
Work with me.
welcome to the unbranding revolution
Tatak is an identity studio focused on reindigenising design — helping organisations move from perception management to identity-led practice, where community, culture and ethics aren't an afterthought but the foundation.
If your organisation is ready to stop performing values and start embodying them, this is where we begin.
Projects in progress.
Projects in progress.
I am many things
My four-year-old child, Alba began handing me her drawings asking, "Mummy, can you please add words to my pictures?"
I didn't know what to write. So I told her: let's make a pile and turn them into a book one day.
What grew from that pile is a bilingual children's book about belonging, and the freedom of being many things at once. Every child — Filipino, mixed, migrant, settler, all of the above — deserves to see themselves whole. Not asked to choose. Not asked to shrink.
Because every child is already whole. Already enough. Already many beautiful things.
New DAD deck
30 cards for the 30 hardest days of your life.
One card a day, with an affirmation, a task that makes a real difference, and a joke that proves someone else has been exactly where you are.
This is the gift for the dads that’s really for mum’s too.