Restorative identity work.
Restorative identity work.
My name is Judith Marie Ortiz, but you can call me Juju. A first-generation Filipino-Australian, a mother of two, and a recovering assimilator. At 32, a racist comment cracked open decades of assimilation and set me on a path back to myself, and to this work.
I do identity work, for people and for organisations. I piece them together the way I've had to rebuild myself: acknowledging every layer of self, starting from what's true rather than what looks good. I work from truth, not surface, and I bring that to life across strategy, story, design and experience.
My practice is grounded in Kapwa, the Filipino value that the self only exists in connection with others and the world around us. So the work is always relational: it puts people, culture and belonging at the centre.
Work with me.
Work with me.
How I define my work
Restorative Identity Work
Same work. Different starting point.
I start with identity, not perception. That means treating your business as an entity in a wider ecosystem, not a brand in isolation. Aligning how you present with how you actually operate, so there's no gap between the two. And checking who your brand includes, and who it quietly others, so the work rehumanises rather than flattens.
Identity is the next evolution of brand. I build to restore what colonisation severed: culture, kapwa, Country, and self.
This is Tatak, my restorative identity studio, and the Entity Identity Framework underneath it.
How mainstream defines me
Brand + Creative Director
I lead brand and creative, from strategy to execution.
That means shaping how an organisation is positioned and perceived, developing its identity, voice and story, directing campaigns and creative, and producing the work itself, across design, content and experience.
I've done it in-house and through my own studio, for national organisations, small businesses and everything between. Brand systems, campaigns, publications, products, events, whatever the idea needs to land.
Twelve years across brand, marketing and design. Strategy and hands-on craft, in one.
Projects in progress.
Projects in progress.
I am many things
My four-year-old, Alba, kept handing me her drawings: "Mummy, can you add words to my pictures?"
What grew from that pile is a bilingual children's book about belonging, and the freedom of being many things at once. No child should have to choose, or shrink, to belong.
Because every child is already whole. Already enough. Already many beautiful things.
Salo Spread
salo-salo: to gather, to share a meal together.
"Bring a plate." Okay, but... what?
Salo Spread is the layer that sits inside whatever invite you're already sending and answers "what should I bring?" for everyone at once. No repeats, no gaps, and a lighter host.
tARno
Terno + AR.
The butterfly sleeve from the Filipino terno built to rise up and take up space turned into a canvas. On the surface, a bold print. Point your phone at it and a hidden layer opens: colour, movement, story.
Colonisation flattened our culture into something you weren't meant to see. tARno is restoration wear. Seen at a glance. Known up close.
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.
Heal with me.
Heal with me.
