Furniture designer Clayton Tugonon is the owner, founder, designer, and production and marketing manager of Classical Geometry Export Trading located in Mandaue. His export company does not accept volume orders, as he produces hand-made furniture meticulously marked with his distinct touch.

The son of a businessman, Tugonon was born in Oroquieta City one day in August in the 1960s. He graduated with a B.S. in Biology from Velez College, and was a law graduate from the University of San Carlos. He never had any formal training in the field, and learned the trade by watching his father, who was then CEO of Raphael Legacy Designs, and by doing the work itself. He began as an apprentice in his father's stone inlay business, where he worked for six years. After this, he went off to find work on his own. First he was a subcontractor, and afterwards opened Classical Geometry in 1995.

A freethinker, Tugonon soon made his name known in the industry with his unconventional concepts and designs. Often going beyond the laws of design, he was never afraid to use unusual materials, which have roused mixed reactions. However, though he has never went to any formal design school, he does take care to research the viability and manufacturability of his materials. Moreover, he'd rather be known as a craftsman than a designer, since he works hands on in practically all areas of his business – from conceptualizing designs to packing up the final product. He uses much of his time painstakingly hand-crafting each of his items.

Tugonon's ingenuity and willingness to take risks have paid off. He has earned recognition and design awards both locally and internationally. His first international award was for his Egg-Shaped Table or Itlog, which won in the Product Design/Furniture category of the G-mark Award of the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organisation (JIDPO). In 2006, the same piece snagged him the Furniture Design Award in the Open Category of the International Furniture Fair Singapore (IFFS).

On the local front, Tugonon's first award was from the PIFS Cebu, a Special Citation for Innovative Use of New Material – termite wood. In 2002, he won the Mugna Award for Best Booth Display, along with Kenneth Cobonpue of Interior Crafts of the Islands and Luisa Robinson of Movement 8, as well as the Mugna Award for Best Furniture Complement for his Life Savers, also with Cobonpue and Robinson. In 2005, he received the Mugna Award for Material Innovation for his Fionda chairs. He also received a Presidential citation for contribution to the 2007 ASEAN Summit.

Today, Classical Geometry ships out approximately six to eight 40-foot containers in a month. Tugonon depends on his people just as they depend on his company. Not wanting to let them down, he strives to develop good interpersonal relations with them built on the foundation of loyalty and mutual trust. Every now and then, he takes them to his estate in Tabogon to unwind, and every Christmas, they all participate in a feeding program for indigents in the vicinity of the estate.

The Cebuano craftsman draws inspiration from nature, particularly the sea. His designs are simple – a flawless combination of form and function. With his sensibility to the beauty in his surroundings, everything around him has the potential to become ideas. He designs simply because he loves it with his heart and he doesn't want it to become merely a mechanical process. It is his fear that he'd lose the ability to perceive the beauty around him and be inspired by it. To starting designers, he can only say one thing: never to be ashamed to express themselves and do their own thing. Being a copycat is not better than being a bad designer. Indeed, this very belief has made Tugonon what he is today: a skilled and innovative craftsman whose fearless ideas stand out from the rest.