The Moment It Clicked

I was sitting in my studio in Cologne in November. Outside: 4°C and drizzling. Three client projects open, a Figma file with 47 pages, and a rent invoice for €1,450 sitting in my inbox.

A designer friend had been sending me photos from Cebu for four months. Sunrises over the sea. A bowl of something that cost €1.50. His desk — a proper desk, not a folding table — overlooking a garden, all for €280 a month.

Three weeks later I had booked my flight.

What I Do

I work in brand identity and digital design — logos, design systems, web UI, and custom WordPress themes for clients across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Everything lives in Figma, a browser, and a PDF. Sometimes a bespoke WordPress theme comes into the mix: building ACF fields, custom post types, working with Bricks or Elementor. It all travels with me.

The files were always portable. I was the one who was not.

Setting Up in Cebu

I landed at Mactan–Cebu International and took a Grab to IT Park. The internet in my serviced apartment clocked 180 Mbps on the first speedtest. My Cologne flat had 35 Mbps on a good day.

Two streets away I found a coworking space — PHP 4,500 per month for a dedicated desk, unlimited coffee, and a calibrated monitor. I did not expect that last part.

For client calls with Germany, the timezone overlap is small but workable. I start at 9am local time — that is 3am CET, so useless. But by 3pm I am fully in the European workday. I front-load design sprints and WordPress builds in the mornings, take calls from 3–7pm. It works.

WordPress From the Other Side of the World

What most people do not think about: building WordPress themes does not require your physical presence, but it does require good tooling. My stack:

  • Local by Flywheel for local development, staging pushes via SSH
  • Figma for all UI components with developer handoff
  • GitHub for version control — clients can follow every commit
  • Loom for screen recordings instead of endless calls

I have shipped more WordPress projects from Cebu than I ever did from Cologne. The uninterrupted morning sessions from 9am to 2pm are worth more than any open-plan office.

The Numbers

Cologne vs. Cebu, monthly:

  • Rent: PHP 22,000 (€360) vs. €1,450
  • Food: PHP 14,000 (€230) vs. €500
  • Coworking: PHP 4,500 (€73) vs. €200
  • Transport: PHP 1,500 (€25) vs. €50
  • Total: ~€690 vs. ~€2,250

I save over €1,500 a month on the same income.

The Honest Parts

The heat is real. I run the AC from noon until early evening and budget PHP 4,000 a month for electricity. Traffic in Cebu can be genuinely bad — I stopped renting a motorbike after two weeks and just use Grab.

Power cuts happen. Rare in IT Park, more common outside. Always have mobile data as a backup.

Fourteen Months In

I have renewed my visa. I have a favourite breakfast spot (PHP 120 for eggs, rice, and coffee), a barber who knows my name, and a Friday routine that involves a ferry to an island I will not name because I do not want it to get more crowded.

The clients are the same. The work is better. The rent is PHP 22,000.

I have no plans to go back.