Africa

Creative Crush – Bolanle Igure

  • Brief about yourself (two lines)

A multi-talented finance industry professional with interests in Finance, Business Consulting, Innovations, Intellectual property development, creativity, Commercial Arbitration and motivating people to pursue and achieve their potentials.

  •  You recently developed a product (IgureTable Soccer Board Game), What motivated you? –

The need to have a fun game/activity that families can use for bonding and foster social interactions across various geographies.

  •  Do you have a process for the development of the product?

Conception, Research, Product Design, Development and Creation

  •  A major Challenge of developing products in Africa –

Access to material inputs, inexpensive production processes and systems and production support facilities, lack of organized distribution channels especially for new products.

  • Benefit of the product

A multi sector product useful in the education, sports, recreation, hospitality and home sectors to boost social interactions, integration, relaxation, education and entertainment.

  • You book of all times?

How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie

  • One rule for product developers

Never give up

  • Your philosophy about life

 Live and let live

  • How does your product help Creatives

To remind them that there is still something new under the sun

  • Country you will like to visit. Why –

Paris – It is the city of love.

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For more information contact or visit

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Creative Crush

Creative Crush – Solomon Eteng, Artist

1. Three lines about yourself

I am Effa Solomon Eteng, a fine and fast rising visual communicator. I am from Cross River State, Nigeria. Born on the 4th of September. Born and raised in Lagos state. I studied Visual Arts & Technology in Cross River University of Technology from 2010-2014. Am currently practicing in Abuja.

As the head of DeMotif’ Art, I am merging art with all other disciplines of life as I finds that creativity should be a necessary fuel to facilitate works and tasks in this world in all works of life.

I am an impressionist and expressionist painter, I loves to explore waste materials too. I loves painting in cools of blues, greens and greys and my colours sometime seem depressive. I am also a graphic designer, illustrator and a poet. I views Arts as a deity and its renditions as a ritual. I also sees Artists as creators and divine being sent not just to make the earth beautiful but also to solve problems that lingers in the society with their language of creativity to extend the lifespan of God’s creation.

2. What do you like about Abuja
Abuja is a land of promise, calm, peaceful, and orderly. Good weather, not extremely rainy/sunny.
Unlike Lagos State, the land of opportunities, whereby the number of person involved in the same practice as you are in their thousands Increasing competitions (sometimes very unbearable competitions that makes you feel like you’re at war with your colleagues), extending the length/time frame to fame, Abuja is a place that has a place for every creative individual, competitive too, but instead makes you feel a family kind of relationship with your colleagues.

Most Abuja residence still find our creative ideas in this twenty first century strange and new to them and also fascinating which urges them to participate in the trends with their patronage. Though Abuja is doing well in her level of art awareness, though I still feel has not really beating the Lagos art market but with consistency of our current level of practice, Lagos better watch out for us.

3. Describe your images
My art are most times an expression of my personal urges, plights, and celebrations. My art as well looks into the society to reveal/point out some ills, not necessarily solving them, it would take a purple leopard for just one man to change the world, but in the words of Tu Pac Shakur “our job is to spark the brains that would change the world” and if we keep speaking about how bad it is out here, people would rise to get it cleaned up. And when I say speak, I do mine not just with my mouth but with my arts and creations cos one piece of art has to power to speak a million words in just a moment in various languages.

4. Ten years from now, where do you see yourself
Hmmm! I see myself finally being able to prove that there should be a seat for an artist in every company, organisation, factory, establishments, etc. I see myself been able to sign and train as many upcoming artist who are very fresh in the industry. If we must conserve the culture of art in Nigeria and keep it from being extinct then we most never leave the younger generation of artist to be on their own. The hustle in the industry in a Nigeria like ours where every family draws out their scale of preference for their house hold and hardly would find purchase of artworks in their to do list, a Nigeria where the art patrons brag about buying works of veterans and of course with very good millions, a Nigeria were it seems like no one is paying attention to the young and up coming, can drift or knock off our young talents of track completely due to lack of attention and patronage. The next you hear is them taking minor jobs that aren’t even related to there fields just to survive, keeping them day, months, or even years away from practice, exercise, and exploration of new ideas. Some you will start to find at betting centers, and some involves in internet fraud and so on.
I sometimes feel that the creative veterans in Nigeria seem somewhat unconcerned about their succeeding generation. This is a call to them all to save the industry today for tomorrow when their pencils would spend more time on their tables than on their hands, by pulling us closer the themselves and of course to the market out there.

So Ten years from now I see myself happy, successful, more creative, more innovative, more inventive and of course a blessing to the Nigerian creative industry.

5. One lesson you teach people
Yes!
Idea’s, inspiration, wealth, and success do exist but it must find you working (2 Thes 3:10). No one made millions in their beds, No got a world changing idea by being idle. The best idea comes to you when at work, when experimenting. So what are you doing right now at this moment? You don’t have to wait for a neighbor to invent portals for man to pass through walls and to the rest of the world when you have the capacity to do so yourself. All you need to do is get up and work. Even if you are the type to copy Ideas and works of others to imitate or reproduce them, it also takes a hard working and very creative mind to understand how a design was started from mare studying its finished work. So get up and work.

6. What makes you uncomfortable
The fact that I haven’t gotten to where I really want to be in the industry makes me uncomfortable. The fact that artist are paid less attention in Nigeria makes me uncomfortable. The fact that majority of Nigerians under-prize the worth of art whenever they need a job done makes me uncomfortable. The fact that it looks like it so hard to solve all of these makes me very uncomfortable.

7. What motivates you
I try to put God first, cos He is the first and the best artist ever. Understudying works and ideas of my role models and other colleagues also keeps me motivated. Money as well keeps me motivated cos with that I have the capacity to stock my studio with more materials that I experiment with. Having limited materials limits my exploration. I love listening to good music while working, I love a clean studio and a clean environment, it helps motivate me to work all the time. I love good food. Most times before I design, invent, or create any form of art, i’ll visit my kitchen and make myself a very delicious meal before I start.

8. Tell us about your dream award
It would have to be the highest award in my area of discipline that would recognize me as an advocate for young and upcoming artist, but who knows, God can give me a higher recognition that this. So if I let myself speak about what award I think i’ll love to earn then it would be that am limiting my worth to what God sees me to be. So i’ll just wait for God to surprise me.

9. Any marketing tip for aspiring photographers, Designer or Artist?
Artist should learn to be their own promoter. They should learn to be their own advertisers.
Am glad to be in the twenty first century where everything is influenced by technology. The social media has been more of a blessing that a cures to our generation. It depends of what you use it for. These days it easier and faster to be recognized via the help of social media but it amazes me when creative individuals post more irrelevant content than that of their creations. I advise that creative individuals should from now, embrace the use of social media to get noticed and involved in the world. Advert promotions on social media are now as affordable as a day’s meal. It really works.

Also I use to say “Its your fault if you don’t know”. Knowledge has no been made free in this twenty first century via the help of google and various other internet search engines and encyclopedia. It is a way you can walk through walls to the rest of the world too see what goes on at the other sides of the globe. Inquisition makes ones works and ideas richer.

10. Do you think storytelling can influence policy?
Yes I do believe. Living in today’s world where fun and entertainment has taken over the atmosphere which the people have found and use to distract themselves from sad and disturbing truths, It would be best to use this same mind reliving and trouble distracting tool to point their faces at the things they want to be distracted from till something is done about it. So yes. Lets influence policy with the stories we tell in our arts, and various other forms of creativity.

Click me to reach Effa

 

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Business

Shrinkage

The old world business killer.
A friend recently told me how he lost millions to a business or supposed investment. I couldn’t stop querying what could have been responsible for the collapse of the business… the word that kept popping in my head is “SHIRNKAGE”. You might not have heard of the word, but it is a silent deadly killer of Nigerian businesses. The term shrikage refers to ‘consumer theft’ or in pidgin, ‘obtain’, ‘shop lifitng’. If for example you run a store, and you periodically notice several items missing, as a manager, you might tend to blame it on the ‘shop girls’ or ‘sales girls’ …”the pikin don steal my goods again”… and it comes with pusnishment or loss of job but might have been ‘lifted’ by ‘lift-shoppers’. Another way to look at the word ’shirnkage’ is employee theft. Instead of the employee recording N200, he records N198. If you want your business to survive, you have to be the eye and watchman for every moulding coin or ‘bankable note’. 40% loss of profit could be attributed to shirnkage in comparison to business incompetence and economic influences.

Some ways to prevent shrinkage
1. Camera: CCTV has helped so far reducing the percentage of cases to 80%. Install cameras!!!. When staff knows that there is hidden camera monitoring their progresses, they tend to compose and operate at their best.
2. Roam your business physically and remotely. How do you roam your business? The essence of accounting software running on web is to help track every part of the operations of your business. You are not there but you can monitor income remotely, visually and analytically.
3. Understand business enterprise architecture. Enterprise architecture enforces discipline and standardization of business processes. What is your business process?
4. Design your own business enterprise architecture. Because this is how it has been done doesn’t mean it is rightly done. Observation should lead to improvement and better automation.
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.

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Creative

Creative Crush – Olorunsegun Olorunfemi, Illustrator

  •  Brief about yourself

I am a Lagos based illustrator and designer, a sound engineer who studied Public Administration (LASU)

  • What are your strengths?

My strengths are enthusiasm, creativity, discipline, patience, determination and dedication.

  • Your philosophy of art

my philosophy of art is the representation of reality, the depiction of ordinary, everyday activities and life in a cartoonist style.

  •  How long have you been doing this?

I have been an art enthusiast since my formative years. Been drawing since I was a teenager but I only seriously began illustrations around last year.

  • What was your biggest failure?

Not doing arts in the university

  • Who’s your mentor?
  • If you mean who inspire me then I will say Ben Enwonwu and lemi Ghariokwu

What is your favorite website? No favorite website.

  • Your likes about Lagos.. I love the beautiful beaches, exciting attractions like the Terra kulture, fredompark, owambe parties, large and accessible market, daily Lagos scenes, street vendors, agbero, bus conductors….
  • What will you change in Nigeria?
  • Education
  • 10. Do you think your art is a movement? 

Yes.

For more information on Olorunsegun’s work click me

 

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Creative Crush

Creative Crush – Binta Shuaibu, Fashion Designer / Entrepreneur

      • About Yourself. (Education, Experience)
      • Ms. Binta Shuaibu was born in Kano State, Nigeria to parents who were both civil servants and had emphasis on the girl child education. She has always exemplified strong leadership and visionary qualities both personally and for her organization. She has shown tremendous growth for her brand over the years, one of which is her ‘WHY’ business belief for her brand which is:“We believe that clothes should fit women and not women altering their bodies to fit clothes. We know, that fit and comfort are decisive factors, which every woman looks for in what she wears. As such, with years of research, our teams of experts have invented a Nigerian size guide, which takes into account that Nigerian women are hardly proportional to mainstream clothing sizes. By designing culturally sensitive, easy to wear Afrocentric high street clothing, we are the brand that ensures it all fits. We produce and retail affordable, functional, and trendy clothes for the retro fashion-focused woman.We are passionate about ethical fashion wages for our workers and are constantly working towards changing the poverty status quo within our communities”. This Innovation solves the developmental challenge of decent work and economic growth, which is one of the SDG’s goals.” With a B.Sc in Biochemistry and an M.Sc in International Affairs to Diplomacy, she also studied at Cisco Networking Academy in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria. She has also obtained a lot of experience when she studied for short courses on Fashion at the University of the Arts-Central Saint Martins, London, United Kingdom and also several entrepreneurial and Business management courses. She is a moderate French speaker and fluent in English. Ms. Shuaibu core strength is visionary leadership. She is passionate about changing the poverty status quo within her community and investing in women and women entrepreneurship.
  • Why did you choose the fashion industry?
  • I chose to work in the fashion industry because it was the only industry that i could decide to work for free because of the my passion for it and also because there was a need that i wanted to fill with my expertise within the industry.
  • Singular most important lesson for upcoming Fashion Designers
  • Learn to know your strengths and weaknesses, to know whether you want to work within the industry or lead your company. There are too many failed fashion businesses simply because a lot of the jobs required for the fashion value chain are not occupied by the right individuals trained for the job, because everyone interested in the fashion industry focuses only of being a fashion designer leaving the other positions vacant.
  • What is your inspiration? I am inspired mostly by lifestyle of individuals.
  • Ever felt like quitting and what helped you get through
  • Yes, so many times. What helped me go through was my visual imagination for the future of my brand. I have never taken my eye off my vision for the brand.
  • If you weren’t (whatever he or she is doing), what would you be up to right now?
  • I would have been an Architect, Interior Designer or a Business Strategist.
  • What’s your biggest/weirdest fear doing business?
  • Economic Catastrophe and not being able to give my clients the right value for their money.
  • What would be your one super power?
  • Resilience to never give up.
  • Doing business in Nigeria? Is only for the strong willed and passionate entrepreneur.
  • Aiming at winning any award?
  • No. Just trying to do the best I can for now.

For more information about Ms. Binta,

Web: www.vintagecolette.com

Twitter: Vintage_colette

Instagram: Vintage Colette

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Creative Crush

Creative Crush – Michael Okoroagha, Illustrator

  • Describe yourself.

I am someone who is mature, candid and who has integrity.  Everyday I work to improve myself and my skills  which is part of maturing and becoming better at what I do. I demonstrate an unwavering resolve to do whatever must be done to produce the best long-term results, no matter how difficult.”I take responsibility for my actions and when things go wrong I don’t look to outside forces to blame.

  • How long have you been doing this? 

Professionally I’ll say five years

  • What’s your philosophy of art?

Not necessarily too realistic. Studying character art and environment art. …keyword (visual development)

  • First step towards becoming an illustrator.
  1. Create a Professional Portfolio.
  2. Gain Work Experience. …
  3. Build Clientele.
  • Are famous people happy? 

Not all the time.

  • Tell us how you handled a difficult situation.

Well most times, it often boils down to a tight deadline.. if the deadline is too tight and I am burning out..I hire a junior illustrator to help me with art thumbnails.

  • What motivates you?

There are times where you do need to summon up the power(s) of creativity and get motivated…those times when you are feeling down,and almost depressed, the tough times. “My motivation just comes from wanting to get better all the time, I’m always looking to better myself as an artist and push onto more ambitious projects. I rarely feel content, I often look back at work I did one month ago and feel like I could do it better in the present. It’s also good to be surrounded by artists who are totally better than you, they have a way of making you want to work harder.”

  • Who’s your mentor?

I have no particular mentor, every artist better than me is my mentor.

  • What is your favorite website?

Pinterest and artstation.com

  • What questions haven’t I asked you?

Cant think of any.

You can find Michael through the following links:

https://www.facebook.com/michael.okoroagha

https://www.instagram.com/artofmichael_okoroagha/

https://www.artstation.com/digitalmo9

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Event

Go Create !

We at Huluku Initiative for Creative Professionals and Entrepreneurs celebrated the World Creativity and Innovation Day. On April 27, 2017, the United Nations resolved to include World Creativity and Innovation Day, April 21 as a Day of Observance to encourage people to use creativity in problem-solving for all issues related to achieving the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals. 2018 marks the first year the UN will observe WCID. The purpose for World Creativity and Innovation Day was, and still is, to remind and encourage people to use their creativity to make the world a better place and to make their place in the world better too.

Africans need to appreciate and celebrate the ingenuity in them. With the unemployment rate above 12% in the sub-Sahara Africa, no other way to solve the issue than to motivate and inspire creators to start innovating and developing. The creativity economy across the globe is over $2.2 trillion, the carving of our own share begins with the process of ideation, collaboration, creation and sharing.

We had two prominent speakers in the world of Creativity; Mr. Reward Verere Enakerakpor, AKA the storyteller; he spoke on his journey of creativity and how everything became connected for his present success. He asked the attendees to have faith in self and not to give up. Mr. Sola Olododo added that one of the God-given assignments is to Go Create! We are makers, creators having innumerable potential and ideas to transform lives and engage resources for the benefits of all. Mr. David Osagie spoke on new Ideas and Innovation…he said,”new innnovations and advancement is ineveitable,it is important for us to birth new ideas. He further added, “when you get an idea, you need to go through with it, because all of us are connected to the same source. If you do not implement the idea, somone else will catch it”.

No one can do everything, everyone can something. World Creativity and Innovation Day April 21 (WCID) was born on May 25, 2001, in Toronto, Canada.

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Creative

Through the eyes of a child

Stupid thing to do? See through the eye(s) of a child sometimes. Ask a child his solution to a problem. We have heard of and had those “power moments” of brainstorming, the big board meeting, the big tables and the big chairs, the markers with big wigs and their gadgets that lead to nothing.

Adults could be regimented because of their formed opinion and experience but the heart of a child is always inquisitive, curious and wanting to know. Children aren’t afraid of making mis-take, they see the fun in the activity, and are willing to make ‘trying’ a tool for exploration. Everybody thinks. Everybody including children thinks. This is the age of Experience. Children are quick to state their experiences about places, products and services.

I once went to a “Bank” in Nigeria, after spending half an hour on the queue, a child next to me said, “Mummy, I don’t like this place!” Those lines triggered my thinking system. I was curious to know why he said so. Was it because of the crowd, the long queue, the time spent and wasted? I asked the child, “Why don’t you like this place?” He said, ‘cause he needed to go do his homework’. For the Child, other than spending long time in the bank, there are priorities of his to be taken care of; perhaps the Bank didn’t know that the long queue is an indicator of ineffectiveness. Of course you will say that the Bank is not an environment for play or a classroom for working on an assignment, but what if the bank makes her brand homely & friendly? What if the bank redesigns its process of attending to customers? What if there is a special section for nursing mothers, for physically challenged? What if the bank values the time of my client’s client invariably? When as a business or a freelancer you have succeeded at making your client’s client better, then you are in business.

The creative prowess of a child can be utilized to solve a problem. Children are valuable natural resources. Don’t be afraid to ask a child to come up with a recipe, the prototype of your next product, the sketch/wireframes of your next app, the answer to your research questionnaire, the script for your next play… The result might be the next BIG THING; the result might just be phenomenal.

Children are our most valuable natural resources
– Herbert Clark

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Creative

Free your mind

We all as Creative professionals are performers. A performer could exhibit stage fright on function. Let’s admit it, the artist shivers at the sight of a blank canvas, a writer could stare at a blank page for hours without a drop of ink, the Composer might dread the sound of silence looming his studio. It is easier to watch the ‘Angel on the piano play’, ‘the butterfly fluttering its wings’ but such grandeur takes immense practice and conduct at act..

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