Just playing with some ideas...mind "blowing" right? lol

Graphic Design in Nigeria Now...

A few years ago...okay maybe more than a few years ago, let's say about a decade ago, graphics design in Nigeria was not necessarily an exciting job-except of course, you worked for a well paying advertising firm-, it was just a means of survival for guys who worked at business centers and wanted to do something more than just type-setting, spiral binding or the most popular then, photocopying. Due to these rather shallow motives,those who were into the ' business' of graphics lacked a lot of creativity -though not necessarily all but most-and this made the field seem like an uninteresting one. One other thing that was peculiar with graphics design those days was that you had to have a shop or be attached to a shop were a lot of "biz" took place. Back those days, i remember seeing them as typist(yeah guilty too, but you can't blame me!) who just do as they're told or rather duplicate what they see!

As a fine artist, i know creativity when I see it, I can differentiate between what is from the heart and what isn't. Most of the graphic designs then were just to pass across information,-which is the primary aim though-but graphic design should or rather, entails more than just passing across 

information. From my point of view-and also my stand point-it should tell more like the class of the event and what is to be expected(using a poster advertising a program as an example). If the only aim is to pass across information, then we could just use plain text and be straight to the point! But you and I know it's because we want to tell more, that we decide to use graphics (images too!) to express our ideas! 

I also believe that what ever is worth doing is worth doing well, so the world of graphic designs should not be ventured into without three things- skill,which is more like the technical 'you know what', passion, which is strength and most of all to stand out-CREATIVITY!

Well, like I stated earlier, these were only lacking a few years...there I go again ...about a decade ago. All you need to do to understand me, is join a social network like Facebook©, and type in certain keywords that relate to graphics, and the search return would blow your mind!(Be sure to restrict your search to Nigeria). Graphic gurus display some of their works in photo albums and trust me the game has changed-in fact I think the right word is transformation, or better still-REVOLUTIONIZED! People in Nigeria-mostly the younger ones- now have more than what it takes to be into the world of graphics. I'm not talking about certificates but skills, not interest but passion, not just functionality but creativity! It's good to know that the possibilities are endless, and certain ideas are being thrown out the window. one of those is having a shop like a business center, and merely just 'hustling'. Graphics has gone beyond print designs...yes we're taking it to the web also! Almost every graphic designer is a web designer now, and in my book that is a plus to the industry (Did I just say industry?).

Those early Internet years in Nigeria,I would see a graphic design or an animation or yet a flash(Yes that's one other area we're ...I mean we've infiltrated too!) on the net and be like "those guys(you know who I mean, don't you?) are unbelievable", It was like close to impossible for us to get to that stage, but now I see one of those and I just try to analyze it and probably even wonder if was not the creativity of one of my brothers(again I suppose you know who that refers to). The best part of it is that graphic designers are now making more than just lunch money from their passion, and that-according to Oprah- makes every other pay cheque a bonus!