Episode 152: Senongo Akpem

This week, we're talking to one of Revision Path's very first guests -- Senongo Akpem.

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Senongo Akpem is a brilliant art director and illustrator currently in New York City. What I love about Senongo’s work is how he mixes futurism along with his Nigerian culture to create really fantastically creative projects.

We started off by discussing two of his most well-known projects — Pixel Fable and Holo Halo. From there, Senongo walked me through his early career, explained how his time in Japan helped shaped him as a designer, and gave some really sharp critiques on the current design community. Senongo is one of the very first designers I reached out to back in Revision Path’s early days, so our interview today feels like a real full circle moment. I think you’ll really get a lot out of this episode. Enjoy!

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The New African Typography

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African typography is inevitably linked in the minds of many to tribal imagery, rough lettering, and loosely geometrical features. Designers wishing to convey an African sensibility in their work through typography are often left with stereotypical choices. A search with the keyword “African” on Typekit or Font Squirrel does not yield any results. Further queries on Fonts.com and Linotype yield these choices: African Elephant Trunk, Lagos Regular, Afroflare Regular, and simply “African.” This latter font family, designed by Anton Scholtz, is by far the most popular hit as it is also present in Google fonts. The font families are predictably called African Gold, African Jungle and African Textile. Needless to say that there is a glaring gap of elegant African-inspired fonts.

So what exactly qualifies as an African font? Is such a designation necessary or even desirable? With such a vibrant culture, Africa is teeming with opportunities for designers to get inspired and bring a fresh new look to a field that can be prone to dogmatism as to what constitutes good typography. Below are some designers aiming to showcase the cultural heritage of the continent and bringing it into the digital age.

Senongo Akpem

Senongo Akpem

Next up on Revision Path, I got a chance to talk withย Senongo Akpem, a brilliant interactive designer in New York City. We talk about his design inspirations, his projects, and even touch a little bit on the issue of diversity in the tech and design communities. It’s a really great interview that I think you’ll enjoy!