When Africa meets design
Making a good impression
At
first glance, graphic design is rarely related to Africa. For cultural
and historical reasons. The importance of the oral tradition and the
recent dominance of European languages by colonialism led to the idea
that African languages as a whole had no written forms or that they had
been designed very recently.
We usually associate the origin of graphic design with the discovery of Gutenberg printing process back in
the fifteenth century. Lacking sufficient printing and industrial
structures, the printed materials were never really able to bloom in
Africa. Therefore, the Roman alphabet and with it the entire Western
graphics have been spread in African cities through advertising.
From
Ghana's Adinkra symbols that are centuries old, to geometric
decorations painted on the walls of houses by South African women…
through the alphabets designed in the early twentieth century in Guinea
to the patterns of wax fabrics worn in West Africa, the African continent is actually filled with writing systems and designs of its own.
A new generation is emerging thanks to this graphic legacy and the
impulse of Saki Mafundikwa. For the record, we took the opportunity to
talk about his TED conference in our "Say Africa" playlist.
Evolve or die !
In
1997, Saki Mafundikwa puts an end to his brilliant career as a designer
in New York and flies back to his native Zimbabwe to open the first
graphic design school and new media of the country: ZIVA (Zimbabwe
Institute of Vigital Arts). Clearly underlined by the slogan "Evolve or
die" on the school site home page, his ambition is nothing less than to
initiate an "African renaissance". As he recounts in detail in his book
Afrikan alphabets (check out his TED conference
,
on the ingenuity and elegance of the ancient African characters), the
African continent is full of alphabetical scripts, syllabic
hieroglyphics, ideograms, either very old or newer.
We know better where we go when we know where we come from.
It is probably with this saying in mind that the Zimbabwean designer
crossed Africa from East to West, in search of those records. He
followed the footsteps of the African diaspora beyond the Atlantic, to
Cuba and South America. Some alphabets he transcribed are very old, such
as the Tifinagh of the Tuareg people.
Above: Afrikan alphabets book cover - Graphic design of the music album "Proud to be afrikan" by Saki Mafundikwa.
Above: ZIVA School's website home page. The school was founded by Saki Mafundikwa.
To learn more about Saki Mafundikwa and his practice of typography, check out his interview on Another Africa.
Here's a chosen extract:
"I
see Afrikan alphabets offering a breath of fresh air that can rescue
the Roman alphabet from the vagaries of style and trends. As a
typographer, and more importantly as a designer, I am in the business of
the creation and peddling of 'Beauty'. [...] Afrikan alphabets offer a
more aesthetically pleasing perspective and alternative. The
deconstructionists could care less about 'legibility' instead they care
more about the “expressive” nature of typography. Afrikan alphabets
straddle those two extremes comfortably."
And here are some examples of alphabets transcribed by Saki Mafundikwa in his book Afrikan alphabets:
T for Tuaregs and Tifinagh
Tifinagh
is an ancient form of Berber script used by the Tuareg from Algeria and
Libya, to write the Tamashek language. Originally composed of
consonants only, vowels were lately added. Written words follow each
others without spaces in-between, and can be read either vertically or
horizontally. Their geometric outline allows them to be set in stone or
secretly drawn in a hand palm. From one region to another, the Tifinagh
characters are slightly different, each group using specific characters.
The text below was written by Aboubacar Allal, a goldsmith Tuareg from
Niger that Mafundikwa met in New York.
For
a deeper approach, the French typographer Pierre Di Sciullo
designed between 1995 and 2003 four fonts that allow
to transcribe Tifinagh: the Amanar.
The Bambara alphabet
The
Bambara alphabet was transcribed by Woyo Couloubay around 1930. This
language is spoken by more than 3 million people in Burkina Faso, Ivory
Coast, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal.
Nsibidi alphabet (South Nigeria)
Dating
back from the eighteenth century, the Nsibidi script was originally
invented by Ejagham people from south Nigeria. This language has been
developed prior to the "Ekpe men" or "Leopard" secret societies. The
signs are engraved on objects or painted on clothing using the
bogolan technique (dyeing technique based on a decoction of birch
leaves, mpécou bark, fermented mud and a mixture of soap and chlorine).
Syllabic Loma alphabet
This alphabet, meant to be read from left to right, was created in the 30s by Wido Zobo Liberia.
Vaï alphabet
Listed
in 1820 by Dualu Bukele, it is based on signs used by the elderly added
to different pictograms used in certain rituals. The Vaï alphabet comes
from Liberia and Sierra Leone regions. It contains 190 phonemes (a
phoneme is the smallest sound unit of a language spoken). On a side
note, transcripts of the Bible and the Koran into Vaï have allowed the
diffusion / assimilation of new monotheistic religions throughout
Liberia, that are today practiced by around 105 000 Vaï people.
Bantu / Ndélélé alphabet
The pictorial writing system of the Ndebele is quite similar to the Bantu alphabet, and come from Southern Africa. Ndelélé women are known to use this system to skillfully decorate their house walls,
mixing highly colorful symbols and geometric patterns. Their houses and
by extension their culture, is now classified cultural heritage by
UNESCO.
Recently these patterns
have been declined on all types of contemporary objects or have
been used as graphical object to create visual identities. Below,
examples of this positive" diversion" as a transfer of images from the
past on media of the future...
Above: Designers
inspired by these signs and using them to decorate the British Airways
air fleet, a Ndélé house, or the Ll BMW 525i by Esther Malhangu in 1991
which was exhibited at the New York Museum of Arts and Design in 2003.
These
non-profit objects reflect a willingness to adapt symbols assigned to a
specific culture into a kind of graphic quote for new contemporary
media.
Above: Creation of the visual identity for beauty products line by
Cécile Johanet : "
I
wanted to graphically dig this track and I proposed a young
entrepreneur who makes natural cosmetics for Afro hair and skins to
integrate these symbols in the visual identity of the brand."
Adinkra alphabet (Western Africa)
Some Adinkra ideograms
were discovered engraved on tiny gold weight used by the Ashanti, long
before colonization, making it difficult to put a date on their origins.
Still
used today, these signs are associated with proverbs, sayings,
recommendations, which constitute the cornerstone of the Ashanti
culture. These can be: advice on education, sustainability (how to use
the long-term natural resources), politics with the definition of
democracy or the sharing of wealth. Symbols are classified according to
their graphic meanings.
In Ghana, Vodafone borrows local traditional signs by decorating sim cards and shops using Adinkra symbols.
Facebook
post from Vodafone Ghana, inviting locals to answer a quizz on
Adinkras. Doesn't this symbol remind you of the Carrefour logo ?
Today, African designers readapt these symbols to create local business logos.
Conversely, international firms use these cultural landmarks as
decorative trim on their products to meet the local market. This
usurpation of traditional symbols by multinationals engages some rising
resistance from local people ...
In
big cities and small villages in Ghana, some companies allow themselves
to use the walls of private homes and community spaces for their own
advertising. In many cases, they vaguely promise of small amount of
money or free mobile phones to the families.
The
public space, once belonging to communities and families, is now
privatized with logos that significantly alter the urban landscape.
Charlie Michael took action in this context. He stamped once again over a home facade with a series of Adinkra symbols in an arrangement that imitates the Vodafone logo. This subversive act claims ownership of private space by the inhabitants.
Below: Logotypes of three Ghanaian banks inspired from Adinkra symbols.
Direct
diaspora (Africans living outside Africa) and indirect (several
generations descendants) were the first to use Adrinka ideograms in
their communication.
Today Adrinka, Bantoun, Ndélélé and other acronyms are considered as "African pictograms." Since 2010 the website thenounproject.com collects
and compiles visual communication symbols just as an image bank. Many
graphic designers from various countries play a part in this project.
Above: The effigy of Jacques Chirac on a wax cotton shirt. Personal collection from
Bonjour Bintou
Wax is the new black
It's
impossible to speak about African graphic design without mentioning wax
cotton. This alternative visual language is very popular on the
continent. It offers a variety of patterns printed with wax technique on
fabric measured in loincloth (1 loincloth = 1 yard of fabric).
Originally designed and produced in Indonesia, wax cotton was brought
over by the renowned Dutch company Vlisco in the XXth century. These
loincloth rapidly got close to the heart of African women, thus making
its distribution easier throughout the continent. Fast enough, patterns
evolved with African habits and customs, narrating History, political
life, social relations, saying etc...
It's almost impossible to
guess who's behind this or that design. However, experts can usually
shed light on their meaning when needed. These patterns depict daily
life objects, symbols, animals or even leading figures such as singers,
religious icons (Jesus, Maria, priests, saints) or presidents (François
Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande have
their own wax cotton pattern).
Each region has a meaning of its own; this symbol or animal can illustrate a saying in a country but a quality in another.
Vlisco invites wax cotton connoisseurs on their
participative website to unveil the meaning and stories of deep buried symbols with uncertain origins.
For
a long time, Beninese and Togolese women sold wax loincloth on the
market. Taking advantage of the growing craze for wax cotton, some of
them made a fortune and were able to show off in Mercedes, earning the
nickname «
mama benz ».
Above:
1/ Roller skates. 2/ Pattern inspired by an advertisement for Korean
Airlines, in which the outline of a plane stands out from the sky and
tree branches bloom over the moon. 3/ Pompi togo. 4/ Obama tree. 5/
Myriam Makeba, south-african singer. 6/ The head of family holding a
baby and a young boy in his arms, siblings at his feet (3 girls in red
coats, the eldest boy standing on the left). 7/ Detail of a Korean
Airlines loincloth: the swallows symbolize luck, and the pattern
alternatively means in Togo 'asking a favor', such as a young woman's
hand. This pattern is also known as "Air Afrique" because it was
used for the uniforms of
Air Afrique air hostesses. 8/ Buses.
Wax
cotton is used to create everyday and special occasion clothes. Some
people, mainly the young ones, usually go for international/occidental
clothing (jeans, T-shirts) but when comes a special occasion they
certainly put on they wax garment. For wedding or funerals, the
inviting family chooses the leading pattern design which will be used.
The guests are then expected to use these wax designs on their specially
crafted outfits.
Dressmakers demonstrate
great skills in making dresses, suits, tunics, suits, trousers, etc. It
must be for this reason that one can find a couturier on each street
corner in Western Africa!
Nowadays, wax is starting to gain more and more of
non-African designers'
attention. Patterns on furniture, leather goods, shoes, jewels and
everyday life objets (cars, phone cases etc) are becoming increasingly
frequent.
Above: "So wax Chateau Rouge" collection from
Merci.
Above: As
a nod to wax, 'Les couleurs du Pont de Flandres' association painted a
large fresco with wax patterns in Cambrai street, in district 19, Paris.
This wall painting was created to celebrate the opening of the new RER
station; Rosa Parks.
Below: Panafrica shoes, a french brand committed to Fair Trade which uses wax as main material.
Through
their meanings, with their colors and designs, these wax patterns are
extremely rich. All the more so as they constantly evolve, encompassing
elements of contemporary African daily life. Cellphones, fans and
computers have already been part of wax design for a decade.
Afropolis
One year ago, the Vitra Design Museum dedicated a profuse exhibition on contemporary design techniques in Africa:
Making Africa – A continent of Contemporary Design. In
this daring exhibition, artists, designers, researchers and
intellectuals illustrated that Africa is once again a land of
innovation.
In 2050, a quarter of the population will live in
Africa. It's the most dynamic region in the world in terms of growth and
mobile phones market. Not so long ago Africa had a limited access to
technology. Nowadays, the digital revolution is an open door to the
continent.
This exhibition helped to take a fresh look
at contemporary design in Africa. Far from being solely limited to
handcrafting productions for exotic purposes, Africa now stands as an
experimental land of new approaches and solutions spread worldwide.
Above: Some artworks showcased at the Vitra Design Museum.
Pierre Christophe Gam is an ambassador of this new generation. Considered
as the designer of the "African renaissance", he graciously combines
many roots : Egypto-Chadian on his mother's side, an African art
collector, and Franco-Cameroonian on his father's side, a diplomat.
To
embody this new Africa, Pierre-Christophe Gam finds his inspiration
from his designer/set-designer experience in the luxury industry in
London, Beijing or Bangkok, for Kenzo, Maison Martin Margiela, or the
design agency Emotion (a Publicis subsidiary). Graduated from Central
Saint Martins School (the famous Arts and Design London-based school),
his inspiration comes from his journeys in Asia where he discovered
manga art and more broadly the effusive oriental artistic contemporary
scene.
In 2002 he renewed with his roots during a 7
months old travel, ending up in Cameroun, his ancestors' land. Thirty
years old at that time, the young man started an artistic project which
still continues to this day: Afropolis, an "Afropolitan"
virtual city, symbol of the renewal of a continent where contemporary
artistic creation blossoms without restraints. From fashion to music
clips, aesthetic codes combine African-Asian cultures in bright graphic
references.
There is not enough Africa in computers
While
writing this article a famous quote of Brian Eno comes to my mind,
« There is not enough Africa in computers ». He stated so in an
interview for Wired in 1995, when asked to share his view on the future
of electro music.
"Do you know what I hate
about computers? The problem with computers is that there is not enough
Africa in them. This is why I can’t use them for very long. Do you know
what a nerd is? A nerd is a human being without enough Africa in him or
her. I know this sounds sort of inversely racist to say, but I think the
African connection is so important. You know why music was the center
of our lives for such a long time? Because it was a way of allowing
Africa in. In 50 years, it might not be Africa; it might be Brazil. But I
want so desperately for that sensibility to flood into these other
areas, like computers."
Above: Nigerian born artist Laolu Senbanjo takes his inspiration from Yoruba tribal art.
The end of exoticism?
Once fashion
trend or marketing strategy, it seems that African influence is back.
It would be valuable that we, European designers, start considering
African creation out of the exotic prism. Nowadays, with the rise of the
digital craze, things are starting to change. Young people start to
have more and more interest for graphic design and end up developing
their own peculiar style.
This new generation gives birth to
symbols, patterns... a whole traditional graphic culture. This new
creativity deserves our greatest respect, and we welcome this new
inspiring approach.
Above: Dicky Jr is a
multimedia designer from Nairobi, Kenya. His Adobe Creative Suite splash
screens are inspired from african patterns.
Black is beautiful
To conclude this article, we most welcome the editorial initiative of the Danish design studio Waait which created the magazine "Ogojiii". This project grew out of two ideas combined together: cutting edge design innovation comes from Africa, and all design styles are crucial to create a brighter future.
Ogojiii
brings together African communities from fashion, architecture, crafts
and digital design backgrounds together in a web acting as a catalyst
for entrepreneurship innovation dynamics. Ogojiii
aims at revealing a new African élite wanting to enhance design
perspectives as a lever for action for companies and industry.
To put the icing on the cake, this magazine is splendid on both
form and substance. Sadly, it is quite hard to find in newsstands.
If, like me, you've had a crush on this magazine, I'd recommend you to buy it directly
online.
You can learn more on this editorial project, and about the origin of its mysterious name in the video below:
