Ife Aminu: On saying yes to everything, and going from a graphic design intern to a visual design lead — #008
I studied Estate Management and after graduation, I knew real estate was not something I wanted to do in the long run... After all those months of learning, I figured it was time to get an internship.
Hi, thank you for joining us for another edition of our interview with African Creatives. In this edition, I spoke with Ife Aminu, the visual design lead at one of Africa’s leading technology companies building solutions for businesses and government institutions. She shares what led her to design and how she went from working as a graphic design intern at a design studio to leading visual design at a technology company while also working as an illustrator.
If you are curious to know what drives the work she does, the major challenges she faces and how she navigates them, her favourite projects, how she spends her day, the people that inspire her, and the people and brands she would love to work with, you should continue reading. You will definitely love and enjoy reading this!
Tell us about yourself
My name is Ifeoluwa Aminu. I am a visual designer and illustrator. I currently work as a visual design lead at Prunedge Technologies. There, we build software (web, and mobile solutions) for businesses and government institutions. I work closely with the product design team on the products we currently work on. I am in charge of the visual outlook of our products. I work on illustrations, icons, visual layouts, elements, and compositions for the products we make.
Aside from design, I enjoy music a lot. I am not particular about genres; If the music is good, I am there! I love to read and watch movies too.
How did you get started with design? What led you to design?
I studied Estate Management and after graduation, I knew real estate was not something I wanted to do in the long run. Right after school, I sat down with my sister who was a product designer at the time. We tabled Frontend development and Graphic design and decided I would sample them both and choose the one that fits. So, I started learning front-end development. To be honest, it was hard. I had learned HTML and CSS and when it was time to learn JavaScript, it gave me a headache so I stopped. During that time, I had already started dabbling in graphic design. I started watching tutorials on YouTube and reading online resources like 99design and Envato Tuts+. I also took courses on Coursera. I discovered that I loved graphic design. So I did this for about 6 months while also practising and replicating what I was learning.
After all those months of learning, I figured it was time to get an internship. Fortunately, I saw a tweet on the timeline about a design studio that needed an intern so I put together all the practice work I had done into a portfolio and applied. Somehow, I got called for the interview and even though I feel like I said a lot of rubbish during the interview, I got the job and was asked to resume. So, that was how it started and I haven’t looked back since.
How did you go from being an intern to being a visual design lead?
After spending some time at the design studio, I decided I needed to have agency experience. A senior designer at the studio at the time, Seun Badejo, introduced me to a design community called Asa Coterie. So someone from the Coterie reached out to me that he liked my work - I had been sharing some of my side projects on social media then - and that they needed a creative designer at the agency where he worked at the time. To be honest, I didn't even know people were watching me. I applied, did an interview, and got the job. I was so happy because it felt like things were falling into place for me.
I had a great time at the agency because I learned a lot. However, agency work can be hard, but it was a great learning curve and I will always recommend to anyone just starting out in graphic design that they should work in an agency if they can. It is a good experience.
After more than a year in the agency, I decided again that I wanted to work in tech as a brand designer. One random day, someone posted in the Asa Coterie community that they were hiring brand designers at the Ed-tech start-up where he worked. I already had a portfolio prepared for when I saw an opportunity, so I sent him an email with my portfolio and CV. I did the interview and then got the job. That was how I transitioned into tech. I couldn’t stay at the start-up for as long as I would have liked, so when the opportunity at Prunedge opened up, I took it.
How would you describe your experience and journey so far?
The journey has been lonely sometimes, but also very interesting. Honestly, I have been very fortunate, and I have had the opportunity to work with some of the most brilliant designers and people all who have contributed immensely to my growth.
Also, most times, when opportunities are presented to me, I just take them as long as they align with my career goals. I usually just say yes to certain jobs and work challenges even when I have absolutely no idea how I would get the job done. But, so far I have always figured it out and haven’t disappointed myself or anyone too much. Hahaha!
How would you describe what you do to a 5-year-old?
I would say I am someone who tells stories with visual elements like symbols, letters, colours, shapes, and images. I use all of these elements to communicate with people.
What is your day-to-day routine? What does a typical day look like for you?
Honestly, every day is different but on a typical good day, I am up by 6 or 7 am as work starts by 8 am and I am always up at least an hour before work starts as I work from home 4 times a week. I wake up and make myself some herbal tea. I drink a lot of tea. Once I have had tea, I take a shower and settle into my workspace. I then write out my to-do list for the day.
I schedule and attend meetings and I also follow up on those I need to follow up with. I make sure I get most of these done in the morning before noon. While I work, especially while designing or illustrating I like to have a podcast on because it helps me focus. I spend the day trying to tick off most of the things on my to-do list. Work closes by 4 pm and I always try to close my laptop by this time after which I take a nap but if I am still in work mode, I try to squeeze out as much work as I can because it is not everyday that I am productive.
What do you enjoy most about what you do? What is the most satisfying thing about your job?
I think it is taking an idea from just being an idea, executing it, and seeing the final output. I really enjoy seeing ideas come to life. I also like that I have a lot of creative freedom where I work and also as a freelancer because I can have the wildest idea and choose to pursue it. It is usually exciting to see people use and interact with my work.
I also enjoy validation from the people I make things for. It is really satisfying when a colleague, fellow creative, or client is happy with my work.
What is the best career investment you have made as a creative?
I can't say it is one thing. I think of it as a bunch of big and little decisions that I have made ever since I started my career. One of them is all the places I decided I wanted to work at. It is not every time I knew what I wanted to do, but I just always went for what I thought was right whenever the opportunity came.
Another thing is saying yes to a lot of the challenges and opportunities that came my way. For example, I started illustrating because I saw somebody's work and I just knew I wanted to do that. Back then at the agency, working as a creative designer involved doing mostly social media designs, and campaign designs etc., so there wasn’t really any avenue to explore illustration. One day my manager suggested that we do something out of the box for the agency during the Easter celebrations and I said I would take it on even though I had no idea what to do at the time. I just knew I wanted to put my illustration knowledge to use. I worked on it with some of my colleagues and we came up with one of my favourite projects yet.
What are the challenges you face as a creative?
While ideas are plenty and everywhere, I think sometimes they are still hard to come up with. I have discovered that even while there are systems and processes one can follow to ideate, there are times these things do not work and you just have to think outside the box. Sometimes the ideas won't come and you get frustrated because there are deadlines to meet, clients to please and that. Coming up with ideas sometimes can be really hard.
Another challenge is dealing with time crunches because everyone wants you to attend to them immediately and it can get so stressful. One of my bosses would always tell me that “Nothing is ever that urgent, everybody just wants you to do their work quickly, so just breathe and pace yourself.” It feels like there's never enough time to do your work well. But again, the urgency sometimes helps me do my best work because ideas have a way of coming out when there is a deadline.
Remuneration is another challenge. Recently I have been trying to increase my rates for the freelance work I do and sometimes clients will push back and I push back too so there's a lot of back and forth, sometimes I win and other times the client wins. Remuneration for creatives is a really big issue generally because if you’re willing to do a job for a particular price, there is always someone willing to do it for a lesser price.
How do you navigate these challenges?
On the money part, I make sure I always have a base fee I cannot go below. During negotiations, I always give an amount significantly higher than my base fee and sometimes, the clients don't even protest and they just accept. And other times they bargain and I ensure I never go below my base price, and if I do, it has to be for a very good reason and I make sure the client is aware.
Regarding the time crunch and urgency of some projects, I always overestimate the time frame required to complete them. However, in cases where there isn’t much time, I prioritise and try my best to get it done on time. Sometimes, I outsource. A good example is a project we worked on recently at the office that required a lot of illustration work. We had to outsource some parts of it, while I and my team did the rest because the deadline was close.
What is your creative process and workflow?
Sometimes, it’s just vibes. Hahahaha! But on a more serious note, it typically starts with discussing the brief with the client. At this point, I usually have ideas of what I want certain parts of the project to look like, so I research and create a mood board of all mine and the clients ideas. I share this with the team/client. After which I pair some of my ideas with simple words - like a storyboard but without the sketches, and then I add sketches. After making sketches, I share them to all the stakeholders for feedback and contribution before going ahead to create a first draft and share for feedback. And then a second draft and so on until the project is completed. I especially enjoy getting feedback about my work because we creatives are sometimes all up in our heads, and our egos are too big so we sometimes miss critical insights, so feedback helps us see clearly.
What part of this process do you enjoy the most?
The actual design part after getting the initial idea out. I really enjoy the creating part whether it's a logo or an illustration. I can spend hours on my laptop just working.
What are the essential gadgets, tools, and software you use for work daily?
For gadgets, I currently use a MacBook Pro M1 2021 16" for work. I have an iPad Air for sketching, drawing, and taking notes. I also use an XP Pen digital drawing tablet and of course, a notepad. I also use a Samsung buds pro which has a cool noise-cancelling feature that I use a lot.
For software, I mostly work in Adobe Illustrator for illustration and brand design work and Adobe Photoshop for graphic design work because it has more features and effects. I use Figma for collaboration and other simple design tasks. I use Notion for documentation and collaboration. I use Procreate on iPad for my illustration.
How did the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown impact you and the work you do as a creative?
I was at my most creative during the lockdown because I had all the time to do whatever I wanted to do. I rested and existed and had a lot of time to be as creative as I wanted.
One of the good things about the lockdown was that it forced a lot of employers to implement remote work which followed us into the post-pandemic era and now, most companies are either fully remote or have a hybrid work arrangement for their staff.
So this has brought everyone in the world closer together and has increased the chances of African Creatives getting remote work opportunities from all around the world which is great as it has improved the quality of our lives considerably and is currently putting us on the map.
How do you handle creative blocks and client rejections as a creative?
I have come to see creative blocks as my brain telling me to take a rest. I find that whenever I experience a creative block and I settle down to rest, I tend to figure it out eventually. I just leave the task to do something else like sleep, take a walk outside or try to work on something else entirely. Sometimes I talk to people. Sometimes fresh eyes are what I need at that time.
As for rejections, I like to ask ‘why’ questions when they happen. You can't just reject my work, you have to tell me why. So I structure questions to try and understand where the other person is coming from.
What is the task you don't enjoy doing but you have to do?
Meetings! Some things can be communicated via text and we absolutely do not need to ‘jump on a call.’
What are the most exciting projects you have worked on?
The first one is a recent project I got to do at my former workplace - Edukoya. My actual role was Brand designer at the company but on this in-house project, I worked as a storyboard artist/illustrator. This is something I had never done before. I managed a team of animators, a scriptwriter, and a voice-over artist for this project. We were able to produce a number of animated educational videos that really came out well and I hope I will be able to share them publicly one day. My boss was really impressed by the work we did. It was my first time doing something like that and I really enjoyed it.
The next one is the I Promise You, This Is Still Your Lagos series that I did in 2021. I just had an idea one of those nights to illustrate Lagos buildings in a fun way. I did it in about two days and posted it on my social media. It got quite a bit of attention. I had the privilege to show the series in a group exhibition a couple of months later and it got featured on billboards in Lagos.
Another one is The First African Women To Do It Illustration I did for a women-in-tech competition I entered. I won some money and also got to sell my artwork.
I also love the Vanessa’s The GrooVee Playlist Cover I made for Quacktails.ng.
What keeps you motivated to keep creating? What drives you?
Honestly, earning a good living. I need to be able to live a comfortable life and be able to take care of the people I love. So I am grateful for the fact that I can make a decent living doing what I love and that keeps me going.
Also, I am motivated when people connect with me and love my work. The fact that people like and appreciate the quality of my work also keeps me going.
What do you do for fun? How do you relax when you are not working?
I sleep. I try to get as much sleep whenever I get the time. I also watch a ton of movies. I listen to podcasts and music too.
On some other days, I hang out with my friends and my sisters. But Lagos is a very boring city and there is not a lot to do here except go out and eat. I try to spend quality time with my friends and family when I am not working.
Who are the creatives that inspire you?
Paula Scher. She's one of the best graphic designers I know. She is really good at what she does and has a solid body of work.
Dá Design Studio does amazing work and they are one of the leading design studios out of Africa. Their work is inspiring.
Lemi Ghariokwu, I love his expressive art style. Its essence is very Nigerian and the quality of his work is one I aspire to reach.
Who are the people you would love to work with or collaborate with?
Jordan Belonwu and Seyi and Dami of Dá Design Studio
What brand(s) would you love to work with?
Nike
What would you be doing if you were not a designer?
I would probably be an architect or a lecturer.
What advice do you have for someone who is just starting out or is at the early stage of their creative journey?
I would say do your research so that you know what you're getting into. A lot of the people you look up to didn't just wake up with the skills they have. They put in the work. So do the work and practice like your life depends on it. Also, share your work on the internet. Sharing mine helped a lot.
Finally, try to find a community of people ahead or on the same level as you to learn from and grow with.
What would you consider success and fulfilment in your career when you look back in the next 20 years?
It would be people using my work as a reference or inspiration in relevant spaces and industries, schools, and so on.
Whose story would you love to read about?
Duro Arts, Seun Badejo, and Oluwaseeto.
Do you have anything you would like to plug in or promote?
Follow my work on Instagram and buy my art.
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Really good interview!