TCN Monthly Recap: June 2024 Edition
Here's a recap of the stories—news, events, opportunities, resources, insights, opinions and conversations—we published in June and a personal note from our founder and publisher
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At the end of every month, we bring you TCN Monthly Recap; a recap of all the exciting stories—news, events, opportunities, resources, insights, opinions and conversations—we published all through the month, but there’s a twist to this edition—this edition comes with a special note from our founder and publisher. Read on
In this edition of TCN Monthly Recap, you will find;
How South Africa-based social sculptor, aspiring filmmaker, & entrepreneur dillion s. phiri founded & grew a community for African creatives & R&D Company for the creative & cultural industry
5 African Film Festivals you should know
Chuma Anagbado: Ifebube—a solo exhibition curated by Ugonna Ibekwe
A special note from the Founder and Publisher of The Creatives Note
Inside Creative Nestlings’ evolution: From a community to an African creative network and startup building for African creatives & entrepreneurs
In a conversation with The Creatives Note, dillion s. phiri, a social sculptor, aspiring filmmaker, creative director and entrepreneur, talks about his journey from Zimbabwe to South Africa, founding and growing Creative Nestlings—a thriving community and network of African creatives—as an “economic refugee” in South Africa, the plan to map the entire African creative & cultural industries, his mission to fund & invest in infrastructure and tools for creatives on the continent, and the next phase of Creative Nestlings.
5 African Film Festivals you should know
Over the years, film festivals have been a very vital part of the global film industry. Every year, hundreds and thousands of people—filmmakers, film industry stakeholders, film enthusiasts and fans—around the world attend film festivals.
For this list, The Creatives Note writer,
, put together 5 African film festivals you should know about and plan to attend if you are interested in film festivals.
Chuma Anagbado: Ifebube—a solo exhibition curated by Ugonna Ibekwe
From July 5th - 7th, 2024, Chuma Anagbado, a Nigerian-born Artist & Designer, will be hosting a solo exhibition titled ‘Ifebube,’ in Lagos.
Ifebube—a solo exhibition curated by Ugonna Ibekwe, an art historian, performance artist, and painter—is Anagbado’s third solo exhibition and is set to honour his mother who passed away 25 years ago, according to him. (The exhibition’s title, “Ifebube”, is derived from the name of Anagbado’s mother, Esther Ifebube, who passed away on July 5, 1999.)
Ifebube is presented by Creath.
Check out: Bic Art Master Africa is accepting entries for the 2024 edition of its art competition (Deadline for Submissions is 18 July 2024).
A Special Note: One Year of TCN 2.0
When I started The Creatives Note in October 2022, I had one goal in mind: to curate, document, and tell the stories of African creatives. And to do this, The Creatives Note published interviews with African creatives across Art, Advertising, Creative Entrepreneurship, Logo & Brand Design, Product Design, Visual Design, Animation, and Motion Design.
But a few months into the journey, the goal evolved. To reflect this new mission, which is now ‘to curate, document, and tell the stories of creativity in Africa,’ we launched TCN 2.0 on July 1, 2023.
With the launch of TCN 2.0, we introduced the TCN News Desk, Opinion, Insight, Opportunity, and Resource Sections, in addition to the Interview Section The Creatives Note started with.
At the time of announcing TCN 2.0, I wrote, “With this new update, we want to curate a robust repository and go-to platform for all things relating to creativity in Africa ranging from interviews and conversations with creatives to important announcements and updates, opportunities, insights, resources, news, and stories.”
Over the last 12 months, with the help of you—our readers, we have stayed true to this mission. Thanks to everyone who has liked, reposted, retweeted, and shared the stories we published. Also, special thanks to everyone who has subscribed and recommended us. You motivate us to keep going.
From exclusive interviews to special features to news to opportunities to analysis and opinion pieces, here are 21 of the biggest (and some of my personal favourite) stories—in no particular order—we published in the last 12 months:
“It's a dream come true” — Zimbabwean visual communicator and type designer, Taurai Valerie Mtake, on working with Google Fonts to create the Madimi One typeface (read here)
Google Fonts adds 2 typefaces—created by a Nigerian and a Zimbabwean designer—to its catalogue (read here)
Chisaokwu Joboson talks working with Google Fonts on the Ojuju typeface, the public reaction to its launch, and his mission to create more type support for African languages (read here)
How Album Cover Bank is archiving, documenting, and preserving Nigerian album cover designs from 1950 to date (read here)
V&A Waterfront announces its 2023 Artist Alliance Programme (read here)
Inside Creative Nestlings’ evolution: From a community to an African creative network and startup building for African creatives & entrepreneurs (read here)
10 African digital products and platforms you should know and use as a creative/creator (read here)
Ovie and Wale at 10: Richard Oboh, the brain behind the iconic characters, discusses the origin of the characters, their success so far and what next (read here)
Tunji Ogunoye: On finding design, leaving physiotherapy for design, paying attention to details, and the impact of teaching design and building a community on his career (read here)
Osun State faces public backlash for new logo; what is the outrage about? (read here)
Creath Art Marketplace—Art Meets Technology: How Creath is using technology to bridge the gap between artists and art collectors (read here)
Netflix's First African Animated Original Series, 'Supa Team 4' debuts on its streaming platform (read here)
Disney Plus premieres 'Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire', a 10-part series animated anthology of African sci-fi films created by African creators (read here)
Disney Plus premieres Iwájú, an original animated series set in a futuristic Lagos, Nigeria, created by Kugali (read here)
Is it a design problem or a customer’s problem? (read here)
African Flags and Who Designed Them (Part 1) (read here)
AFCON 2023 Identity: A Beautiful Story of Strength and Unity through Football (read here)
How Naija Comm, a global community of creatives and social enterprise, is empowering Nigerian creatives and professionals in the creative industry across the world (read here)
A conversation with Jabulani Sigege and Roderick Laka of Machine_ on using creativity and insights to create solutions for businesses (read here)
dot.ateliers announces 2024 Artist Residency Program in Accra, Ghana (read here)
A conversation with Yewande Akinse, award-winning poet and storyteller, on making impact and finding expression and transcendence through poetry (read here)
Thank you to everyone who shared their stories with us. And thank you to everyone who reached out to us with tips, news, projects, ideas, and stories.
On a final note: At The Creatives Note, we are keen on sharing stories of creativity (in art, design, and film) in Africa, and we plan on discovering, curating, documenting, and telling more of these stories. Always feel free to reach out to us via thecreativesnote[at]gmail[dot]com with tips, news, projects, ideas, insights and stories.
Read Also: The Creatives Note [TCN] is evolving
Recommended reading
Madhouse, Africa’s leading hub for creativity and innovation, concluded its pioneering Lens-Based Incubation Programme on June 28th by awarding $10,000 seed funding to the winner of its Demo day pitch competition. In partnership with the University of Lagos, Madhouse designed this programme to equip African creatives with essential business skills necessary to establish profitable ventures.
The new AFCON identity - designed by Designwerk, an independent, full-service creative agency - pays homage to the richness of the Ivorian culture and the continent of Africa as a whole.
Taiwo Aina, a Nigerian visual storyteller and filmmaker, has been awarded the Women Photograph Project Grant for her project, Game of Confidence. Selected from 1,100 applications from women and nonbinary photographers around the world, Game of Confidence is a visual project that explores the lives of six female boxers in Lagos.
Amany Shenouda combines her love for art and her desire to help people in her trauma-sensitive group workshops; a rare offer that brings together communities who fled war to seek shelter in Cairo.
I want to create a global identity for myself and bring the value of creativity back to Nigeria. I want to make people see the value in being creative and people won't see the value until one succeeds
That will be all for this month. Thank you for reading.
Before I go, let me welcome you to the month of July. HAPPY NEW MONTH!!!
We enjoyed bringing you these updates and putting this recap together. See you this time next month. Until then, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to stay up to date.
