Creative Beans March 2024 Issue as documented by Emmanuel Dankyi

Guys, I’m very sorry.

I wish I had a better explanation for this. But remember when I said I’d explain the name in this article? I was thinking of a clever lie to tell about how beans rhyme with beings and some other nonsense but it didn’t work. Let’s just say we didn’t think too deeply about the name and we chose it because we just like it and it works.

Wishing you the mandatory happy holidays this season and I hope you’re taking the time to rest (unlike me).

Now to the main business of why we’re here today. Our top 10 fire emoji deserving creatives for March. 😮‍💨 This one was tough to narrow down because everybody decided to come with the heat.

In no particular order, let’s jump in.

Keli. Studio 🇬🇭

Mr. Keli is a design & motion guru in our opinion. A strong motion designer (2D/3D) with an even stronger design sense is a very dangerous creative. Why are we discussing Keli here today? Because he shared a few shots from his abstract form series he likes to just do for fun (I suppose) and we love it! Do check out his page for some more eye candy.

Joboson Chisa 🇳🇬

This guy woke up one morning and decided to just make an African masquerader-inspired font called Ojuju and get Google to list it on Google Fonts. As if that wasn’t enough, the font was so dope, it got a lot of creatives making lots of beautiful creations with it. Breathing more life into the font. It was just fun to see. Find Joboson and more of his work here.

Honorable mentions

Below are three of our favorite design explorations featuring the font (at least from the ones we saw, there were lots of cool stuff).

Chukwu Adaeze Victoria Ojuju Font Exploration on Posters

See more of Chukwu’s work on LinkedIn.

Pixel Shinobi’s Ojuju Font Exploration on Clothing

Tried some explorations with the OJUJU font created by @jobosonchisa pic.twitter.com/QUPgazuL6z

— Pixel Shinobi (@mister_gamal) March 5, 2024

Obasola’s Ojuju Font Exploration on Tote Bags

everything the totes said. @jobosonchisa you deserve every flower you get. pic.twitter.com/amsyF1ylBe

— OBÁSOLÁ. (@obasolaaa) March 6, 2024

Yaw Onyina 🇬🇭

Arguably at the top of the top 5 CG artist charts in West Africa, if not Africa. Go and argue with his work if you disagree lol. He’s also a medical doctor saving lives during the day and some nights. I don’t know how he manages to do it. His submission into the #eternalascent challenge is just all sorts of beautiful. Mr. Yaw please give us a short film or something we beg.

The Seyiram & Adobe Messiah 🇬🇭

The collaboration we never knew we needed. I won’t say much about this one because the work and their body of work speak volumes by themselves. Just take a look at this project.

When you’re done, check out Adobe Messiah here, and The Seyram here.

Mihilov Mann 🇬🇭

The work rate of this Mann is through the roof. Dropping project after project regularly I don’t know if he knows any sleep at all. Mann is a brand identity designer with a magic touch. (there are few of them on this side of the world IMO) We like this project in particular because it’s different from his usual style and what is conventional in today’s world of branding, especially in tech; Flat & minimal. It stands out. Find some more of his work here

Nessa Tweneboah

A background and Visual Development artist who has worked with some of the big names in the industry that you know of. We just love her illustration style, the texture and the personality it has. Here’s some more of her work

Don Archer 🇳🇬

This dude makes animation look so easy (I know it’s not by any means, at least not yet) but he makes it look so flawless. As if animating regular things is not difficult enough, bro decided to go and create a snippet, animating shiny things and playing with lots of light. The result? well, I’ll let you be the judge. Find him here, leave a comment on his work and tell him we sent you.

Prince Ziwu 🇬🇭

Constantly showing growth in the understanding of his craft and what makes a good illustration, artwork, animation or character design. He’s a versatile animator and illustrator who constantly shares some dope stuff, as well as giving a structured sneak peak into his thought process and how he does what he does. We absolutely love this pizza boy character design (and the breakdown) who has a triangle head because pizza. lol.

Owo Anietie 🇳🇬

A 3D artist creating mostly afrofuturistic art and other things that most definitely annoys regular human beings. Which I find fascinating lol. I’m in love with his “annoying everyday items” series where he takes a regular useful item and renders it completely useless. People’s reactions to this are priceless. For this month, we’re featuring his annoying chair project. Check out the full youtube video down there, and feel free to check out more of his relatively sane work here. You’ll love it.

Lola Aikins 🇿🇦

Discovered Lola during our research for films for our Frame x Frame Animation Nights event. We’ve only seen the trailer for this short film she’s running a Kickstarter for, but we can’t wait to see the full film come to life because it looks awesome! Lola is a Visual Development artist, animator and storyteller. Find some more of her stuff here.

---

I know, I know, technically we had more than 10 people in the list this time. It’s not our fault, it was hard to decide who to leave out. Also we’re still making the rules as we go so allow us please lol. But we hope you enjoyed last month’s list. Meet us here same time next month for your monthly dose of dope creatives to follow.

If you’re a creative person reading this, we’re building something cool for you.

---

The Creative Beans Magazine is a Squid Mag initiative aimed at highlighting top talent in Africa doing dope stuff. Check out our website for more awesome stuff we’ve built to help the creative industry.

creativebeans.xyz || www.turdemoji.lol || dexartmosphere.org