I’m Kufre Idiok Abasi, the Creative Director at Lawverse Magazine. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Adedoyin Philip-Ladipo, Doyin for short, I’m currently the Lead Brand  and Communication Strategist at Templars. I’m a design professional, so in every creative sphere I find myself, I always come from a design thinking standpoint. Design is what I found first, actually that was music, design was the mainstay. I like to go against the grid, I’m a non-conformist. I’m also big on whatever the creative space ties to the button line to whatever company you find yourself.

As a professional, my role is to think creatively while understanding the firm’s needs. This involves being proactive and attentive to ensure that the solutions I provide align with the brand's purpose.

 

Kufre: How has the journey been?

Doyin: My journey has been nothing short of dynamic work. Worked with several industries. I started out as a Managing Consultant (Philip’s Consulting back in the day) and I moved on to E-Commerce, worked as a Creative Director for Jumia Food. Starting out as a designer helped me understand digital marketing and marketing as a whole. With every new industry and challenge, I sharpened my skills. Started leading teams, understood what I took to lead teams and set up, as an orchestra. So yeah.

 

Kufre: Have there been instances where your ideas for the firm clashed with what they wanted?

Doyin: That happens every-time, especially with Creatives. But what’s important is to not overly marry ideas. There’s this saying that ideas are not loyal.

In situations like that, you marry the ideas.  If some of your ideas can be integrated with theirs, go ahead and do so. However, in my experience at Templars, where I’ve been their Brand Creative Consultant for over a year, I haven’t encountered such a situation. This is because I’ve gained a clear understanding of what the brand wants and doesn’t want. So, it’s always best to understand the brand’s vision before trying to strike a balance with your own ideas.

 

Kufre: What strategies do you use to balance your creativity with the commercial objectives of the brand you're working for?

Doyin: Fortunately, during the early stages of my career, I was able to understand what it means to be an artist, and I realized that creativity is essential in the commercial space. The strategy I employ is to design in a way that pleases whoever I am working for. I also came to understand the psychology behind design. Now, what I do to balance creativity with commercial objectives is to fully comprehend the scale of design and branding. This approach has helped me realize there’s a perfect intersection between creativity and strategy.

 

Kufre: Can you run us through a project where you used storytelling to communicate a brand's objectives to its target audience? For example, the Calabar Carnival, where you were part of the creative team?

Doyin: Okay. Let’s start with the problem. The original creator of the carnival had left government, and there were subsequent leaders who took over. By the time we were called upon, we decided to take a completely different approach. First, we marketed the carnival to the people of Calabar, and then secondly, we sold the carnival to the corporate guys.

We had to create something new, people wanted to see. We we-wrote the story and it was beautiful.

 

Kufre: How do you stay ahead of trends or maintain a futuristic mindset in design and branding?

Doyin: Well, I actually pride myself in discovering what’s coming next. I mean in Africa; we see what people are doing round the world. I understood everything would go digital.

A lot of trends may come and go, while some might stay. Therefore, I focus on doing and preparing for what will stay. Also, I try not to follow trends too closely because doing so can sometimes make an individual lose themselves or who they are who.

 

Kufre: How do you navigate the legal aspects of your work, especially in terms of trademarking your work to ensure that others don’t infringe on it or also to ensure you do not overstep on people’s work?

Doyin: That's quite a tricky question. My oath is not to overstep. A lot of people do not subscribe to pay for their software’s and then the work, you have to test it for plagiarism. I had an experience a long time ago, where I was confident in an idea and then I went on to my screen and posted on a graphics’ design group and they came for me (laughs). That taught me a lesson because I was so proud that it was my original idea. It taught me to always stop and verify or better still, improve on it.

It’s also important to emphasize the significance of a brand having trademark protection. Trademarks are relatively cheap and affordable. Most people fail to understand this.

What's the essence of spending millions on the design of a brand’s logo without having a trademark for such a brand?

I also feel it's important to distinguish that a brand's trademark protection is entirely different from the protection that comes with registering the name of the brand. For instance, I had a client whose brand had trademark protection but wasn’t registered with the CAC (Corporate Affairs Commission), and another third party registered the same business name. Issues like this may arise when a brand doesn't have both trademark and CAC registration. So, the two are crucial for protection and are relatively affordable for a brand to obtain to avoid these issues.

 

Kufre: Is there anything you would have done differently to get to where you are today?

Doyin: Well, I think I should have worked more with agencies, despite my exposure and the fact that I have this agency culture within me. But I never really rated it, not to sound elitist.

However, one of the things I feel most agencies need to work on is not undermining their creative strategies with the audiences they advertise to. I worked with few of them but maybe I should have done more work right agencies because that’s where you get to challenge yourself.

 

Kufre: What will be your final words to anyone trying to build a career in the creative space?

Doyin: Well, for a start I would say don’t follow me (laughs). But then it can be a lonely road.

I mean now people are open to creative careers. What worked for me is, discover yourself. Make sure you understand who you are.

You need to figure out who you are and what part of you the world needs to see. If not, you’ll go in circles. Take risks, be calculative with your risks.