BLACK AMPHI

Revealing Ucheugo – A Top Nigerian Graphics Designer

I love to refer to what Black Amphi is doing right now as “Entrepreneur Hopping“. We are jumping from Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur and have no plans of leaving any Afro Born Entrepreneur out of the loop. We started with the AfroVisioN CEO (my humble self) in Cameroon, and to my good friend and partner, Francis .O. Oghuma of Naija Born, Nigeria. We navigated south to South Africa where we met Vinny and Justin of  the Silicon Cape Initiative. We are giving you the best of what we can about these shots and from time to time, we won’t hesitate posting updates about them.

Now, we are back again in Nigeria to meet the great Ugo Uchechukwu (UCHEUGO) of Ucheugo Interactive. Since he is right here in the Black Amphitheatre with us, let’s get the story from the horse’s mouth.

[BA]What are your names?

Ugo Uchechukwu (UCHEUGO)

[BA]Where do you live and work ?

I live in Lagos/Nigeria and I juggle gigs as an ART DIRECTOR in one of the top advertising agency in Nigeria.

[BA]How did you get the skills in graphics design (university, professional school, online certifications, study from home, internet)

My skill in graphic design is just a self taught thing..really I just love colours and all that. I did computer science and you must know that studying computer science, its either you end up been software developer or just the normal computer engineer you find around.

When i was little younger, I did some drawings but my mum had to stop me because she felt I was not going to make anything out of it. That was then but now in Nigeria, ART is more worthwhile. That can be seen from the fact that people do motion design and related stuff.

Now I think it is lucrative.

[BA]What are the tools you use in your daily activities (Windows/Mac/Linux, Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator, Frontpage, Dreamweaver, FLASH,etc)

Well for my graphic jobs, I shuffle between Photoshop and Illustrator depending on the task given to me.

For website design, I just use Fireworks and Dreamweaver, Flash. Also it depends on the task ahead. Sometimes I just use Photoshop instead of Fireworks.

[BA]What do you use more? Fireworks or Photoshop? Do you find any more suitable only for a particular or specific purpose?

Well you see people don’t really understand their software. Fireworks is really meant to be use for WEB. It all boils down to your ability using it. All those stuff you see that people do using Photoshop on the web can also be achievable using fireworks as I said earlier on, it all boils down to your capability of the software. You need to study the software very very well before jumping into another software.

Photoshop is pretty good for PRINT JOBS and photo enhancement but also It can also be use for the web but the layers is not helping matters..

[BA]How long have you been doing graphics design or any form of design jobs ??

Well in music, you will find people saying I started as professional singer some years back lol but in my case 7 years now , but I started as commercial designer earning good bucks 4years ago.

[BA]Can you give some examples of things or products you have designed or you have been a part of the design team.(screen shots if offline)

I can’t start mentioning because i have hundreds of them but I can say am part of the success of some interesting design both offline and online. Below are just 4 out of hundreds I can remember lol. If you want some creative design you can email me at info@ucheugo.net I can zip them for you from Art directions, to still design, to motion design jobs.

SMS NAIJA (http://www.smsnaija.com/): I did their interface design and the programming was handled by the team.

NAIJA BORN (http://www.naijaborn.com/): I was actually honored to be their associate interface designer. After d mock-up of the Naija Born T-shirt, I got a lot of buzz! On the shirt and my phone keeps ringing for enquiries.

THE NEXT MOVIE STAR AFRICA (http://www.thenextmoviestarafrica.tv/): This is a Reality TV Show that depends on me for most of their branding jobs and website.

Excite OnTV (http://www.excitetv.tv): handle some branding design and working on their website.

[BA]Are you more into web design, print, branding or Multimedia design(adverts, TV, Music videos, commercials)?

Well am more into anything that has to do with Design and Music but my Specialty is Branding, Advertising, Print, Web Design.

[BA]How often do you apply the color theory

Everyday, because I am really meticulous about it.. clients don’t want see how much noise you can make on their brand but how good you can interpret their brand colours to their creative jobs. And that has really affected the way I dress lol, because when I wear black, i wear sneakers black, sunshades black to compliment my dressing I don’t wear colouriot that’s the popular saying in Nigeria when you wear off colour dressing.

[BA]How much do you consider usability principles in your work.

Well it’s very useful, when am working on a web job for instance, I make sure its load faster because in Nigeria we still have poor ISP around and client might get frustrated waiting for web to do download.

[BA]How is aesthetics important to your work

100% important

[BA]Do you consider accessibility as a strong influence in your designs ?

Well it’s very useful, when am working on a web job for instance, I make sure its load faster because in Nigeria we still have poor ISP around and client might get frustrated waiting for web to do download.

[BA]Do you believe in KISS(Keep It Simple….) best practise and LESS IS MORE when you do your designs ?

I don’t make too much noise.. what is the essence? When u make noise and your job is kinda clumsy ? I make noise with my simple design and clients never complain about it.. so I believe in keep it simple

[BA]Do you use more of CSS or you just slice and dice from photoshop or fireworks into dreamweaver ???

I use both of them. Depending on the job

[BA]Do you use any web design (html+css) frameworks like YAML(http://builder.yaml.de/) and the others out there

It’s just like asking me if I get Pre-made template out there.. well Capital N.O I build design from scrash.

[BA]Do you find these css+html frameworks helpfull in your work if so how?

Yah they make my work easier and they load faster on the internet.

[BA]Do you work in a team environment if so what tools do you use for collaboration (eg collabtive, unfuddle, basecamp)

We use Adobe Tools.

[BA]How important are deadlines in your work?

100% important.

[BA]Are you into outsourcing and do you think it will help enrich and empower Africans

Well I believe in outsourcing because one person can’t do the job alone.. but in Nigeria you find the stingy ones who believe they can handles everything from Video, Web, Advertising, Multimedia, e.t.c

For instance I can do some fantastic drawings but I just outsource it to someone else and concentrate on other things.

[BA]Which do you prefer more: photoshop, fireworks, GIMP or ????

Photoshop and Fireworks

[BA]What do you think about open source vs proprietory software packages.

Open source are the best software that has ever happen to me.

[BA]what are some of the challenges you face as a Graphics designer in Africa?

A lot of challenges, when someone condemn your job, making you feel useless, inferior..

Another one is that people don’t really appreciate what we do well. And beside we don’t have a body that governs us in Nigeria… Over there in US, they have an association for graphic designers, website designer. And also Copyright is not really helping matters at all. Someone can just jack-up your designs and tweak it and he/she doesn’t gives you credit.

[BA]What do you think could be done to get rid of these challenges ?

I think when we have an association and people who don’t just feel that the graphic industry is just for making money, but having passion for it… Some people just design for the money and no passion.

[BA]What word do you have for other aspiring Graphics designers in Africa ?

They should be focused and be the best they can be, because if you are good, money will look for you.

[BA]How can people interested in working with you get to contact you ?

I can be contacted via email: info@ucheugo.net my face book is: UCHE UGO

And also I can be followed on twitter:  http://twitter.com/ucheugo

[BA]Thanks for your time and please give us some closing words

I’m very honored to have you guys, you guys are the best, and great work!

On behalf of the Black Amphi Team, I will like to thank Ucheugo very much for honoring us with this interview.

Letting the cat out of the bag, our next guest here will be Minang Suh Franklin, from within the four walls of the AfroVisioN Group Lab.

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