Somtindey!: PROFILER: GRD - Graphic Research Department.... Meet The Nerds Behind It. O

GRD Co-Founders

Williams “BlackChild” Chechet & Jesse Yakubu

Blackchild is an illustrator/graphic designer with a Diploma and BSc. [in view] in Industrial Design

Jesse is a graphics designer and an Architect with a MSc. in Architecture.

How did the GRD Brand come about?

GRD is an acronym for Graphic Research Department. The idea behind our name is inspired by our drive to develop unique design concepts and style through high level creativity and originality with a constant research culture to learn new ways to express creative ideas.

Jesse and I met back in 2003 when we were undergrads in Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. At the time, I was doing a lot of drawings and illustrations – something I had grasped from childhood; while Jesse was into computer aided design and graphics already, especially since he was an architecture student. We got together to do several projects and finally decided to start a graphics design outfit in 2005. However, the Idea of GRD “took shape” sometime about 2007, when we then broadened our vision to include a clothing line. Thus, we then split up GRD into GRD Design Lab to service graphic designs and illustrations and GRD Clothing to service the clothing line business.

GRD's Fela Artwork off Kahli's MOC back cover printed in Newyork. Copies will soon be available.

What kind of graphic design do you do?

Basically, GRD is a design outfit into graphic design, illustrations, computer arts, Logo creations/Brand design and insignia.

What’s the inspiration behind the brand and t-shirt line?

In Essence, GRD is divided into two units - *GRD Design-Lab which deals with graphic designs and illustrations; and *GRD Clothing Co. which deals with the clothing line business. Though we started out just doing designs and graphics and stuff, we started putting up some designs on shirts mainly to generate “buzz” for our GRD brand. Soon enough, we realized that the shirts were really catching on and thus, took the opportunity to set up the shirts business as a major element of the GRD brand. The shirts became our ‘walking canvas’ if u know what I mean – another medium of expressing GRD’s creativity and style; hence the GRD cliché – ‘Creativity Is Our Hustle’. On the other hand, the GRD Design-Lab idea came from the word ‘Research’ in GRD; this also explains the GRD logo which is actually an ‘abstract’ gas mask; as opposed to the general idea some folks have that our crest is a ‘Panda’ head – laughs. Although the nickname ‘graphic panda’ which some of our friends and followers call GRD, has sort of ‘stuck’ to our identity.

Tell us about the Graphic design Biz in Nigeria and the role youths play in it.

We think the graphics design industry in Nigeria is doing quite well; on a scale of 1 to 10, we’d probably give it a 6 which is a generous rating considering that many of our graphics can step up to international benchmarks. However there’s still a lot of ground to cover especially in the areas of motion graphics, adept illustrations and animations. Sometimes when we look at illustrations done by foreign graphic artists and studios like Patrick Conaty or the German firm - Deine Freunde, we're inclined to think we are only half-way there. Honestly, to really assess how well the graphics design industry is doing in Nigeria, we must consider how many of these big private firms and corporations actually employ the services of indigenous graphic designers and outfits? - Just what we thought, not many do that.

We would say the role of the youth in Nigeria’s graphics industry today can be summed up in - our ability to bring creative originality and ‘’fresh blood’ into the overall design process, which presently, is mostly generic.

What inspired you guys?

Our inspirations and influences include African art, Japanese Art, Graffiti, Rock and Rap music, and the Hip-hop culture in general. If you were to take a sneak peek into our library, you’d find names like Lemi Ghariokwu, 123 Klan, Yohji Yamamoto –Y3, John Burgerman etc.

Where do you see yourselves in five years from now?

Where we’ll be in 5 years??? On Forbe's list ☺

My dear friends @blackchildBC and @JesiChun have been such an inspiration to me in their unique ways and I’m blessed to share this post with all to see what they have going for them at the moment. Here are some faces rocking the GRD Tshirt Line! ..If you’re not wearing one you’re on a long thing! Go grab a copy now!

It’s been a pleasure guys! MuchLove!