Homepage of Kwame Nyong'o
African animation illustration and commercial art.
Welcome! This is Kwame Nyongo's online portfolio, featuring illustration, animation, character design, storyboards and more. Please use the above menu to navigate the work.
Latest Projects
June 10th - July 11th 2010, Africa. 'Gone Fishing' in South Africa.
Kwame and friends are talking an overland truck to South Africa for the Fifa World Cup. Travelling through six African countries, we can't wait to see what kind of creative content this group produces during this once in a lifetime adventure!
May 6th 2010, Nairobi, Kenya. Tandaa Symposium with Kenya ICT Board.
The Tandaa Symposiums are a series of workshop focusing on creating digital content in Kenya and are sponsored by Google in conjunction with the Kenya ICT board. At this one, held at the Safaricom Theatre at the National Museums, Kwame delivered a presentation on illustration and animation 'Turning pictures into words; how to tell a good story'. Others in attendance included Gado Mwampembwa of the 'XYZ show', Wanori Kahiu of 'Pumzi', Myke Rabar of Homeboyz Entertainment, amongst many other Kenyan content producers.
Jan 2010, Nairobi, Kenya. Art Africa Magazine, Nairobi.
The African Colours run Art Africa Magazine sought Kwame's help in layout and design. This internationally distributed new art magazine is one of a kind, embracing the spirit of African art in a most professional editorail form.
Jan 2010, Nairobi, Kenya. Smart Solar, Nairobi.
New start up solar power company sought Kwame's services to create illustrative content for their marketing and communication campaigns. Smart Solar is bringing low cost solar services to rural and impoverished parts of east Africa.
Dec 2009 to present, Nairobi, Kenya. 'The Legend of Ngong Hills' Nairobi.
With the start up company Apes in Space, Kwame has been directing and producing an animated short 'The Legend of Ngong Hills', a story based on Maasai folklore. With an original musical score, this short is due out Summer 2010. For more info see www.apesinspace.net.
Dec 2009, Nairobi, Kenya. Cooperative Bank TVC 'Good Home Mortgage', Nairobi.
In association with the production house VisualEdge, Kwame oversaw the art direction as well as produced the special effects for the 'Good Home Mortgage' TVC for Cooperative Bank of Kenya. Featuring some nifty blue screen composites and lighting effects, this advertisement received much praise from industry professionals.
Dec 2009, Nairobi, Kenya. TEDx, Nairobi.
Kwame was invited to present a talk on the case for animation content production in Africa, at this, the first TEDx workshop in Nairobi.
August 15th, 2009, Nairobi, Kenya. 'Genesis' with A3.
As current chairperson of The Association of Animation Artistes Kenya (A3) Kwame, and the steering commitee put together A3's inaugural event 'Genesis'. This conference brought together both local and international players in the African animation scene for a one day bonanza held on Aug 15th at the British Council in Upper Hill. MC'ed by reknowned personality Kobi Kihara of Citizen TV, the event focused on the business case for animation production in the morning sessions and then technical trainign workshops and african animated film screenings in the afternoon sessions.
Guest speakers included Claudia Lloyd of the Tiger Aspect/Homeboyz 'Tinga Tinga Tales' series, Nairobi, Dumi Gumbi of AnAmazing Workshop, South Africa, Ngendi Mukii of Mediae's 'The Know Zone' Nairobi, Indy Choudrie from ToonBoom Ltd, Nairobi, Jimmy Gitonga of The Ark, Nairobi, Paula Callus of Bournemouth University, UK, and Yvonne Muinde, a Kenyan who works as a Lead Digital Matte Painter at WETA Studios, New Zealand. The occasion was graced by guest of honour permanenet Secretary in the Minstry of Information and Communication, Dr Bitange Ndemo. For more information please visit the A3 website www.animationkenya.com
July, 2009, Nairobi, Kenya. 'Kenya Census' with Apex Communications. Kwame assisted Apex Communications Ltd and VisualEdge Ltd to produce compelling animated graphics for the Kenya nationl Census 2009 campaign seen across Kenya via the major broadcasters.
June, 2009, Nairobi, Kenya. 'The Amazing Tales of Sungura Sam ' with World Food Programme and Unilever. Apex communications contacted Kwame to join the joint WFP/Unilever campaign 'Together for Child Vitality' to do character designs and develop a comic book. The campaigns aim is to raise nutrition awareness amongst primary school age children. This first phase targeted children mainly in Narok and the Nairobi slums, later to be expanded to other various parts of Kenya. To this objective, Kwame designed Sungura Sam, a fun loving, child friendly superhero who gives children an introduction into healthy eating habits in the 20 page comic book 'The Amazing Tales of Sungura Sam'. This comic book Kwame created has four short stories with entertaining, yet educative, crossword puzzles and cool mazes.
May, 2009, Nairobi, Kenya. Apes in Space Ltd. Kwame co-founded new animation company based in the Valley Arcade shopping center, Nairobi. Apes in Space provides hi-quality 2D and 3D animation services to the African and international market. Content for TV, film and mobile devices. Apes in Space also provides storyboard and pre-viz services. See www.apesinspace.net
April, 2009, Nairobi, Kenya. 'Ridsect' animated TVC's with Redsky. As part of Ridsect Ltd new advertising strategy, Kwame was contracted by reknowned Nairobi agency Redsky to produce 3 fifteen second spots featuring 3D mosquitoes, cockroaches and flies.
February, 2009, Nairobi, Kenya. Brand Kenya. Kwame designed and produced compelling 3D animation titile graphics for the 'Aspire Kenya' campaign for Brand Kenya.
January 15th , 2009, Ann Arbor, USA. The University of Michigan. Kwame delivered a 45 min presentation on african illustration and animation for the University of Michigan's Art Department senior thesis students. He also then went one with one with the illustration and animation students to help with their thesis project development.
December 6th, 2008, Nairobi, Kenya. Animated Kenya. Kwame delivered a 30 min presentation on 2D animation for the 1st Animated Kenya animation workshop, held at the Sarit Centre. See www.kenyan-animation.com for more details.
Computer Art Director for Tiger Tinga's 'Tinga Tinga Tales'
Kwame spent much of the fall of 2008 working as a Computer Art Director for Tiger Tinga's 'Tinga Tinga Tales'. This 52-part 11 min childrens animated series is set to become the next big thing when it hits the world's airwaves on The Disney Channel and BBC C-Beebies in December 2009.
African Animated shorts from childrens book 'Owen and Mzee'
In conjunction with Rainmaker Studios and Eric Wainaina, Kwame directed three one minute films to be used as pilots to pitch for the production of the childrens book 'Owen and Mzee' into a film. featuring Eric's music, the aesthetic style of the films involves the use of banana fiber and photo collage. The 100% Kenyan story,'Owen and Mzee', has sold millions of copies around the world since its release in 2006
'Cries from the Heart: Stories from Around the World'
Kwame has illustrated the English language learner book 'Cries from the Heart: Stories from Around the World' for Oxford University Press UK's Oxford Bookworms Library. The book is retold by Jenniffer Bassett. For more information on the Oxford Bookworms Library please visit www.oup.com/elt/bookworms
'Cries from the Heart; Stories form Around the World'. Copyright 2007 Oxford University Press.
A Tasty Maandazi
With his current children's book A Tasty Maandazi Kwame highlights contemporary life in Africa, through this day in the life of a young boy, Masu, in a coastal Kenyan town in this coming of age story.
Kwame says, "Most children's books you find in the market today about Africa are not created by Africans and tend to portray inaccurate images of Africa, by either being too romanticised or too negative. This story that I have created A Tasty Maandazi is not about the wild animals in the jungle, it's not about poverty and disease. It's about normal people living normal lives in their unique cultural context. I created this book with the main objective of making a vehicle to educate the ignorant".
A Tasty Maandazi is available at Borders and Shaman Drum bookstores in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
A Tasty Maandazi is also available at Text Book Centre, Bookstop, Legacy Books, Simply Books, African Colours and The Nu Metro Media Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.
For all other inquiries please email me.
A Tasty Maandazi by Kwame Nyong'o
