In August 2013, a collective of young men, excited and wet behind the ears, convened on the colorful and historic streets of Jamestown. They were there to showcase their work to an audience hungry for artistic expression that was rare, imaginative and unlike anything they had ever seen before. In those days, the Chale Wote Street Art Festival was just the place to find such an audience.
These men were united by a common love for anime, manga and urban fashion. Together, they represented Akolabone, an urban lifestyle brand that blended their love for anime, Ghanaian culture, comics, urban fashion, and the what-ifs into a cocktail of edgy cool.
These “cool kids” were an instant hit at Chale Wote that year. They sold out their inventory which consisted of screen-printed t-shirts and laser-cut wooden necklaces they dubbed ‘ AKB Tokens ‘.
The defining feature of this collective was its art style. While their competition made shirts by printing viral phrases, Akolabone painted their anime-inspired imaginations onto theirs. The result was people walking away with never-before-seen illustrations on their chests. They made wearing art cool.
The backbone of that art style and the collective is Paapa Kobina Okyne Taylor, simply known as Kobe Taylor and online as Nurd AKB.
Fast forward to 2020, Kobe is primarily an illustrator and graphic designer. Outside of that, he is also a UI designer, 2D animator, motion graphics designer, game designer and beatmaker.
Lime & Honey’s Maame Serwaa had a lot of questions and went Behind the Ink to explore the beautiful mind of Kobina Taylor.
Starting Out, Resistance & Acceptance
Kobe is an alumnus of Radford University College in Accra where he studied graphic design. This was a natural progression from his Visual Arts education at Pope John Senior High and Junior Seminary. The decision to pursue art, however, came at a much earlier time. As early as 8 years old when he was in Primary Class 4.
“I always had this thing where I finished early during exams but my teachers wouldn’t let me leave. They would ask me to go through my answers. So I’ll sit and start drawing instead. That’s how it started,” Kobe reflects on his earliest memories of drawing.
This creative beast that had awoken in him opened his mind to an endless and vivid imagination.
It didn’t go down well with everyone.
“…I started drawing in class because while the teacher is talking, I’m seeing things. I saw things and put them down on paper. I got whooped a lot for it. Shoutout to Mr. Abokye. That guy really beat the [Yesu] out of me because I was always drawing in class. He was seizing my pencils, letting the girl next to me snitch on me…chale, it’s been a journey.”
Growing up in a society where digital art wasn’t as valued as it is today and with zero interest in fine art, Kobe’s prospects looked bleak. His parents felt the same. The negative stereotypes were entrenched and the fear of having no future as a digital artist persisted. Kobe’s father was worried and wanted him to be a doctor but Kobe knew himself better.
“We all know how many people would have died ’cause I’ll be using the scalpel to draw tattoos on people.”
Luckily, his mum had his back. She encouraged him to pursue art if that made him happy and fetched some money.
“I have a lot of respect for my mum ’cause then she allowed me to draw. She said let the boy draw ’cause that’s what he wants to do.”
Bent on not pursuing an education in the sciences, architecture was the next option after high school. Kobina attended one interview and waved goodbye to that option.
“I started researching architecture and what goes into it. There are a lot of calculations and if you’re not careful, your design will kill people. I didn’t want to be responsible for the death of people; the main reason I ran away from being a doctor.”
Read the full post on Kobina Taylor here.
Originally published at https://squidmag.ink on April 25, 2020.
