I’m (now) confident we’ll finish wuruwuru S1 by the end of the year.
We’re working with about 36 creators on six projects. So far only one is done, but refer to the first paragraph.
The studio started in October 2020 with two interns. Eseosa (who now works as a Product Designer) helped put together a database and some stories for Cover Bank while I worked on J Guide with Tomiwa. I later started Hanky Panky in November.
A lot was happening in those first six months so I couldn’t mentor the interns very well, and by April 2021, I got overwhelmed and disbanded the team. J Guide was published. I slowed down to focus on work but also continued to follow up on Hanky Panky.
By September I’d built some capacity, so I added Feel Good to the roster and the next month, with Saratu’s help, we registered the company as Helterskelter Publishing House. Then we coasted for a few months until February 2022 when I made an operations plan and rehired the team.
Here’s how it’s going.
J Guide
J Guide is up and done. We completed it in 2020 with three stories. We shared by word-of-mouth and tried Instagram ads, and so far the result is 174 followers and a handful of friend testimonies.
Cover Bank
Cover Bank started as “Afromusic”, an attempt to document the history of Nigerian pop music. But we quickly realised how difficult our assignment was, so it shape-shifted into a retrospective for Nigerian album cover images, plus a database for browsing those images.
Our flame was fiery but short-lived. We commissioned a writer (Wale) to write a story but he couldn’t find it. I interviewed Niyi Okeowo, Duks and Funto Coker about their work but didn’t think the essays were good enough to publish. Eventually, it became all about the database.
Recently though, we put word out for ideas and found four writers and a designer, so this one is back in progress.
By November, it should be published.
Hanky Panky
The animation for Hanky Panky is complete :)
We’re now working with a motion graphics designer (Ifunanya) for the credit scenes and with Osarumen to choose and license music. Then it’s over to Kolade for sound production.
Should be done by November too.
Feel Good
My big lesson here is that making a book is a very patient process. We’ve signed agreements, kicked off the project, received drafts for ten stories, and now Timehin and Daniel are editing.
I convinced Osione to help brand the project and print the book. That makes four designers now (+ myself): Osi on brand, Niyi on art direction, and Onyinye on paper. Should be really interesting what comes out of this.
Editorial should be done in September, and then we start on the website and book. We’re looking to complete the website and print a sample run of the book by the end of the year.
Research
We hired a researcher (Emmanuel) until the end of the year. He keeps the Comic Books, Streetwear, Album Covers, African Animation, and Internet Publishers databases up to date.
This month, we’ll start an editorial program to share insights from the databases through the 10/10 newsletter, and regular programming should kick off from next month.
We’ve also taken on two more projects: helping Eris produce a pilot for her animated series titled “E Dey Happen” and designing, producing and crowdfunding a Ludo board with Yadi.
These are “client projects”, so communication will be a little more intentional (read sparse), but they’re very much in progress.
E Dey Happen should be up on YouTube and TikTok by next month. It’s moving much faster than Hanky Panky (and is cheaper too) because we know better. Hopefully, Eris gets to write about some of these decisions.
LUDO should be up on Kickstarter in a month or two as well. We’re done with product and packaging design, currently making samples, and picking up story and marketing. Production will start after the Kickstarter.
Someone new (TBD) has just joined the team, and I’m hoping they can help figure out how to keep the studio running next year.
I want to pursue other interests but be able to use/provide the studio as a resource — at least for friends and family to produce stuff. Hopefully, we can make it work for the public somehow (I have new ideas).
Anyway, I’m really looking forward to finishing these projects for a start. The rest will figure itself out. Only a few months to go. Tick. Tock!
