Mira Okafor on designing for places, not screens
The Lagos-based designer explains why her identities start with a site visit and end with a paint chart.
Mira Okafor runs a one-person practice from a converted shop in Yaba, Lagos. Her clients are markets, schools, clinics and the occasional restaurant, and her work is better known on walls and shutters than on phones.
Where does a project begin for you?
On foot. I spend at least a day at the place before I draw anything. I want to know where the sun hits at four o’clock, which walls get washed every week and what people already call the building. Half my best ideas come from listening to the nickname.
Your work leans heavily on paint. Why?
Paint is democratic. A sign writer down the road can repaint my logo in an afternoon, and that matters more to me than a perfect vector file. I design with local paint charts open next to me and I hand over a colour guide that any shop can mix.
A sign writer down the road can repaint my logo in an afternoon, and that matters more to me than a perfect vector file.
What are you working on now?
A wayfinding system for a covered market with eleven entrances and no two the same. It is the most exciting brief I have ever had.
