Q&A with the young creatives
What is the story behind who you guys are and what brought you all together?
Xzavier Zulu: I’m a 25 year old art director by trade and visual communicator by love who’s from the Zulu tribe and currently residing in “Little Europe” – Cape Town. I’m really trying to continue the journey of those before me. Fulfil the dreams I had and worked towards when I was younger, tears running down my face, trying to customise denim on my bedroom floor while listening to the “Out My Mind” version of Pharrell’s
That single song raised me to who I am today. That one song. Those are the times when I realised my purpose. Who I needed to be for my time. For people who looked like me and shared a passion beyond their immediate environment.
Wanda and I had been following each other on Tumblr for some time. This was definitely the era when Tumblr was popping. Realising we shared similar interests in art, music and culture. We would direct message each other to meet up, meet the rest of the guys and we’ve been friends since. The guys really opened my eyes to thrifting and more so the better spots to do so. I was a suburbs kid that was still new to Joburg and they had given me the crash course. The lay of the land.
I think we all grew up with different backgrounds but the need to reflect our times and to highlight often neglected stories of our country and even our continent is something that gives our creative edge. The need not to forget where we’re from but celebrate it. We’re born in an era where those who have paved the way are often neglected and under-celebrated and that is our main source of inspiration that informs who we are and what we’d like to do. As a collective, what is the creative process when starting a new project?
Xzavier: I’ve never said this aloud but one of the key things I learnt in college is how to put together one fire cohesive presentation. That coupled with my vision and the odd premonition/dream of creative executions and talking in my sleep allows me to take all of that and discuss it with my brothers – who all know something I don’t, and we come together to get to a greater idea, narrative and execution. So basically, I lay the foundation, the structure where we could very well go with various ideas and we take it from there.
Essentially our roles within the collective is to build and create alongside the foundations built by Xzavier to come up with ideas and to execute them by providing direction for them and collaborating in order to create an environment where we learn from each other and grow in order to ensure sustainability not only within the collective but for the culture and growth of our industry.