WHITE COLLAR | ISSUE 004
art in high school and decided to study art and Design at the University of Nairobi. To be honest I never thought I’d end up doing this. But in retrospect everything sort of pieces together and all these random things seem to some together to make sure I ended up where I am.
Why graphic design of all the arts? Who is Jacque Njeri? That’s one of the toughest questions to answer. Amm, I’m an artist, a lover of music, a lover of human beings. I am so curious about people and social connections. I’m a last born, but coz of the very wide age gap, I grew up almost as an only child.
How does one become a Graphic artist? For me it started pretty early. I remember in primary school I’m the one who’d be given the task of drawing maps or like the digestive system. I began to notice that I’m a very visual person. I loved the newspapers and magazines more for the images than the stories. I also loved interesting, provocative and unconventional advertisements. I remember stumbling onto my brother’s art books and from there, there was no stopping me. I pursued
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After I graduated from University, I did graphic design and went into advertising. I had always really loved creative adverts and for a moment I thought that was what I wanted to do.
Art requires someone to be comfortable with Vulnerability. How do you approach that? It takes a lot for an artist to actually put their work out there. It’s serious to the point that it can even be crippling. Personally its tough as well. But I constantly remind myself of this quote ‘for a photographer, the first 10,000 photographs you take will be the worst of
your career’ and try to apply it in my field. The more I do the better I’m gonna get. I’m always moving onto the next project and making sure that I’m consistently growing. I’m also very unashamed about criticism. I’ve developed a thick skin because I grew up in an environment where I saw criticism used constructively. My Father used it to motivate me. The team of creatives that I work with also won’t spare me the truth.
Have you had any obstacles so far? Yes. But in some ways the challenges I’ve faced pushed me towards art. I grew up very sheltered, as most last-born children do, and so the transition to high school was a bit harder than I expected. Boarding
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