Our Strength is Meticulous Design of Brand Identity – Ojo

Ojo is the MD, Ubanbaze, a strategic design and branding company. One thing that fascinates whoever comes in contact with him is his level of expertise and broad knowledge within and beyond the design industry. Another is the fact that he looks too young to be at the helm of affairs, yet  he appears geared to drive his business to the next level. He speaks with Blessing Nwobodo on his passion for graphic design emphasizing that designing is a different ball game from advertising.

My name is Oluyomi Ojo, I finished from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) with a degree in pure and applied mathematics.
My delving into the graphic design industry is due to the passion I have always had for design. I am a very creative person. I can think up a thousand and one ideas to represent a brand’s message. During my IT, I had the opportunity of working as a freelancer for some agencies during which I was able to develop myself in branding, promotional materials and graphics.
Today I am the MD/Creative Director of Urbanbaze, a strategic design and branding company. What we do is basically graphic design and branding with our core competencies in identity design. We create logos and corporate identities for organization, brands and products.
So far so good we have been able to work with a whole lot of clients, from multinationals to Nigerian companies. We have worked on brands like Pfizer and Alabukun, to mention but a few. We also do jobs for startup companies. For every company we have worked for, we are meticulous not to leave out anything in delivering to the clients.
I think it is important to emphasize that it took us time to get here; it was a race for years that has metamorphosed from one kind of business to another. I started with greeting cards then moved into branding of promotional materials like T-shirts, face caps etc. I went on to study graphic design while working as a freelancer with the design agencies. I worked with Richbrand and Brand IQ.
The design agency is often misrepresented as an advertising agency but it is a field on its own. It is a different ball game to design a brand on the one hand, and to advertise a brand on the other hand. Unfortunately we are in a country where everything is treated as a whole and not a part.
Personally I encountered a lot of challenges running my business while I was still in school but I managed well and finished on a good note. My knowledge in Mathematics has equally helped to broaden my horizon about how things work. As an organization, our challenge, like every business in Nigeria, is power supply but somehow we are pulling through.
I see Urbanbaze in the future delving into all facets of the business of communication. Right now we are basically into branding and design but pretty soon we are going into media advertising. It is a 360 communications plan in the making. I am currently running a programme with APCON and some other professional bodies.
Within my network of friends I would say I am the youngest in the midst of older MDs. At first they saw and attended to me as a young man but with time, when they discovered my true worth, they began to acknowledge and accept me as one of them to the extent that they are comfortable discussing issues with me like they would with someone in their age bracket. But with clients at times it is tough convincing them that you are as capable of handling a project as a 45 year old man. Their usual question is, “You are too young. Are you sure you can handle this?” However we do not have such issues with multinational clients. They do business with you purely on merit, what you can offer. They do not place sentiments on age. And for me I think that is worthy of emulation. We need to get to that level where you are assessed based on what you have to offer and not place so much emphasis on age.