I'm a brand strategist and designer in Nairobi. I run Nalo Collective and work with companies across five continents. I trained as a journalist, and that's still how I work.
I studied journalism at USIU-Africa. You learn to find the real story, cut what doesn't matter and write for the reader rather than yourself. Swap "reader" for "buyer" and that's most of brand strategy.
I started out as a generalist graphic designer, which means I can still do the work rather than just direct it. Over eight years that has turned into 320+ engagements across North America, Europe, Africa, Australia and the Middle East, in technology, corporate, consumer, nonprofit and public sector. In 2019 I started Nalo Collective.
Along the way I co-led a 20-person agency as Co-CEO, built communications platforms for pan-African science convenings, and did market-entry positioning for international companies coming into Kenya. These days most of my attention goes to where branding meets the marketing funnel: whether the promise on the homepage survives the ad, the deck and the sales call. That gap is where money goes missing, and it's usually not a design problem on its own.
I started as a virtual assistant, taking whatever came in, and the design work grew out of that. Then the design kept running into strategy problems, so the practice grew again into positioning, identity and communications.
Social media management at Insignia, customer service as a ticketing agent at MOOKH Africa, and the production team at Philit Productions. Not glamorous, but it's where I saw what customers do when the marketing promises one thing and the experience delivers another.
My own studio, working with corporate, B2B and professional services clients. Strategy first, editorially minded, built for companies that treat brand as a business decision rather than a paint job.
Graduated, then spent three years running strategy, product, design and commercial work at a 20-person agency. Customer satisfaction up 21%, design delivery 25% faster, average transaction value up 13%. Running a team teaches you what a brand system has to survive: deadlines, junior designers and clients who change their minds.
Pulled everything into the studio. 320+ engagements delivered, work across international development, public sector and corporate clients, Top Rated on Upwork throughout.
Working mostly with B2B and technology companies whose product has outgrown their brand, on the join between positioning, design and how the brand is perceived across every touchpoint that sells.
If nobody can say what you do, no typeface fixes it. Every project starts with what the brand needs to say and who needs to hear it.
I've been designing for eight years and I care about the craft. A beautiful identity pointed at the wrong buyer is still an expensive mistake, so I decide who we're convincing before I open Figma.
Journalism training, still running. Find the real story, cut the noise, respect the reader. Brands that talk like good editors get believed.
People meet you across an ad, a website, a deck and a call, usually in that order. When all four say the same thing, buyers relax. When they don't, you spend the meeting explaining yourself.