Afro Tape

I started with the wordmark and a pattern system rooted in West African textile geometry, restrained for a contemporary editorial feel. The brand guideline doubles as an onboarding doc for every new hire — so the visual language scales without me in the room.

The system had to hold outside of screens too — on apparel, venue signage, and photographic treatments. I pushed the palette, pattern language, and wordmark into physical touchpoints so Afro Tape felt like a lived culture brand, not just a product UI.

v1 shipped fast in Framer to validate positioning. v2 added a richer storytelling layer, motion-driven hero, and a content system the team can edit without me. Both sites taught us what users actually came to Afro Tape for — and that answer became the marketplace.

Designed and shipped the full creative OS on Lovable. Pillar one — a global marketplace where vetted talent (videographers, photographers, costume designers, multidisciplinary studios) get booked all year, with secure escrow protecting every transaction. Pillar two — professional studio management from one dashboard: file sharing, scheduling, payments. Pillar three — secure project funding so creatives stop chasing invoices. Pillar four — direct content sales to clients and fans, getting creatives paid instantly instead of waiting on royalty cycles.

Afro Tape isn't a design hand-off — I built it. Lovable for the front-end, Supabase for auth, escrow ledger, role-based access (providers vs. buyers), and the marketplace data model. Paystack for card payments, payouts and split flows. Two distinct user systems sharing one product surface — buyers brief, fund, and release escrow; providers list, deliver, and withdraw. Database schema, RLS policies, payment webhooks, and the live site are all mine.

The marketing site mirrors the product — sections that show exactly what you'll do inside the app.

The iOS app is live on TestFlight with our first wave of testers in-app right now. We're running a paid bug-bounty campaign — ₦5,000 per qualifying system bug — to pressure-test the marketplace, escrow, and split-sheets before public launch. Real builds, real testers, real feedback loop.

We organised an event with the Department of Creative Arts at the University of Lagos. I designed the roll-up banners and flyers — every flyer carried a QR code straight into the Afro Tape signup flow. The room did the rest.

Built a flexible template library in Figma and Canva, then handed daily execution to the Social Manager while I direct the bigger-swing illustrations, the brand film, and the how-to video series.

I produced a short how-to series to walk users through the core actions — booking a studio session and booking a service. Clean screen recordings with tight pacing so the product speaks for itself.

I designed and continue to art-direct Afro Tape's social presence — a flexible system of post templates, story frames, campaign keys that stretch across awareness, trust, and product education.

I helped hire and onboard the Product Manager who restructured operations, and the Social Media Manager driving day-to-day content. The brand guideline and template systems were designed so they could move fast without me in the loop.