Immortalising the Heroes
Before the joy and wonder of the performance of our Kenyan athletes dies down, a moment to say shukrani to the folks who captured their moments and through whose work the success of the athletes of Rio 2016 will stay alive in days to come. I don’t know about you, but pullouts from the newspapers stuck to the walls of our home was definitely a part of my childhood. So we take a moment – to honour for the people behind the products.
While the athletes were on the track or field, creative Kenyans were on standby for the results, waiting to hear what glory they brought our nation so that by the time the rest of us got up in the morning, the heroes were immortalised for us all.
On behalf of the illustrators and creatives who craft the pages of our newspapers, we’re giving a shout out to Khalsa Lakhvir-Singh, Visual Editor-in-Chief of The Star. A self described ‘jealous Kenyan’, he waited eagerly for race results and would begin his craft in the wee hours of the morning designing the visuals shared here to life. His jealousy? An emotion wrought from the audacity of athletes from surrounding nations daring to try and win our medals. 3000m steeplechase – hiyo ni yetu! 800m ahhh.. ni yetu! Don’t you DARE purport to take our medals away. In the wee hours of the morning he worked his magic and gave us King David, Faith Conquers All and Yego the Silver Warrior under the trending hashtag #UnleashTheKenyans.
With twenty years in the design profession, Lucky, as he is known, decided to step into the world of publication design only six months ago. Now in his forties, he’s using his design skills in a new way to infuse life into contemporary Kenyan issues each day through print and digital media at The Star – and he’s loving it! Working on the Olympic Heroes series has been the highlight of his time in the newspaper industry. From his viewpoint his employer helped him to express his creative passions by allowing freedom and space and by embracing the credo ‘when your work speaks for you, don’t interrupt’ he joyfully slogged for hours to bring to life the success of #TeamKenya. Why? Because in his words, ‘they have poured their hearts and soul into raising our flag high, for all of us. The best way I can honour their sacrifice is by using my visual talent to capture that moment for life – and that divine gift indeed is my reward.’
Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.
Thank you Khalsa and all the other talented graphic artists for sharing your talent for #TeamKenya ? Here’s to walls adorned with heroes across the country!
Infographics and posters, courtesy of Radio Africa Group.
