Stephanie Nyairo
Stephanie Nyairo
Bonk is a design centred retail company based in Nairobi. I’ve collaborated with their team to design several products that are currently on sale on their website and in their store in Nairobi.
The first product I designed is a deck of playing cards inspired by the people and cultures of 19th Century Kenya. Growing up all the cards we had access to had the likeness and features of Caucasians and I was keen to create a deck of cards with people in our likeness that can educate future generations on the people and cultures who came before them. I stylised the characters and people in each suite after different ethnic groupings that were prominent in our pre-colonial society.
The characters in the spades suite are modelled after the Swahili community. They are a bantu community who because of their settlement along the East African coast regularly came into contact with Indian, Arab, and Persian cultures. This resulted in their culture, language, rituals, modes of dress and food having strong influences from these communities. And in turn because they were a key connector between inland communities and other markets their language and culture has been adopted throughout Kenya.
The Flowers suite showcases the people and objects of the Kikuyu community. They are another bantu group that were predominant in agriculture in the areas surrounding Mt. Kenya and the Rift Valley. As one of the largest ethnic groupings in Kenya, and because they were forced to tortured into adapting into the ways of the colonialists their people have settled across the country leading to their language having a large influence on Kenyan society to date.
The Diamonds suite features the people and emblems of the Somali community who are of Cushite ethnicity. Somalis were the predominant community in what is now considered North Eastern Kenya as well as long the coast as they partook in trade and travel from the horn of Africa (present day Somalia) down to present day Tanzania. Because of their pastoral prowess and prominence along the coast, as well as the events in present day Somalia, today their community has a large presence across Kenya in trade and business.
The family of hearts highlights the Maasai community, probably one of the most famous Nilotic groupings known the world over. The Maasai traveresed most of present day Kenya and Tanzania as pastoralists. Throughout East Africa they were known for being formidable warriors and for their elaborate clothing, jewelry and hair styles. Though the advent of colonialism led to the death of a large number of Maasai they were able to maintain their rituals, culture and practices and today are heralded as one of the few communities who’s practices have remained intact despite the havoc of colonialism.
Each of the face cards hold an object that was prominent in that community, and quite often synonymous with one gender or age grouping.
The background of each face card features the words from the second to eighth line of our national anthem in both English and Swahili. I chose these lines as it promotes the idea of unity, peace, liberty, and above all heralds the richness of our society(ies).
While at Bonk I also designed their first series of greeting cards. These holiday and gratitude cards feature of common phrases, imagery and -isms amongst Kenyans today.