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Entertainment of Saturday, 6 March 2021

Source: vanguard.ng

Meet the 24-year old art director behind Davido's 'Jowo'

Anita Ashiru play videoAnita Ashiru

Nigeria is populated with budding talents in various creative fields.

One of those is the music industry where artists look to music video directors to create compelling visuals for their hit songs.

However, beyond the video directors, there are other talents who work to make these projects what they are but are not often at the forefront of conversations.

One of those is Anita Ashiru. The 24-year old art director behind some of your favourite music videos, From Davido’s “Jowo” and “Fem” to Omah Lay’s “Godly”.

Anita has carved a niche for herself in the business of creating visual narratives that strike. Art direction involves bringing clarity to a body of work in an effort to communicate a cultural and emotional message. And with her ever-growing portfolio to show, Anita seems like she has got this on a lock.

In the course of our conversation, Anita excitedly explained her work process and how she conceptualizes her artistic direction, which now includes works for brands like Infinix and Hennessy.

Not many know about the often gritty behind-the-scenes of making music videos and it rarely crosses one’s mind that a 3-minute long piece of content will cost Anita long days, sleepless nights, domestic accidents and nightmare deadlines. Considering she is mostly in charge of drawing the different sets, costume design and even makeup direction.

All of these things make us wonder where she draws motivation when it gets overwhelming.

One would tend to think her agency experience in brand and marketing communications will count for something, but Anita tells us it’s more than that.

In her words, “I just remind myself that nothing is impossible and I should take it as a challenge to hack. If someone else can do it then so can I. I just need to figure it out. With Art Direction, it’s like a puzzle.

You try one and if it doesn’t fit you try another till you complete it. And nothing feels greater knowing that at the end of the day everything will work out.” This unique set of skills and a can-do attitude have cemented her position as a go-to for a lot of artists and brands