What Is MJKN Designs?
In short, MJKN Designs is a design house that aims to help small and medium business, start-ups, and personal brands stand out and widen their reach across digital platforms through design. And like any house, it has four cornerstones; Brand Identity, UI/UX, Graphic and Web design.
Behind The Name
In as much as MJKN Designs was established in 2021, the abbreviation MJKN had been around my vocabulary for a number of years. It is derived from the words Mjita Ka Nantsika, which when loosely translated means ‘A man of anything/anyone’. During my time in varsity, like everyone else, I started learning more about myself – I believe they call this self-actualization.
I discovered that I had a vast number of skills and most often, these spread across different technical fields. I had a rhythm which enabled me to write (songs and poems), sing and rap, and music production overall. All this while, I was an electrical engineering student, and a member of the institution’s debating team. In all these, my performance was well above average. Of course, a lot of times I had a struggle balancing everything, and needed a way to manage my participation in each. And that gave birth to, Mjita Ka Nantsika.
Fast Forward, 2021
Before 2021, I had designed a few art covers, posters and signage. While preparing to wed my lovely wife, I designed our wedding website using a website builder. The feedback we received from this pushed the idea to formalise these design skills into business. A friend of mine asked if I would be willing to design a website for his start-up, and curious me agreed to the task at no cost. I knew the learning curve would be pretty steep, but at this point it was a matter of satisfying the need to know more than it was about the end goal. A few months down the line, after many hurdles, we had a functional website.
I have a bit of OCD, and this gets worse when it comes to optics of any sort. And so I knew I had to invest some time and learn more about the design industry if I wanted to be a decent and impactful designer. I followed a few prominent figures in the space, signed up for the different social media channels available for designers and attended a whole lot of webinars. The knowledge gathered from all these resources helped me understand design a little bit better, and most importantly, narrowed my focus to the things I really cared about.
“To Infinity.. And Beyond”
So, back to the four cornerstones; Brand Identity, UI/UX, Graphic and Web design, these came to be my primary focus areas. For a lot of new businesses starting out, they believe a logo is their identity, and so they hire a designer to create one and move on. And so, I wanted to help these new businesses understand their brand identity and how they can get to defining one. From its persona, typography, graphics, colours and tone of voice, I wanted to help them establish more than just businesses but personal connections with their target audience.
Beyond brand identity, I also care a lot about interactions and experiences. I believe the two make us who we are as people, and define our psyche. It is beautiful seeing the influence UI/UX has on oneself, and I wanted to be part of the group that made people’s experiences online enjoyable. I think graphic design is the middle man that would then connect realising one’s brand identity and designs that create those beautiful user interactions and experiences.
All of this combined is what makes MJKN Designs. As much as it is not a fully fledged design house at the moment, but the hope is that one day it will be one. And on that day, I also hope that the motivation remains the same; to create meaningful personal connections between brands and their audience. Until then…
