By: Stewart Mafeni (Malawi National Examinations Board)

Corporate Identity relates to the visual images used throughout an organization to create a particular image that it wants to project to its customers.

Corporate Id is far more than simply a logo. It is the way people look, the way they behave, their uniform and the image of all the products and the services the organization provides.

In Malawi, there’s multiparty democracy with several political parties. But it is through their parties’ identity that their differences are displayed.

Monolithic identity as an approach to corporate identity. In this, same colours are used and the same logo is consistently applied to help tie all the products of a particular company together or party manifestos together.

Endorsed identity involves linking different products together with an endorsement, such as a company badge, trademark or symbol, e.g Toyota symbol, you have different sizes of Toyota but one company symbol.

Branded identity is adopted by many confenctionery and sweet manufacturers. This allows a company to capitalize on a market and helps to eliminate competitors.

Visual designs play a greater role in several aspects. It has the power to sustain customers of a particular company or disperse them.The same applies to a political party.

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By: Stewart A. Mafeni, Malawi National Examinations Board.

The phrase visual language refers to the idea that communication occurs through visual symbols, as opposed to verbal symbols, or words.

Words are also symbols, of course. They are not the thing itself, although traditional religious ideas have often centered around the idea that the word and the thing are the same.

It is for this reason that, for example, in more than one religion it is forbidden to speak or write the name of God, and in most faiths great reverence is given to the written scripture.

Also, words can take on symbolic meanings that may go beyond the literal definition.

The word black, for example, became a highly charged symbol of political and social realities for African Americans in the 1960′s.

The meaning and use of this term has shifted somewhat since that time, though it continues to carry meanings that might not be apparent to someone just learning English.

There are also nonverbal symbols that we respond to as messages, though often without realizing exactly what it is that has caused us to reach a certain conclusion.

These symbols are often visual, though they can be auditory or even tactile. The power of music as a non-verbal, auditory language is very apparent. Nonverbal symbols  reach us via the eyes.

Those who understand nonverbal, especially visual language can and do manipulate our attitudes to suit their purposes. Yet often we respond to visual messages unconsciously, preferring to believe that our opinions are formed by our own good judgement and personal taste.

Therefore we may fail to recognize that visual signals may affect our opinions about policy issues and social values, or even our preferences in cars, music, or fashions.

For example, the body language, dress, and expressions of a politician in this television age often seem to be as crucial to the success of a party’s program as the policies and ideas he holds.

The wrong nonverbal signals, and we simply do not trust that person on the screen, whatever his ideals and character may really be.

On the other hand, effective use of visual signals can make us overlook a great deal in a politician’s background.

There have been many examples of both situations in the past years, since television has become such a powerful presence in Malawian

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Written by: Stewart Mafeni  (Malawi National Examinations Board) 

 If you wanted to persuade people that martial arts were an effective means of self-defense, would you hire a painter, or Jackie Chan? (Believe me, you’d want Jackie Chan.)

 Design won't take root in your company or organization  unless people see it done by experts. The vast majority of companies I've seen try to bring design in-house by telling some programmers that they're now designers, or by having the personal secretaries do some design in their spare time.

 Although the need for designers varies during the project’s life cycle, design is a full-time job as well as a profession that requires many years of practice and training. Good interaction designers are hard to find, but they do exist - hire them! 

 When you're trying to bring the idea of design as a profession into an organization, it's important to realize that you're not just changing a process -- you're attempting to change the company's culture and dearly held beliefs.  It's entirely possible to change any company, but it will take a clear goal for where you want to be, a plan for getting there, executive sponsorship, and excellent communication about the benefits of change. 

 Change on this scale isn't easy, but isn't that true of just about everything that's worth doing? Find allies within your organization, look to designers outside your organization for moral support, and don't forget to celebrate your successes, because you will have some. 

 Every time I get discouraged about the state of the industry, I remind myself those five years ago, no one knew what visual designing involves except those of us who did it. Today, marketers, developers, and executives call me up  asking for digital visual design. We must be doing something right, after all, every field has specialists.

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By: Stewart A. Mafeni (Malawi National Examinations Board)

 Visual designs are ‘nonverbal arts that reach us via the eyes.’ Visual designs are divided according to the kinds of materials that are used and the way the designs are produced. In this way, three dimensional objects are distinguished from photographs, prints and paintings.

Digital tools have now become integral parts of the process of making art. In this focus is put on computer assisted art or visual designs. This modernistic trend in pursuing art or visual designs is referred to as Digital art.

Digital art can be purely computer-generated, such as fractals, or taken from another source, such as a scanned photograph, or an image drawn using vector graphics software using a mouse or graphics tablet.

Although technically the term may be applied to art done using other media or processes and merely scanned in, it is usually reserved for art that has been non-trivially modified by a computing process (such as a computer program, microcontroller or any electronic system capable of interpreting an input to create an output); digitized text data and raw audio and video recordings are not usually considered digital art in themselves, but can be part of a larger project.

Digital art is produced by using electronic versions of brushes, filters and enlargers, these “Neographers” produce images unattainable through conventional photographic tools. In addition, digital artists may manipulate scanned drawings, paintings, collages or lithographs, as well as using any of the above-mentioned techniques in combination. Artists also use many other sources of information and programs to create their work.

By the concept digital tools in visual designs emphasis is on computer aided visual designs as opposed to conventionally drawn or panted visual designs. The objective is to produce images of high quality surpassing that attainable by conventional drawings or paintings. Furthermore, reproducibility and mass production are both attainable with computer assisted visual designs.

The concept of digital tools in visual designs was propounded way back in the 1920s. Bauhaus, a school for art and architecture in the 1920s, promoted the idea that ‘artful objects should be partnered with technology to create livable solutions to living spaces.’ Simply put, Bauhaus design offers practical, durable, inexpensive, yet aesthetically pleasing designs. To most, Bauhaus may mean a modernistic approach to architecture, visual designs or art, but artists, architects or designers can use the concepts of Bauhaus to provide easy solutions for making their respective tasks in their professions fully functional while retaining the unique aspects of their artful skills.

The visual designs that are produced using digital tools stand out in several aspects. For those individuals who have the ability to visualize and see the world in pictures. Such designs depict a unique touch which is not attainable conventionally.

The design abilities of artists, architects or designers are affected positively with digital tools. This is so because of greater possibilities that digital tools are able to offer to an artist or a designer.

Digital artists create in their minds video-like images from either actual daily experiences or translations of written information into pictures. These pictures are later digitally encoded  unto the graphic software in a computer.

Visual Artists think in photographically specific images. Children who are visual thinkers will often be good at drawing, other arts, and building things with building toys such as Lego’s. Many children who are visual thinkers like maps, flags, and photographs. And these children can be introduced to digital tools in their early developmental stages so that they should sharpen their skills in visual designs.

In the long run skilled visual thinkers will be produced who will be well suited to jobs in drafting, graphic design, training animals, auto mechanics, jewelry making, construction, and factory automation. This will be the case because these people think in pictures or images. These images are first created in their minds and are later drawn on suitable surfaces. These surfaces may be a paper, wall, plank, pulpwood etc.

Besides the suitable surface, artists draw with chalk, charcoal, crayon, or pencil.  They may use a liquid, such as ink, applied with a brush or pen for painting or drawing purposes. Sometimes it becomes very expensive to acquire all these items. As a result, most visual thinkers get discouraged and the talents in them are not nurtured or sharpened. In the end, most visual thinkers retract from investing more of their skills in visual designs thereby denying the field of the attention it deserves.

If I have no picture, I have no thought. Unfortunately I never had an opportunity to try trigonometry or geometry. Teachers and parents need to develop the child’s talents into skills that can eventually turn into satisfying jobs or hobbies thereby assisting in community development through visual designs that have to be appreciated aesthetically.

Visual Thinking

Visual thinking refers to a group of generative skills that, when practiced with rigorous discipline, results in the production of novel and original graphic ideas. By seeking to discover visual forms that fit his/her underlying human experience, the student of visual thinking comes to know the world. This practice of thinking with images alone is stressed in University Entrance Examinations in order to balance the over-emphasis on verbal reasoning in other areas of education. Visual thinking is high order critical thinking conducted by imaginative means alone.

Unfortunately, the Malawi or Africa education system do appreciate that the field of visual designs affect our opinions about policy issues and social values, or our preferences on fashions and every day life. This is the case because it is looked at as old fashioned because it is still pursued the conventional way.

For example, in colleges or schools where art related courses are offered, there are a few or no students patronizing it. In some cases, students register for art courses simply to make up for their course combinations during their early years of college or school education. Evidently, at Chancellor College, a constituent College of the University of Malawi, more students enroll for fine arts in their first year of study simply to satisfy the course combination requirement. When they happen to get to their second year of study most of them drop out of fine arts leaving a few students who may proceed to their third year and drop out thereafter. At the end of the programme one or two may graduate having specialized in fine arts.

However, this trend can be reversed with the idea of digital tools in visual designs.  A computer in the visual designs will act as a driving force. Instead of using computers only when visual artists happen to visit an internet café, they will use computers in their day to day work. By digital tools in visual designs, it means that without a computer, art, visual designs cannot be produced by a digital artist.

Digital tools refer to the media used to produce Visual designs.

Advantages of using digital tools as opposed to conventional means are many as such it stands out. Digital tools have enabled interactivity in the art field. The Singapore Arts Magazine, 2001, stipulates that ‘artists interact with machines to create further interaction with viewers who either summon up the art on their own machines or manipulate it through pre-programmed routines, which can vary according to the commands or movements of a viewer.’

Secondly, artists working with digital media are just utilizing another medium for expression while observing the contemporary context and the ramifications that the increasing digitization of day-to-day life has on the society.

Thirdly, art works produced digitally are easy to store for a long period of time. As a result digital prints are reproducible any time they are needed.

Fourthly, digitized designs are  exhibited electronically on the internet or world wide web thereby reaching out to a wider audience without any geographical barriers.

With conventional designs, there is a limitation in terms of exhibition. A gallery is physically placed in a specific geographical location as such there’s geographical barrier. For a patron to view the visual designs he/she is expected to travel to where the gallery is situated.

Another advantage is longevity; Wilhelm states that ‘today’s digital printing technology, fading of colours does not occur for 60 to 100 years.’ Printer tones are long lasting.

These count more in digital art as opposed to contemporary arts. On a different note, the concept of a computer in visual designs will be a motivating factor to art students in different schools and colleges thereby allowing for more patrons in the field.

Appropriate Digital tools

The appropriate computers for this form of art are iMac Computers G3, G4 or G5 with Mac OS operating systems, Flatbed scanners, Laser Printers that can print multicolour documents. The OS X system has several versions ranging from version 9 through 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, to 10.5.

Macs are good and stable for art. Bowler argues that the very obvious advantage over PCs is that nobody is writing viruses to attack Macs. The OS X system is very powerful and stable.

In a final analysis, using digital tools in visual designs is very feasible. This will help artists to avoid some overhead expenditure.

All artistic tools are compacted in the digital tools that an artist uses. As such no requirement to buy extras e.g. chalk, pencil, paint etc. This is so because these neographers are contained in the art software that digital artists use.

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Tourism is a growing international trade which Kenya as a country cannot and should never ignore. It is one industry which even the richest of the rich of the countries have already realized that they can never ignore. The top countries in the world in tourism earnings read as follows; USA, Spain, France, Italy and Germany. Each of these earn in terms of over 30 Billion US $ Annually. In terms of visitors annually they read as France, Spain, USA, China and Italy and each receiving over 40 million visitors annually.

In terms of regional sharing of the fortune minting industry, Europe takes the lion share in excess of 50% of the market share. Africa controls a measly 4.4% of the trade. This just indicates how the fortune minting industry is taken seriously by the developed world. Yet Africa with all the attraction, endowment and opportunities is nothing in the trade. Then where is Africa competitive?

Kenya for instance is a country well endowed with beautiful and very attractive natural landscape, beautiful coastline, cultural, strategic placement, wildlife, diverse languages, ecology and so many other factors. How many tourists is she expected to receive this year? Slightly above 1.2 million tourists. Revenues are expected to hit Kshs 54 Billion. Not a bad figure considering where we have come from especially after the horrible and extremely evil Likoni clashes of 1997 and the many negative travel advisories and the wanting infrastructure particularly the road network and an economy which for a while was limping.

Kudos to Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) for the good work it has been doing. Aggressive marketing to various sources of tourists in various part of the world (diversification) and branding of tourists sites such as the Meru National Park in Eastern province has given the industry a new impetus. However more need to be done.

With growing economies and new emerging economic powers such as China, Brazil and India the tourism industry is bound to grow in leaps and bounds. Already it is estimated that outbound travelers from India is set to hit over 16.3 million in 2011 alone. Yet Kenya has a great cultural, diplomatic and trade ties with India. There are many Indian immigrants in Kenya which is a great selling point of the hospitality of Kenyans and an open society to boot.

The root linkage emerging from the construction of Kenya Uganda railway in the turn of last century is a great historical link which shows a strong roots and links with the sub-continent. The emerging middle class in India is a group worth targeting. Remember about one tenth of the over 6 Billion people in the world today are Indians of ages below 35 who are increasingly growing into middle class, what with their attainment of high education and their superb exploits in the fields of Information Communication Technology (ICT) especially with leverage on Business Processes Outsourcing (BPO’s).

The problems bedeviling the industry in Kenya today are to be found in poor infrastructure particularly the road network, insecurity and limited hotel facilities (accommodation) among others. These are issues that can be easily addressed by the government by greater investment in road network, tougher and expansion of the policing force which is better remunerated and motivated as well as incentives for investments. This is an industry which can easily wipe out unemployment in the face of the overwhelmingly beautiful country known as Kenya. Imagine if we received 10 million visitors annually and a good portion of them being high net worth?

There is hope though. The government has been very keen to give incentive meant to spur economic growth. Nonetheless KTB need to be better funded and developed further. Investment in the board by the government has already proven to be highly rewarding. Thus it is very sensible to expect the government to improve the budget for KTB going forward and the ministry of Tourism and Wildlife one of the well funded promoted and protected. It is through this ministry that we can protect the goose which will continue laying the golden eggs.

By API*APN East African Correspondent

Harrison   Mwirigi   Ikunda,
P.O. Box 51806,
Nairobi.

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