For Olalere Kareem, design is not simply about creating attractive visuals. It is a way to communicate ideas, solve problems and create opportunities. What began as a self taught skill during a period when he was searching for professional direction has grown into a design practice serving businesses across the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Germany.
As the Founder of Logos by Venessa, Graphic Designer, Brand Strategist, Design Educator and Creative Entrepreneur, Olalere has built his work around understanding the people behind businesses and translating their ideas into meaningful visual identities. Beyond client work, he has extended that philosophy into mentoring, workshops, education and initiatives such as Finding Creatives, creating opportunities for emerging creatives to develop their abilities and build careers.
In this Spotlight Interview with Crest Africa, Olalere reflects on his unconventional journey into design, the experience that shaped Logos by Venessa, why understanding people remains central to his work, and the impact he hopes to create beyond the designs themselves.
CA: You studied Political Science rather than design. What convinced you that design could become the platform through which you would build your career?
Olalere: Like many young Nigerians, I grew up understanding that a degree didn’t necessarily mean an opportunity would be waiting for you. Sometimes, you had to create one.
I studied Political Science, but creativity had always been part of me. So I started learning design, spending countless nights practising and gradually combining it with what I understood about people, communication and sales.
At first, I was simply trying to create an opportunity for myself. I never imagined that the same skill would eventually allow me to help entrepreneurs across different countries bring their own ideas to life. That changed how I saw design. It wasn’t just something I could do. It was something that could create possibilities.
CA: That philosophy now shapes how you work with businesses. What do you believe separates meaningful brand design from something that is simply visually appealing?
Olalere: Sometimes a client comes to me and says, “My friend recommended you. Can you make me a nice logo like you made hers?”
But before discussing colours or fonts, I want to know why they started the business. Who are they trying to reach? What should someone understand when they encounter their brand? Those conversations completely change the design.
I’ve learnt that entrepreneurs aren’t really coming to me because they need another logo. They’re trying to communicate something they haven’t yet been able to express visually. My job is to listen carefully enough to find that story and then design something that genuinely belongs to them.
I wish more entrepreneurs would ask why. Why this colour? Why this typography? Why this composition? What are we actually trying to make someone feel or understand? Without meaning, a beautiful design can still say absolutely nothing.
CA: You founded Logos by Venessa in 2021 during a particularly challenging period in your life. How did that experience influence the business you eventually built?
Olalere: I remember this period very clearly because I had lost a sense of myself and was relying heavily on my mum. We had a difficult conversation because I didn’t want to keep depending on her. I asked her for a laptop so I could start building something, but financially she couldn’t afford one at the time.
My aunt heard about it and bought me my first laptop. Everyone else probably saw a laptop. I saw a way out.
That experience still influences how I run the business because I learnt very early not to take people’s trust for granted. I listened to clients, delivered the best work I could, asked for honest feedback and tried to make every person feel that their business mattered.
One happy client became a review. A review gave another person confidence. That person referred someone else. Some returned again and again. That’s how the practice grew, one relationship at a time.
CA: Your work now serves businesses across the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Germany. What has working across different markets taught you about branding?
Olalere: It taught me that technology may have made the world a global village, but people are still people.
A business owner thousands of miles away can have exactly the same concern as someone around the corner: “Will you understand what I’m trying to build?”
Different markets have different expectations, so I learnt to research, adapt and understand how businesses communicate to their audiences. But the common thread has always been listening.
I’ve had clients return for additional work, recommend me to others and build long term relationships with my practice. For me, that’s meaningful because it shows that good design can cross borders when the thinking behind it remains human. The software might be the same everywhere. The stories never are.
CA: Beyond commercial work, mentorship and education have become important parts of your journey. Why are you committed to developing other creatives?
Olalere: Somewhere right now, there’s probably a young person who feels the way I once did, talented, ambitious, but unable to see a pathway forward. I know how heavy that uncertainty can feel.
Design gave me direction when I desperately needed one, so when I began finding my feet, I felt uncomfortable keeping everything I had learnt to myself. That became mentoring, workshops, speaking and eventually initiatives such as Finding Creatives.
Today, seeing people I’ve mentored developing their own practices and reaching clients beyond their immediate environment is incredibly fulfilling. When someone you helped starts creating opportunities for themselves, the impact stops being about you.
Teaching is another part of that. I don’t want a young person to look at a logo and see just another classroom assignment. I want them to understand that behind it are decisions about communication, technology, psychology, business and creativity. Whether they become designers or not isn’t really the point. Once a young person starts believing they can create something from an idea, the possibilities become much bigger than design.
CA: As technology continues to transform creative work, where do you believe the real value of designers will lie?
Olalere: We can create faster than ever. Technology can generate images, suggest layouts and automate parts of the creative process. But faster doesn’t automatically mean more meaningful.
Someone still has to ask: Who is this for? Why should they care? What are we actually trying to communicate?
That’s where I think the designer becomes even more important. Our value increasingly lies not simply in operating the tool, but in bringing together technology, strategy, storytelling and human understanding to solve the right problem.
The tools will keep changing. People will still need to feel understood.
CA: Finally, when people reflect on your work years from now, what do you hope they remember?
Olalere: I’d rather they remember people than logos.
A small business owner who finally had a brand they were proud to put in front of customers. A young creative who couldn’t see a pathway and eventually began designing for clients beyond their own country. A student who discovered that creativity could become something much bigger than a classroom assignment.
Those stories are what I want to multiply.
I want to continue building a design practice that works across the UK, US and international markets, but I also want that commercial growth to create more opportunities for education, mentoring, workshops and collaborations that connect emerging creatives with the industry.
Years from now, the number of designs I’ve created will matter far less to me than what happened because of them. If businesses grew, young people found direction, creatives built careers and those people went on to create opportunities for others, then the impact travels much further than anything I could design alone.
That’s the future I want to build: not simply a bigger design practice, but a wider pathway for other people to create, grow and be seen.-
