Fresh, funky and fierce

Mariselle Stofberg

Ericke Tjiueza and Kevin Perestrelo are two self-taught artists who believe that their creative perspective is informed by their intuition, upbringing and experiences. The dynamic duo are the masterminds behind KP Studios, formed in 2019.

“It is the vehicle that we use to bring together artists from different backgrounds and with different perspectives, to do the difficult thing of telling truly Namibian stories that don’t exist anywhere else in the world,” Tjiueza says.

Nedbank Namibia recently used young Namibian social media content creators to work on the bank’s private banking ‘Young Professionals’ advertising campaign and KP Studios was selected to conceptualise and the campaign.

The two describe themselves as aesthetic storytellers, who create with the intent of incorporating representation, especially for minority African identities and cultures. Their areas of expertise include photography, videography, and overall creative concept development.

“We'd like to believe that the work that we do at KP Studios sets us apart from the rest of the industry and represents us in ways that we could never explain. Five years from now we see the studio having made significant contributions to the Namibian creative economy, in addition to setting some valuable international landmarks for Namibia,” says Tjiueza.

Tjiueza is the conceptualiser and storyteller, but is also responsible for directing, photography, styling and creative direction.

For Perestrelo it is all about the camera as photographer and filmmaker. He is able to compose the story and incorporate his unique visual aesthetic to enhance the concept.

His journey has allowed him to rub shoulders with big names in the industry. “All my past experiences in the creative industry have carved out the type of artist I am,” he says.

Perestrelo has collaborated on projects with the Namibian Presidency, the European Union, and USAID.

Tjiueza says Veruschka de la Harpe, the Nedbank marketing manager, had a strong vision for what the private banking division wanted to offer its stakeholders next.

“We came in to provide our creative insight as creative professionals and did our part to build and develop the vision. Conceptualising, directing and producing the campaign required a tremendous amount of courage and a core faith from everyone involved. From client right down to the talent, leaps were made to get this campaign to where it is and it pushed so many of us to confront our dreams,” he said.

“It’s been a dream of ours to show big corporate companies how creative thinking can help them strike a balance between prioritising profits and truly creating value for their stakeholders. This campaign achieves that very goal.”

Tjiueza believes that the Namibian youth occupy the biggest population demographic in Namibia and also carry the honour of ushering the country into new territories – as seen with the recent victories of Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi at the 2021 Olympics.

“This campaign is the very epitome of that achievement. To hone in on the powers that set us apart, creating a life that is intentionally yours and confidently choosing all of the multifaceted ways we see, not just for ourselves but the African young professional.”

The duo believes that Nedbank is setting a precedent by meeting young professionals across various industries, in their journey to attain greater financial equity.

“The campaign symbolises a new dawn for financial literacy in Namibia and it’s a defining moment that we’re incredibly honoured to have been a part of. There are opportunities for young professionals everywhere. There are so many unexplored avenues in most, if not all Namibian industries. It’s really just about researching the niche that you could carve out for yourself and creating value with it for your target audience,” they said.