TheOneWillFocus x Taji Mag

© NayMarie Photography | www.NayMarie.com

This week we are grateful to feature an immensely talented Afro-futuristic graphic designer and brand expert TheOneWillFocus. His work is an uncanny display of ingenuity and historical veneration. He focuses on effectively shaping perception.

We sat down for a virtual conversation with TheOneWillFocus about his work.

Africa Jackson: What is the best thing about being a Black man?

TheOneWillFocus: I’m not sure if there’s just one answer to this question for me, but let’s see… me being a Black man alone is symbolic to strength, durability, spirituality, and limitless potential. It also allows me to attract the type of queen that only a Black man could attract.

AJ: What makes your work unique?

TheOne: My work is focused highly on the uplifting of our people and more so on the Black woman. She is highly undervalued and overlooked and if I have the power to change her visibility via my art, why would I not pay her respect? So, I take an approach to show the Black woman in a way which SHE can be proud of, representing her strength, intelligence, and perseverance through imagery. I call my illustration style Satabu, which is a combination The words Art and Book in Swahili. I made this term simply because we do not have a representative category of art under which Black people create, although other cultures do indeed have theirs. We need our own category, our own sect, that is all our own. Satabu is just such a thing.

AJ: Who do you credit for the success of the Black Owned Business Collective?

TheOne: Honestly, I had no parts in the creation of the Black Owned Business Collective, that was all the work of the always innovative NayMarie, but I was all for helping. When I saw that she began looking for a means to collect business information, I wanted to create a central hub outside of facebook, something that would allow us to no longer excuse our lack of support for black businesses by saying we are unable to find them. Creating OBW (Our Black Web) was a natural progression… we can now search businesses and get directions to them, as well as filter them by business types and keywords worldwide. No more excuses. We can work towards financial freedom/economic empowerment through group economics.

AJ: Why is Black love important?

TheOne: Black love is important because the world around us will do everything in its power to convince us that it does not exist. This creates a need, dependency, and desire to seek out love that does not LOOK like us. Black love is a love that understands, that comes from a very familiar place, and makes the road you are traveling together that much easier due to your mutual understanding of one another. This also allows our children to understand that Black love isn’t something to be avoided, but to be embraced and that with it brings strength to the home and the community. We are a communal people so family is at the center and Black love is essential to our survival.

AJ: When did you realize you were talented?

TheOne: It was never something I realized, but more so was ingrained in me. My mother told me every day since I can remember that “You can do anything you want and noone is smarter than you”. As a result, my talent was something I assumed was something normal that I had to cultivate. I remember being wowed by my mother taking my cousins and I into the dining room, sitting us down with lined paper, and drawing each of us individually. This was the point in which I knew what I wanted to do, but as I started to do it, drawing day by day, the more I did it, the more I realized how amazed people were and THAT was when I realized I had a talent. I was probably about 9 years old at that point.

TheOneWillFocus is currently working on (and super excited about) his upcoming comic book. He decided to push forward after ten years of work, reflecting on his life and eyes opening to the world, as well as how well received his art and coloring books have been after showing them to the public. The comic will go by the name of “Tension” and will feature his character “Eternity”, which can be found on his Instagram. He is also building a collective that we are all eagerly waiting for.

You can find TheOneWillFocus all over the internet: Facebook, Twitter, and IG: @TheOneWillFocus. You can also email him and inquire about commissions: TheOne@TheOneWillFocus.com