A Peek Into the Life Of… Creative Professional – Taiwo ‘Taiyel’ Lawanson

We made a call for BellaNaija readers to be a part of a new exciting feature series called, ‘A Peek Into The Life Of‘ which the Team has been working on. {Click here if you missed it} We’ve been very excited by the feedback we’ve received and we’re happy with the submissions we’ve been receiving. It feels so good to get to know our readers better – what they do. So far, we’ve had four interestingly diverse features. ‘Deyemi Okanlawon, Chinedu Anarado , Jennifer Akporehe , Tosan Iwere,  Adetomi Imoteda Aladeokomo and ‘Tito Balogun.

Today, Taiwo Lawanson is giving us a peek into her life. She’s an Afro-HipHop artiste and founder of a digital innovation company called Tae Concept.

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Job Title
I am a  Creative Professional.

What you do specifically?
My role is to accentuate the greatness and potential of personal brands or organization through my creative endeavors under the umbrella of my web and graphic design service company ‘Tae Concept’ and on a larger scale as a company, we have recently branched into creating unique online solutions through digital innovation using internet.

Core responsibilities
As a company we specialize in design for marketing communications, digital media, corporate identity, publishing or packaging. We create top notch websites, flyers, logos, music artwork and other types of designs for clients while also managing this projects for them, if the service is required. More importantly we are now starting to create online solutions that can help better the everyday human who uses the internet through web applications that provide services to people.

How long have you been at this job?
I have been at this job for 4 years, I started my company at quite an early age of 16, I now 20 years old.  I had this awakening right after I graduated from high school in 2011. I was already a musician – a rap artist to be specific – from 15 years old and I  wanted to be able to create my own art work for my singles because the other designers hired to get the job done would never meet the creative perspective I had towards the project.  This would always make me feel like if only I could do this myself, I would not have to disturb anyone else but myself.

Highlights of your job
I will definitely say the first thing I learned was to tolerate. Being a business owner you first have learn to handle customers, handling customers and clients works hand in hand with building a tolerance and providing a great customer service, this has helped in so many ways with my relationship towards the everyday people I meet on a social aspect

I have also been able to inspire and show other young people that age is not a factor towards achieving and bringing a dream to life.

Over the years  I have designed and developed over 1000 artworks ranging from flyers to logos to website, single / album artwork and more. I have worked with a number of entertainment organization and personal brand within the Nigerian entertainment industry in the diaspora and also internationally. This has given opportunity to build great networking for my number one career ‘Music’, because to me before I am a CEO and entrepreneur, I was and still am a musician with a blazing passion and dream to one day be heard on a large platform like every star out there. My ultimate goal is to find happiness in my career and through it represent Africa and Nigerian in a positive light.

The biggest highlight of my job is the ability and opportunity to create digital solution, especially with our recent launch in the month of  August 2015. A new company called “Entify” which is a platform built specifically for the Entertainment industry.  Entify is a platform that connects consumers with businesses and Services providers.

Downsides of your job
A downside of doing my job will be that, when I  began drafting the ideas for Entify and working, I didn’t have funding so it was a solo project that I worked on by myself for over two months until it was ready and launched. As a new company we are still looking for investors and funding.

I will  also have to say one the biggest downside are customers who, feel it okay to come to creative professionals for a service, have it perfectly done and then refuse to make payment for the service provided. Sometimes customers are can be unsure of what  it is they seem to want, so they give the designer a difficult time through the process of creation. As a service provider we always make sure every client is satisfied regardless of the steps it takes to get there.
As a company we can only generate revenue from an ever growing client list.

Another downside is with the people who may know you as a creative and want you to provide a service for them freely or at a rate that is not allowed by company policy and lastly giving all of our upcoming web applications proper funding. And when school is back on, I tend to reduce the amount of projects I accept.

If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing?
If I was not doing this, I believe I will still be pushing my music career and going to school; but this time funding it from working in a retail store or any kind a menial job and not self employed.

On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade your skill set at this job?
In relation to running a creative company, I will say 8.5,  I don’t think I am perfect because there is always space to improve.

I’m living my career dream. Yes? No?
Yes, I most definitely am. The only difference is I thought I will achieve the music dream and breakthrough earlier than the entrepreneur dream. However, I am multitasking well and thankful for how far I have come and yet to reach. So I will say I have achieved a certain percentage of my career dream because another ongoing goal is to make it in the music industry. I can also say that I am doing very well because I am almost at my major breakthrough and after having made a name for myself. I plan to venture deeper into entrepreneurship especially on the online world because the Internet is a place that I really know and understand. I will say my dream is somewhat like a piece of the likes of Kanye West going into fashion and later creating his company, similar to the likes of Jay z  and Roca wear and rock nation, P-diddy Ciroc and Sean John clothing, and the likes of Beyonce and Rihanna venturing into business and not just music alone. Thereby allowing the opportunity to start building the early foundation towards the creation of an empire. I suppose these people have one thing in common they want to become household names.

If No… please share your career dream
The only No here about my career dream will be more of a ‘not yet’ rather than to say a total No. I am very passionate about music and I have been working and still working to expose my brand to people as to become more recognized musically soon. I know this is going to happen very soon because there is faith, hard work and dedication in every bit of what I do everyday.

Average Day
My average day when school is out, I wake up at about 10am: workout, take a shower and then eat some breakfast and visit my favorite blogs and websites
It is now 12pm : and after breakfast, it’s time to work on some music. I vibe with whatever I am working on. I really enjoy doing this, so I play a lot of beats, lay down ideas and do some writing.

By 2pm: I stop the music turn on Netflix or Nollywood and get ready to sit down with my laptop to create graphic designs or continue any on going website projects. because I am browsing the internet,  I visit different website, to stay up to date.

I do this for another 3 hours until 6pm. I eat and call to confirm my studio session appointment if confirmed. I head to the studio for the rest of the evening until 10pm, 11pm. I get back home, eat if I am hungry and resume work until about
4am:  I stop all and go to bed.

The only difference when school resumes is a change in schedule I sleep at 2 am and studios become only for weekend. I still make music daily, work on business projects after school based on whatever class schedule I may have.
Social Media: @Iamtaiyel @Taeconcept @Entifyspace