Sylvia Oloo is a skilled graphic designer with a deep passion for creativity and visual storytelling. Holding a Master’s degree in Graphic Design and Typography from Anglia Ruskin University, she has honed her expertise in both digital and print media. Sylvia’s portfolio reflects her diverse experience, from creating unique brand identities and digital illustrations to managing full-scale creative projects. Known for her artistic flair and innovative approach, she brings a vibrant touch to every project, transforming ideas into visually stunning designs. Explore her work to witness the creative journey that defines her career.

LOGO DESIGN

Sylvia approaches logo design with a focus on simplicity, versatility, and meaningful representation. Each logo she creates is carefully crafted to embody the essence of a brand, ensuring it stands out and resonates with its target audience. With a deep understanding of typography, color theory, and branding principles, Sylvia’s designs capture the identity of businesses, leaving a lasting impression. From startups to established companies, her logos reflect the unique story behind every brand, creating a visual identity that endures.

BRANDING

With a focus on creating cohesive and compelling brand identities, the branding process revolves around connecting with audiences through thoughtful design and strategic storytelling. By blending market insights with a strong visual approach, each brand identity reflects the core values and vision of the business. From logos to color palettes, typography to brand guidelines, the aim is to ensure consistency across all platforms, delivering a unified message that enhances recognition and loyalty. The goal is to shape brands that tell meaningful stories and inspire trust.

Label Design

PHOTOGRAPHY

An eye for detail and a passion for storytelling through imagery define the approach to photography. With a diverse portfolio ranging from wildlife and travel photography to portrait and product shoots, the goal is always to capture moments that resonate. Past projects include photo shoots for influencers, event coverage for social media, and product photography that highlights a brand’s essence. The skills also extend to creative editorial work, including a magazine cover for a personally owned publication. This diversity in photography brings a dynamic, versatile edge to every project, whether it’s for personal expression or commercial use.

Portrait Shoots:

Portrait photography is all about capturing the essence of individuals through carefully composed shots. Whether working with influencers, professionals, or everyday people, the goal is to bring out each subject’s personality and uniqueness. Lighting, angles, and background are carefully considered to create flattering, engaging portraits that leave a lasting impression.

Wildlife Photography:

Capturing the beauty and essence of nature, wildlife photography requires patience, timing, and a deep appreciation for the natural world. With a focus on animals in their natural habitats, this style of photography aims to showcase the raw, unfiltered moments of wildlife, creating a sense of awe and connection with nature.

 

Travel Photography:

Travel photography is about capturing the spirit and diversity of different places, cultures, and landscapes. Whether it’s sweeping vistas, vibrant street scenes, or quiet moments of local life, each shot tells a unique story of a destination. The goal is to transport viewers to new locations and inspire curiosity and wonder through visually compelling imagery.

 

Event Photography:

Event photography focuses on capturing the energy, emotion, and key moments of gatherings, from corporate functions to personal celebrations. With an eye for detail and timing, the goal is to document the event’s atmosphere, ensuring that every candid interaction and highlight is preserved. These images often serve as lasting memories or visual content for social media and marketing purposes.

 

Product Photography:

Product photography is about presenting items in their best light, whether it’s food, beauty products, or consumer goods. The aim is to highlight the features and appeal of each product, making them irresistible to potential buyers. From styling food for mouth-watering shots to showcasing intricate product details, every image is crafted to enhance the brand’s identity and drive engagement.

 

ILLUSTRATIONS:

Illustration is a powerful tool for storytelling and visual communication. Whether through digital mediums like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Procreate, or traditional acrylic painting on canvas, each piece is crafted to bring ideas to life. Digital illustrations offer versatility, from enhancing brand identities and marketing campaigns to creating engaging editorial content and product packaging. Meanwhile, acrylic paintings capture depth and emotion, adding a unique, personal touch to artistic projects.

Illustrations can be used across various platforms, including websites, social media, books, and advertising materials. Whether for digital art or traditional canvases, they play a crucial role in conveying complex ideas, sparking imagination, and creating visual impact.

Realistic Style Digital Art:

This style captures the essence of almost photographic detail, blending the accuracy of realism with the creative freedom of digital tools. Using Illustrator, Photoshop, and Procreate, Sylvia creates lifelike portraits that emphasize natural beauty, texture, and depth. Each piece draws from a deep understanding of light, shadow, and form to bring the subject to life, while maintaining a subtle artistic interpretation. This technique is ideal for portraits, editorial art, and projects that require a high level of detail and realism.

 

Cartoon Style Digital Art:

Sylvia’s cartoon style offers a playful and vibrant take on illustration, characterized by bold lines, exaggerated features, and striking colors. This approach is perfect for projects that require a fun, engaging, and highly expressive visual narrative. Utilizing Illustrator, Photoshop, and Procreate, Sylvia crafts characters that capture personality and charm, making them ideal for children’s books, character design, social media content, and more. The distinct blend of simplicity and liveliness allows for versatility across various platforms, keeping the visuals both memorable and impactful.

 

Landscapes, Animals, and Backdrops:

Sylvia’s artistic versatility extends beyond character illustrations to include captivating landscapes, animals, and detailed backdrops. Whether creating lush forests, flowers, serene seascapes, or bustling cityscapes, these elements are designed to enhance the storytelling experience. Her work often features vivid, nature-inspired designs that serve as rich backdrops for her character art, making them ideal for books, animations, or standalone pieces. Sylvia also illustrates animals, capturing their essence in both a realistic and cartoonish manner depending on the project’s needs.

Patterns:

Sylvia combines illustrations with pattern design, using vectors in Illustrator to create visually captivating pieces. Her work seamlessly blends bold geometric shapes with intricate details, resulting in designs that are perfect for wallpaper backgrounds or textile applications. Each pattern showcases her unique ability to merge vibrant colors with detailed elements, offering versatility across both digital and physical mediums. Whether for home decor or fashion, her designs bring creativity and style to any project.

Paintings:

Sylvia’s acrylic paintings are a vivid expression of her creativity, primarily applied on canvas. Her work has been exhibited in prominent galleries, including the Tazama African Art Gallery at Yaya Center, and featured in various exhibitions. These physical art pieces showcase her skill with traditional media, emphasizing the rich texture and depth that acrylics bring to her vibrant colors and compositions. Through these exhibitions, Sylvia’s paintings have reached diverse audiences, offering a tactile, immersive experience that beautifully complements her digital art.

 

PUBLISHING

Sylvia’s publishing experience began at Storymoja Africa, where she worked on book designs for both primary and secondary school revision books, including creating impactful cover designs. This experience honed her skills in using InDesign for professional layouts and typesetting, ensuring that each project met high standards of design and readability.

Building on this foundation, Sylvia ventured into self-publishing, successfully publishing her own books, including two screenplays, The Physical Escape and The Inevitable, and two children’s books, Safi Misses the Bus and Learn Your ABCs: A Simple Journey Through the Alphabet.

Sylvia has also expanded her expertise to assist others in bringing their literary works to life, offering support through every step of the publishing process, further highlighting her mastery of book design and cover creation.

Educational Textbook Design

Sylvia’s publishing journey extends into the design of educational materials, where she has showcased her expertise in creating structured, visually appealing textbooks. One notable achievement is her development of the Score More series revision book covers for both secondary and primary school levels.

Her skill in layout design is evident in the meticulous layering of elements such as tables, illustrations, graphs, typography, and columns. These components work together to ensure the content is organized, easy to navigate, and visually engaging. With an understanding of the demands that come with creating large-scale educational books, she has successfully managed tight deadlines while maintaining high-quality standards in design.

Sylvia’s proficiency with InDesign allows her to create cohesive, print-ready textbook layouts that support learning and facilitate the absorption of complex information, making her an invaluable asset in educational publishing.

Lower Class Learning Materials

Sylvia’s experience in publishing also includes the design and creation of learning materials for lower primary classes. These books are crafted with a focus on engaging young learners through the use of vibrant illustrations, simplified text, and interactive elements such as activity pages. The layout of these materials incorporates playful typography, clear instructions, and visually stimulating content to make learning more enjoyable and effective.

Her understanding of early childhood education needs is reflected in how she structures these books, ensuring that they are not only informative but also accessible and fun for young readers. This blend of creativity and educational focus enhances the learning experience for lower class students, making her designs both practical and engaging.

 

 

Sylvia’s expertise in lower class learning materials is demonstrated in her book Learn Your ABCs: A Simple Journey Through the Alphabet, where she combines playful typography, engaging illustrations, and a structured yet fun approach to early literacy. This focus on making learning accessible is also reflected in her illustrated book Safi Misses the Bus, which targets 6-year-olds and tells a captivating story while promoting essential reading skills. Both books highlight her ability to create educational content that is both engaging and age-appropriate, designed to captivate young minds while supporting their educational development.

Novel and Biographical Publishing

Expertise in novel and biographical publishing includes a strong understanding of storytelling and narrative design. Whether working on fiction or non-fiction, the focus is on ensuring the layout and cover design align with the tone of the writing. For novels, this involves clean typography, well-structured chapters, and an aesthetic that reflects the book’s theme. In biographical works, the design often carries a personalized touch, capturing the essence of the individual’s journey.

With careful attention to formatting, from text flow to image placement, the work ensures both novels and biographies are presented with readability and professionalism, making for compelling and visually appealing publications.

Spinkly Magazine

Spinkly Woman’s Magazine was an online publication that released monthly issues, with a strong focus on female empowerment. Each issue featured topics such as beauty and hair, fashion, a gossip column, relationships, and healthy recipes. The magazine was edited and designed entirely in-house, with each cover carefully crafted to reflect the theme of the month.

Collaborating with 10 different writers, the magazine offered diverse perspectives on women’s issues, providing insightful interviews and engaging articles. Spinkly Magazine became a platform that combined thoughtful content with visually compelling designs, reaching an audience passionate about self-improvement and empowerment.

 

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY & COMMUNICATION

With a well-rounded background in design, publishing, and photography, all skills come together to form a comprehensive approach to social media strategy and content creation. Her expertise in graphic design ensures that visuals are not only eye-catching but also aligned with brand identity, making each post and ad stand out. Coupled with her ability to blend striking imagery with compelling copywriting, she crafts captions that resonate with the target audience, ensuring clear and effective communication.

In content creation, she excels in designing cohesive, visually engaging posts that align with both organic and paid social media strategies. Her experience includes running ads, developing ad creatives, and producing targeted content that drives results. The importance of visual communication is at the forefront, with each design supported by well-crafted messaging, ensuring ads and posts work together to convey the desired brand story.

From translating complex ideas into digestible content to running successful ad campaigns, she expertly balances design and text to maintain engagement, boost visibility, and achieve business goals.

VIDEOGRAPHY & EDITING SKILLS

Building on social media expertise, video editing is another key component of Sylvia’s creative skill set. Using Adobe Premiere for editing and Adobe After Effects for simple effects, she crafts engaging video content that complements her design and social media strategies. Whether producing short promotional videos, editing clips for social platforms, or adding dynamic effects to enhance storytelling, her video work integrates seamlessly with other content to ensure a cohesive visual narrative.

For those interested in her creative process, check out her YouTube channel where she shares weekly videos showcasing her art skills: Spinkly YouTube Channel. This combination of videography, editing, and social media expertise delivers polished, professional content that resonates with audiences, driving engagement across multiple platforms.

UI & INTERFACE DESIGN

With a solid foundation in design, image, and text layouts, the transition to UI and interface design becomes a natural progression. Sylvia’s deep understanding of visual hierarchy, user engagement, and clear communication allows her to adapt seamlessly to the technical demands of UI design. She combines her skills in creating cohesive, visually appealing designs with a focus on user-friendly interfaces that enhance the user experience.

In addition to her design expertise, she has experience in web design and managing website updates where she ran her own online magazine, Spinkly Woman’s Magazine, and handled backend updates on WordPress, showcasing her ability to manage both the creative and technical aspects of web design and site maintenance.

Many of her skills, including these technical proficiencies, have been self-taught, highlighting her ability to learn quickly and apply knowledge effectively. Core graphic design principles such as typography, color theory, layout, and visual balance developed over the years translate well into both UI design and web management, where aesthetics meet functionality.

The example shown in the UI design and interface projects highlights a clear understanding of user experience and aesthetic appeal in her approach to mobile application layouts. Whether designing for e-commerce, education, or mobile banking, the seamless integration of functionality and style is evident.

To summarize Sylvia’s portfolio, these broad skill sets, spanning print, digital art, video editing, social media, and web design, showcases her adaptability and versatility in delivering creative solutions across a wide range of projects. With experience across various disciplines, including digital art, publication, web design, and UI/UX development, her flexibility in the creative field is undeniable. She combines self-taught knowledge with formal expertise, ensuring her ability to adapt to any graphic design challenge, from social media campaigns to large-scale projects requiring attention to detail and adherence to deadlines.

Her portfolio reflects a well-rounded skill set that allows her to deliver tailored solutions that effectively communicate the intended message, making her an asset in any creative endeavor.

If you’re interested in collaborating or bringing your ideas to life, feel free to get in touch. Let’s create something amazing together.