DONDA creative studio
I want to pick up where Steve Jobs left off, where the words Kanye West used to announce his new project. Donda creative studio was a project announced in 2012, founded by Kanye West himself that would serve as an agency that would specialize in applied design for Music, Architecture, Fashion, and advertising. The idea is almost as a Reinnasance, as creating a hub containing people of different backgrounds and expertise to create diverse and high-quality products to the market. The corporate structure quickly caught the attention of the public by having Kanye West himself as CEO, Virgil Abloh (OFF-WHITE, Louis Vuitton) as Creative director, Mathew Williams (Alyx Studios), Joe Perez (Joe Perez design studio) and Justin Saunders (Jjjjound design agency)as Artistic Directors and Heron Preston (Heron Preston) as a Graphic Designer.
Their debut was a short film showcased at the Cannes film festival. Along with the film, and in collaboration with American and foreign architecture firms, they designed a dome in which the film should be presented. Of course, as Kanye West being CEO, the creative work of Donda was once somehow reduced to the Kanye universe by collaborating and designing album covers and videos for artists like Nicki Minaj, 2 Chainz, Pusha T, Big Sean among others. But anyway, their biggest client would continue to be Kanye West. Since the Yeezus era, DONDA was responsible for every creative decision Kanye West took. From stage design to merch for his tours and even the music videos were all made by DONDA creatives.
Probably the greatest work made by DONDA was the advertising campaign for the album Yeezus. The campaign was comprised of two main elements. First, after publication on their social media the album art, they plastered New York City with posters containing the album art with the headliner ‘please add graffiti’. In addition, to advertise the single of the album ‘Black Skinhead’, the studio took advantage of the global background of his team and decided to project a sneak peek of the song on different landmarks across the biggest cities in the world like New York City, London, Tokyo, Los Angeles and more.
Hidden behind all of these projects, were Virgil Abloh, Heron Preston, and Jerry Lorenzo, that besides some few moves weren’t really known at the time. They would have small projects of their own, were seen to frequent important events with Kanye West but were always under his shadow. That is why they started leaving DONDA to create their own projects. Surprisingly, the Kanye effect worked well on them. Working for DONDA gave them the tools and the connections to later successfully build their brands and collaborate, from the start, with big players in the industry. One great example is Nike. Every single one of them has had a collaboration with Nike, even Mathew Williams. It is as if somehow Kanye West paved the way into the Fashion World for them later to continue their trajectory.
After leaving DONDA, Virgil Abloh went as Creative Director for Louis Vuitton. A job that comprises the whole creative strategy for the brand, the job Kanye West has always dreamt of. Jerry Lorenzo went to found Fear of God, one of the first brands to define what streetwear is and one of the first designers to collaborate with Nike on a new show model designed by him and not by Nike. And Heron Preston went to found his homonymous brand, Heron Preston, and continue his career as a DJ.
All of them are key players in what we now call the ‘mainstream’ or ‘pop’ culture, and maybe or maybe not this is all because they all worked way back in 2013 under Kanye West, while in collaboration designing what the world was going to look in 2020, but 7 years ago.
