Herve Ngenzi is a Rwandan graphic designer who is living his dream. Working under his brand ‘Herve Legacy’, he designs posters, flyers, logos, and brand design deals in photo manipulation, song, and album covers, social media posts, motion design, web design, among others. The 19-year-old developed a curiosity for graphic design in 2012, while in primary six. It all began when he was trying to Photoshop himself, playing around with a computer app known as ‘Adobe Photoshop’. One of his many work designs . After many hours of playing with the app, he liked the results. On sharing his photo with his friends, they were excited and they couldn’t wait for him to manipulate their photos too. With the encouraging feedback, he began watching YouTube tutorials to improve his skills. Later when he joined A Level at Groupe Scolaire Officiel de Butare, his talent was discovered and he was chosen to be the designer of the school’s media club. “This gave me more experience because I was obliged to be more creative. I started a freelance graphic design job after I graduated from high school. I opened my Instagram account where I put my portfolio and started sliding in company and people’s direct messages, to inquire if they needed graphic design services,” he says. Luckily enough, Ngenzi worked with some of them and started to make money, connections and experience from then. He is the graphics designer for RBA’s show ‘Versus’ hosted by Luckman Nzeyimana. He has also worked with Daymakers Edutainment, Rwanda Cultural fashion show, Ibaba Maquillage, Kemilson Entertainment, Ibicu company for logos, Foundation, and YouTube TV, and MK1 YouTube TV, China based Best Education, and so forth. Today, Ngenzi is a year two student pursuing a Digital Media technology Course (Graphic Design related major) in the Chinese university, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology. One of the challenges he encounters, however, is that people don’t understand the value of graphic design in Rwanda. He has also worked with clients who don’t pay, not to forget the customers that make him work under pressure. This, he says, has negatively affected his productivity.
