Jonathan Atwebembeire is a self-taught graphic designer

With animation being a big part of television for decades, Jonathan Atwebembeire took great interest in graphic design.

His love for animation grew day by day such that he thought of making it a career.

“The more I watched animations, the more I became curious on how they are made. The fact that my elder brother was a graphic designer made me fall in love with it,” 25-year-old Atwebembeire says.

All this happened during his senior six vacation and by the time he started campus at Kyambogo University where he pursued accounting and finance, his love for animation was too much.

“Because my passion was in the design field, I only did one year at campus and I started doing fulltime online studies for graphic design, motion design and animation,” he says.

He says he made use of the internet to educate himself about animations and would watch tutorials every day and later practice what he learnt using his brother’s computer.

“That was in 2018 and since my brother was in that line, after watching tutorials online especially on YouTube, I would use my brother’s computer since it had all the software required for this,” says Atwebembeire.

He says he would also use internet at university to download his own software to help him develop his career in graphic designing.

“Initially there was no investment in it but time and dedication was all I needed. With time after getting clients, I got better equipment like a computer, drawing tablet and cameras,” he says.

Throughout the years, Atwebembeire has been able to make a name as a graphic designer.

With the self- taught skills he got from the internet tutorials, he has been able to do work for Iquinta BRK Media Limited, MScan Uganda, Kigezi High School Old Students League and the Uganda Social Media Conference.

“I market myself through social media and the works I do for clients. I always try to be unique but also take time to produce distinctive work for clients. This makes me stand out from others but also my clients refer others to me,” he says.

Challenges

 The 25-year-old says his graphic design work has, just like any other work, not been without challenges.

“Equipment including good computers and software are usually expensive. At times, clients don’t value the efforts we put in the work we do for them and this way, they pay little for it. Other clients put us on pressure and don’t allow us enough time to come out with good work,” Atwebembeire says.

He adds that despite the challenges, he tries as much as possible to pull everything off to the satisfaction of clients.

“In the next five years, I would like to open up a design studio, do advertising, videography and motion graphics. I would also like to employ people and make it a big brand,” he says.

Atwebembeire has some piece of advice for fellow youths.

“If you want to succeed in life, focus on your dream, put in a lot of effort, be unique in what you do, do satisfactory work, be honest but above all, believe in God,” he says.