With Adi Nhyia: A Book of Symbols, designer and innovator Kweku A-G Opoku pays tribute to the past while introducing a new collection of African symbols designed for today’s world—symbols that celebrate heritage, spark creativity, and connect ancestral wisdom with modern interpretation.
What SPARKed your interest in writing this book?
A desire to continue the tradition of Adinkra by developing a new set of symbols.
However, I needed to set them apart, so I call them Adi Nhyia.
Over the years, I kept developing symbols and finally decided on 30 of them for publication.
Tell us about a part of the writing/publishing process that was harder than you expected. How did SPARK Publications help you through this process?
Ensuring that the content would comfortably fill the required minimum number of pages to have a beautiful book and spine required us to add elements and pages. Working with my daughters, we managed to reach that goal.
SPARK Publications worked with my overall vision and enhanced the pages with additional design elements and visuals that we incorporated together.
Tell us some of the services that SPARK Publications shared with you and how did they bring out the best version of your book?
Instead of individual listings of the symbols, SPARK Publications encouraged us to think in thematic classifications. This worked perfectly and proved even more valuable for the reader.
The SPARK team drew inspiration from a chart we showed them early in the process, and that developed into repeating the symbols in the table of contents as well as in an overall chart that gave vibrancy to the flow of the book.
Kweku A-G Opoku’s thoughts on working with SPARK Publications:
“SPARK Publications approached my book organization and design with a very professional spirit, which I deeply appreciate. They worked with us from the very first encounter, providing guidance and support all along the way. They truly made it exciting with innovative suggestions. In the end, we have a beautiful book that is helping me share my work globally.”
How will this experience and your book impact your career/business/life moving forward?
The symbols, packaged beautifully into this book, are opening up another exciting chapter in my life. We are still early in the promotion process, yet we already feel a sense of achievement and fulfillment that is reaching audiences in the United States, West Africa, and beyond.
Where can the readers find your work:
Home Décor and Lifestyle Site: www.redbubble.com/people/opokuartgallery/shop
What are some of your affiliations or hobbies that you’d like to share?
Playing my harmonica and having jam sessions with bands from different parts of the world.
Painting.
Creating custom t-shirts.
Working on my home décor designs.
Links for book purchase
Hardcover: shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?params=o1ZUrk2lJDpK4ayLGVLA04a5gOulxR6FQrXRQ73uqKo
Softcover/paperback: shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?params=dHvkI6AabKgLqRvthHu5TEwxyTUt7XFHhqbMLUBjBQ5
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