The Journey
Isaac Fayemi and Seyi's paths crossed during the pandemic, a time when many were reevaluating their careers and life choices. Beginning his career in a somewhat unconventional way, Seyi studied accounting but soon lost interest in the field. This led him to explore new paths, including coding. “During the pandemic, I started exploring design and coding, sharing my projects on Twitter, which surprisingly caught a lot of attention,” Seyi recalls. "In October 2020, Paystack reached out to me about working on a project. They were literally my first client, which was a pivotal moment for me. The experience taught me a lot about collaboration and the importance of interdisciplinary efforts in creating impactful work." After his experience with Paystack, he went on to work with Printivo and another studio in Vienna, where the idea of starting his own studio began to take shape.
For Isaac, design and digital media were always a passion, pursued initially as a hobby. “I dabbled in animation and other creative apps just for fun. In secondary school, I was the kid with a flash drive collecting the most interesting applications from everyone to install on my computer for no particular reason.” The pandemic provided Isaac an opportunity to dive deeper into design, taking up an internship that highlighted the interdisciplinary nature of digital product creation. “It helped me realize that to launch something, it requires an interdisciplinary effort because we had to work with motion designers and developers, helping me realize that these apps don't exist in a vacuum.”
The Birth of Studio Null
Studio Null officially came into existence in February 2022, but the seeds of the partnership were sown a while before that. Their first collaboration happened when Seyi sought a designer for a side project. “The idea to create my own studio struck when I was working remotely for a studio in Vienna, and I wanted to start with some personal experiments with more creative and lifestyle-oriented people in Nigeria. So that’s when I thought about the Korty project. Looking at her current site, I felt it did not reflect who she was and could definitely be better. I tweeted out asking for designers interested in working on something cool. Isaac reached out, and we jammed, realizing we shared a lot of the same ideas and references,” Seyi explains.
Their first client project together was a collaboration for a client in the Netherlands, setting the tone for what Studio Null would become. "The client showed me a designer's work, and I was like, yeah, this is not the man for the job. So I said, I have a designer, which led to the question of whether we were a studio, and at some point, I just said Yes," Seyi recounts.
Their Collaborative Synergy
The success of Studio Null lies in the perfect balance of collaboration, taste, and open communication. Their synergy is rooted in shared backgrounds and complementary tastes. "Our synergy stems from a shared background and similar interests beyond design. We both grew up with strong influences from music and visual arts, and this has helped us in many ways," Seyi reflects.
Isaac adds, “We have similar interests in music and fashion. It's not like we like the exact same things; sometimes he likes something I think is absolutely off, but more often than not, if he likes something, I find some appreciation for it too.”
