HE can take an average person walking and make them seem as though they’re your favourite comic book superhero in action. You can say, that among people his age, 18-year-old Akeem King is seen as a ‘tech genius’.
“It started off with my love for superhero movies and special effects, so I always wanted to do that myself,” King explained. “I started off using an app called viva video on my Icemobile phone, back when I was in Form Three (about four years ago) and I found the whole experience a fun one, so I kept doing it.”
And in keeping at it, he decided to check out what software the ‘pros’ would use and got them for himself so he could develop skills of his own.
“The first one was Adobe After Effects which is [sic] used for video compositing and special effects and did my first video with my brother flying into the air,” the young man recounted. When he made that video, he also recalled that his family and friends thoroughly enjoyed it and that was the fuel he needed to drive him down his creative path.
Noticing the talent that he had, his mother got him involved with local tech company, Intellect Storm and that company’s graphic designer, Sadé Barrow-Browne, taught him the basics of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator — both digital creation programmes he was interested in.
“After this period had passed, I kept to graphic designing, photo editing and drawing just practising and getting better,” he said. Aside from his affinity for digital creation, he likes movies and pop culture in general and has a fondness for fashion shows and social events.
Currently, he’s pursuing a Degree in Computer Science at the University of Guyana (UG)- with the intention of refining his skills in this field even more.
Though only in his first year here, the experience has been a good one. He hopes to broaden his scope, however.
“I want to be multifaceted in that since I know a little about design; it would also be nice to implement said knowledge in areas such as web and app designing,” Akeem explained. “And that’s what this course that I’m doing in UG will lead to.”
The goal, as of now, is to lend his skills to better target industries in Guyana like news and media, advertisement, inter alia, since he believes the current approach to media production in Guyana leaves a lot to be desired. And maybe one day, he’ll start his own branding, designing, and filmmaking business in Guyana.
As of now, he’ll continue focusing on his studies and making cool video clips and designs- posted on his Instagram account- @akeempowers. It’s here that his friends would shower him with their support, but have also helped him to improve his work by critiquing it and hyping and promoting it so more people would be able to see and appreciate it.
He’s also partnering with 592Tees just to make some extra money.
King joins the evolving cadre of young people who are getting involved in the development of the local tech industry and opined that young people bring a “fresh outlook” to this industry.
