REDMUR: On Making Mojirade, a Nigerian Gen Z Virtual Model and Influencer
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Virtual influencers are part of an emerging cultural phenomenon captivating the hearts and minds of Gen Z and arresting the intrigue of our team at Kenga. These computer-generated, human-managed internet personalities, carefully designed to mimic real-life influencers, are quickly going viral, adding variety to the tapestry of influencer culture. As more African countries become digital-first, virtual influencers are poised to become more than mere entertainment by inspiring fashion trends, promoting social causes, and challenging traditional notions of celebrity. In this story, the senior style editor at Kenga, Victoria Audu, highlights the rising relevance of virtual influencers in Africa with a focus on Mojirade, a Gen Z virtual influencer created by REDMUR, a Nigerian digital fashion startup building products at the intersection of fashion, technology, and culture.
[Victoria Audu]: Who is Mojirade? Tell me about her.
[Thony Ibegbelum]: Mojirade is 21-years-old, young, vibrant, and ambitious. She is passionate about fashion and entertainment, loves the arts, especially music, and spends most of her days learning about people and culture. This leads her to develop a unique sense of style that combines African fashion with modern-day trends. Although Moji was created by a group of young talented creatives, she identifies as Nigerian. She is constantly inspired by the vibrant and colourful culture surrounding her identity. Moji shares her love for fashion with the world and promotes the beauty and diversity of African fashion infused into modern-day society to a wider audience. Currently, she is growing her own social media accounts, where she shares her fashion looks, makes new friends, and inspires others to embrace their heritage. Mojirade regularly posts her fashion looks and offers her followers tips and advice on how to incorporate African fashion into their own wardrobes. She also works with various fashion brands and designers to showcase their collections and promote the beauty of African fashion on a global scale. Mojirade is a rising star just as her name implies, and will continue to inspire her followers with her unique and vibrant style. She is determined to promote African fashion and help it become a more prominent part of modern society.
Thony Ibegbulem
How did REDMUR start?
REDMUR started as a digital fashion start-up in January 2022. The founders Thony Ibegbulem originally a fashion designer, Ivie Osuamkpe originally a 3D artist and Emmanuel Owoicho a software engineer decided to explore opportunities in the digital fashion space after working together on commissioned 3D fashion and tech-related projects. The vision with REDMUR is to build an open ecosystem that offers equal opportunities for creators to exercise their creative freedom and ultimately improve the fashion experience.
Recount the process of how you conceptualised Mojirade. What did that process look like?
Moji’s creation originally began with a strong motivation to educate and create awareness about the future of fashion and digital media. The idea was to introduce a relatable initiative that would serve as a medium for brands to tell engaging stories and build cultural communities on a global scale. A group of young creatives came together to bring Moji to life, from concept to production. The team did extensive research about the intricacies of the authentic Nigerian identity, with a primary goal of challenging negative portrayals of Nigerians in the media.
The team spent countless hours pouring over various aspects of Nigerian culture, from its food, music, and fashion to its art, literature, and history. Through this research, they were able to create a multi-dimensional character that embodies the essence of Nigeria's unique identity. Moji's physical features were designed to reflect the typical young African woman, with close attention paid to details such as her hairstyle, clothing, and accessories. The team aimed to create a character that not only looks like a real Nigerian woman but also embodies the beauty and richness of Nigerian culture.
Moji's personality was inspired by the content, styles, personalities, and visual and verbal language of other popular Nigerian influencers and entertainers. To create Moji's content, the team develops a story that is then transformed into a visual concept through the help of AI design technologies. References are compiled into a mood board, and the creative team uses a range of 3D technologies to develop each component of the story based on the mood board. We then assemble these components in Unreal Engine, a 3D game engine by Epic Games, to produce hyperrealistic final renders. Moji is within the Gen Z age range, which was a deliberate decision we made to establish a direct connection between Moji and her community.
Creating awareness around digital fashion and showcasing its potential is a primary goal for Moji, and the team aims to achieve this by collaborating with fashion brands for product advertisement and sponsorships. The team is excited to share this journey with their community and the public, as they believe that anything is possible in the digital space.
While creating Mojirade, did you flourish under the excitement of making something new or did it deteriorate under the stress of conceptualising such an unconventional product?
The idea of making Moji a reality was ultimately a positive impact mentally- there was a shared enthusiasm across the whole creative team, which showed that we had a common vision to bring Moji to life. Of course, a project of this scale and intention is a huge undertaking for a small startup like REDMUR, as access to reliable resources is fairly limited. However, the possibilities and thrill of creating something quite new and innovative that would be a pioneer in its own right was a big and exciting move for us, and was highly motivating even during hectic moments.
Mojirade’s creation involves both tech and fashion. Did you get into them simultaneously or did one inspire the other?
Mojirade was created as a sort of fusion between tech and fashion; it’s safe to say they were equally inspired by each other. We initially started REDMUR with the goal of providing innovative digital solutions to streamline the connection between brands and the next generation of consumers. Moji being our first initiative was created with the same objective in mind. Hence, she is positioned as our proof-of-concept and as such, both the tech and fashion inspiration has been present from her initial conception.
Since Mojirade is a model, she’s more than her tech. There’s also content creation which is a whole other job. How do you find inspiration?
Moji’s content largely revolves around fashion, lifestyle, and entertainment; all niches that hold particular significance in her personality. As mentioned earlier, her personality was created based partly on research on a number of factors, ranging from popular Gen-Z figures to the lifestyle of the typical young Nigerian woman. Though, she maintains some original traits and qualities that were decided at her conception. Finding out who Moji is at her core was the key to understanding her unique style and ultimately determining what kind of imagery inspires her content. Using her personality as a guide, inspiration for content creation typically involves collating a variety of images into a mood board to tell a story. It may also come from social and fashion trends within the Gen-Z community. Pinterest is a great source for finding inspirational images.
Is it ever challenging having to bring creativity from these three different industries?
It’s certainly a challenge to execute tasks from all three industries simultaneously and at a high quality. Each industry has very different and varying tools, processes and fields of knowledge within them; and combining them requires a large range of skills and resources that can bear a bit of weight for a small team. Working with tight and specific timelines also requires a lot of prior planning; and this is a very important phase of the production process, because Moji’s content production has been proven to run faster and smoother when the planning is done thoroughly. Despite its size however, our team is made up of committed and professional individuals who are very skilled within their own fields and that enables us to achieve the level of quality we aim for within the timelines we set.
How do you manage stress and burnout while building the company and maintaining Mojirade’s strict content creation schedule?
One of the things that we’ve been quite stringent about imparting in our team is developing crucial time management skills. We all have other commitments besides working on Moji, and to be able to handle the workload of her content creation, perform well at other individual commitments and still have space and time to recharge, time management skills are essential. The work is relatively demanding but without time to rest and recoup, we wouldn’t be as successful at it as we have been. We also are sensitive to the availability of our team members, with regard to their other commitments, as well as personal issues that may impact their availability. We try as much as possible to keep the ball rolling in such situations, by leveraging the workload amongst the other members, and/or making compromises wherever we are able to.
What is the work culture at REDMUR like? How do you guys take care of your team, emotionally and psychologically, outside of work?
We are particular about the mantra of “less control, more supervision”, so rather than enforcing strict deadlines for each individual, team members have the flexibility to manage their time and tasks according to broader deadlines set for the content production itself. We also take breaks after huge projects and achieved milestones. Meetings sometimes take a more relaxed approach, where we talk about topics outside of work and catch up with each other. Generally, we maintain a friendly rapport with each other and regularly check on team members outside of work, which has built genuine friendships within the team.
What are some wellness practices you implement into your daily routine to maintain balance?
Many of us in the creative team are into regular fitness activities, like sports, working out at the gym or even taking walks between working hours.
What’s been your most fulfilling project?
Mojirade’s debut in her very first post in December 2022 and has been our most fulfilling project yet. The project took about 6 months from conception to final product and involved a lot of planning and engagement across the whole team. The video showcased a decorated seashell resting on a body of water, opening to reveal Moji lying inside it, surrounded by crystals and flowers and covered by a piece of Aso-oke fabric. Officially launching Moji in the style that we did was a significant milestone for us, as it was also our first foray into Unreal Engine, and our first project completed within the software and launched to the public.
What is Mojirade’s stance on mental health and wellness for young people?
Moji is particular about using her platform as a medium to promote the importance of good mental health and wellness, particularly through her lifestyle posts. From self-care to fitness, she endorses maintenance of both mental and physical health.
Does Mojirade ever suffer from the highs and lows of being in the spotlight? And by extension, you, her creator?
Being in the public eye does have an impact on Moji, both in positive and negative ways. The quest to fit in and find her place within both the virtual and physical world can be challenging and a bit intimidating because existing equally in both worlds is equal to existing in two opposite dimensions with completely different rules and norms. At the very core, Moji strives to create strong, lasting connections with her community and finding the balance between being authentic in the virtual world and also maintaining a level of “realness” and imperfection in the real world. Being one of her kind, there’s also a lot of pressure to succeed within her niche. However, it’s equally exhilarating to be a potential leader in the Nigerian virtual influencer industry, setting the pace for future virtual influencers like herself. Being in the spotlight has also drawn a lot of attention to Moji and this translates to her rapidly-growing audience. Making new friends with her followers, although sometimes daunting, is one of the high points of her public presence.
What are your hopes for Mojirade?
The first thing we hope for is for Moji’s popularity to grow, with a commanding audience of millions of fans, expanding her reach not only locally, but on a global scale. This would also establish her as a notable influence on both the Nigerian and global Gen-Z community. We also see her securing major brand deals and endorsements from top brands in the foreseeable future. One of our future goals for Moji is to utilise advanced technologies to improve her presence and interactions with her community. We aim to get Moji and her content to a high level of automation using advanced AI technology. Ultimately, our desire is to witness Moji grow into herself and blossom into her unique identity as Mojirade, the first virtual influencer that authentically identifies as a Nigerian.
Meet the REDMUR Team
Creative Director - Osuamkpe Ivie-fai
Osuamkpe Ivie-fai is the co-founder and creative director at REDMUR. She studied Computer Visualisation and Visual Effects at university and has 5 years of professional experience as a 3D Artist, specialising in Look Development. As the creative director, she leads the creative team behind Moji and majorly contributes to the 3D development of Moji’s content.
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Concept Art - Paul Akujor
Paul is a young visual artist, illustrator, and content creator skilled in painting and detailed drawing. His keystone as an artist is his versatility, with an explorative personality. He is also the founder of the fast-rising art brand called CAPEL ART. As the concept artist in REDMUR’s creative team, Paul’s role is to visualise the concept of Moji’s content through concept sketches and illustrations.
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3D Design - Nanla Othnell Lekan
Nanla is a 3D artist with over 6 years of professional experience specialising in environment art, hard surface modelling, and CAD. His works include a variety of projects centred around asset creation, environment art for games and VR, and product visualisation. Nanla’s role in REDMUR’s creative team is to create 3D assets and environments for Moji’s content. His attention to detail, technical expertise and general 3D prowess is evident in the final touches of Moji’s hyperrealistic images.
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3D Garment Creation- Nesa Gholipoor
Nesa is a fashion designer with a Masters degree in Fashion and Apparel design. She has 4 years of professional experience in Fashion, specialising in the use of 3D technologies to create digital garment prototypes. Her role in REDMUR’s creative team is to translate Moji’s fashion concepts into fully-fledged digital outfits. This involves creating 3D garments from illustrations and/or 2D sewing patterns that are then simulated onto Moji.
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Content Strategy - Esosa Osagie
Esosa is a final-year law student, content writer and digital fashion enthusiast. Her content is focused on Web-3, digital fashion and emerging technologies. Her role in REDMUR’s creative team is to plan, organise and develop strategies for Moji’s content and social media presence. She also represents the voice behind Moji, dictating captions and responding to direct enquiries about Moji.
