Lulu Kitololo: Kenyan Illustration, Pattern and the Everyday Life of Design
Lulu Kitololo is a Kenyan artist and designer whose work brings illustration, colour and pattern into everyday life. Her practice includes stationery, gifts, art goods and communications design, with a documented textile collaboration that places her within a wider Kenyan design conversation. She is best understood through those connected activities rather than squeezed into a conventional clothing-designer biography. For readers looking for distinctive Kenyan creativity, her career shows how an illustrated idea can travel across paper, fabric, digital communication and objects used at home.
From Nairobi to design education abroad
In a 2013 Design Week interview, Kitololo said she was born and raised in Nairobi and had been making things since childhood. Her examples ranged from drawing to building objects from household materials. She studied communications design at Pratt Institute in New York, specialising in advertising art direction, then worked in advertising before taking a master’s degree in African Studies at SOAS in London. These were different forms of preparation: one developed visual communication, while the other deepened her engagement with politics, culture, literature and film.
That interview also describes her work at sustainability communications agency Futerra and the later move into self-employment through Asilia. It is a snapshot of her career in 2013, rather than a description of every business she runs today. The progression is nevertheless useful: professional design training and an interest in African cultural questions did not remain separate. She found ways to bring them into projects that required both an informed message and a distinctive visual treatment.
Building a Nairobi art-goods business
On her current official about page, Kitololo dates the beginning of her product-making to 2014. At that point she was running a graphic-design studio and wanted another space for creative exploration. The page describes a women-led business with a Nairobi home and a range extending from notebooks and greeting cards to art prints. It identifies her as artist and creative director, alongside colleagues responsible for operations, retail and marketing.
The distinction between a design service and an art-goods collection matters. A commissioned project begins with someone else’s communication need; a product collection allows the artist to decide what to explore and then find its audience. A notebook or card also gives a drawing a different life from a framed artwork. It enters a routine, carries a message or becomes part of a gift. Kitololo’s business brings those modest objects into the same creative world as larger commissions.
Hand-drawn work in a digital process
In an April 2026 interview with Zuri, Kitololo described herself as an artist, designer and creative director. She said she also runs Studio Njano, a communications practice specialising in information visualisation. Her explanation of the image-making process begins with observation and visual research, followed by doodling and more intentional drawing. Although she once worked primarily on paper, she said she now mostly draws on a tablet before experimenting with composition and colour on a computer.
This is a helpful reminder that hand-drawn does not necessarily mean every production stage happens without digital tools. The character of a line can begin with a person’s drawing and still be prepared digitally for print. Kitololo’s account gives readers a practical vocabulary for discussing that process: research, abstraction, drawing, colour and composition. It also helps distinguish the creative origin of an image from the technology used to reproduce it.
Print, textiles and Hopeful Hands
One clearly documented textile project is Hopeful Hands, made with Sunny Dolat as part of his Nanga exploration. The Nest Collective’s September 2021 project report places it within Material Languages, developed through the Our House, Your Home residency with Stroom Den Haag. Pandemic travel restrictions changed the residency into an online collaboration, but the resulting textile designs were printed and exhibited in a window display in The Hague.
The same report records a limited-edition Material Languages book and a series of presentations on textiles, belonging and identity. Within that larger project, Hopeful Hands was Kitololo’s collaboration with Dolat, while Nandi Flame was developed with Monica Obaga. Keeping those credits separate recognises each artist’s contribution. Our profile of Sunny Dolat’s Kenyan fashion and curatorial work provides more context for this exchange between image-making and textiles.
Illustration as a way to communicate
A 2021 People Daily interview offers another example of Kitololo working beyond physical products. She discussed creating a pan-African sticker set for Hype, then a chat service within Opera Mini. Her account described conversations with her team about youth culture and the similarities and differences across African settings. The aim was to create images through which people could recognise and express themselves in everyday messages.
The project draws attention to a different requirement from a large print or fabric design. A messaging sticker has to communicate quickly at a small size. Its expression needs to remain understandable without a long caption. Kitololo’s interest in solving communication problems is therefore as relevant as her love of colour. The example also shows why commercial illustration should be assessed through its purpose, not only whether a viewer finds the finished image decorative.
Returning to Kenya and creating meeting places
In a July 2024 Standard interview, Kitololo discussed returning to Kenya at the end of 2016 and the difficulty of understanding the local market for her work. Selling at events helped her learn what people wanted, while her studio combined illustration with requests for murals and wall art. The piece describes a working environment in Lavington and a visual language she associated with playfulness and Swahili culture. Those details are dated to the interview.
By April 2026, she told Zuri that Afri-love Fest, which she founded in 2018, was taking place twice a year in Nairobi and Voi. This gives the practice another dimension: creating opportunities for people to encounter creative work together. Readers can explore a related public-design setting in our Nairobi Design Week guide.
Frequently asked questions
Is Lulu Kitololo Kenyan?
Yes. She has described being born and raised in Nairobi, and her official business pages identify a Nairobi base.
Does she work with textiles?
Yes. The Nest Collective credits her collaboration with Sunny Dolat on Hopeful Hands within the 2021 Material Languages project.
What else does she create?
Her documented work includes stationery, gifts, art prints, illustration, communications design and digital messaging stickers.
For accessories that bring your own preferred colours into an outfit, browse the Moyo Lane catalogue.
Sources and further reading
- https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/june-2013/four-corners-an-interview-with-lulu-kitololo/
- https://lulukitololo.com/pages/about
- https://www.shopzuri.com/blogs/from-the-newsletter/artist-spotlight-meet-lulu-kitololo
- https://www.thisisthenest.com/news/2021/9/13/its-a-wrap-the-nest-collective-x-stroom-den-haag-in-our-house-your-home
- https://peopledaily.digital/news/joint-interview-with-artist-kitololo-and-opera-product-lead-for-hype-hamel/amp
- https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/amp/arts-culture/article/2001499807/behind-the-canvas-the-quirky-world-of-lulu-kitololo