In Conversation With Jennifer & Pablo, The Multifaceted Creative Duo Known As ANTI

Rema’s “Dumebi” music video, Santi’s Mandy & The Jungle listening party and GTBank’s ‘Come, Let’s Eat Together’ campaign are three separate, seemingly unconnected events, with sets designed by the phenomenal team of Jennifer and Pablo, who make up the creative duo, ANTI.

Designing together since they were in university, Jennifer and Pablo first met in secondary school in Cambridge, England. Initially forming a romantic bond, the couple’s relationship organically morphed into a professional partnership, as they began to explore their interests in art and design. 

Birthed from their passion to bring artistic visions to life, ANTI is Pablo and Jennifer’s multifaceted creative outlet that sees them explore the plural modes of creation, whether it’s through graphic design, videos or paintings. Whatever you can imagine, ANTI can make. “There’s no limit”, Pablo tells Konbini. 

Even the story of how they fell into their most visible medium of creation, set/production design is a story that proves their willingness to push their creative bounds.

Having already worked on art instalments, murals and other designs, ANTI took on the challenge of being art directors for Ladipoe’s “Are You Down” music video, with remarkably little knowledge about what the role entailed. Pablo recounts:

“We found ourselves on the set of Ladipoe’s “Are You Down”, googling what an Art Director’s role is within a video production.” 

But despite their uncertainty with the role, ANTI ultimately performed brilliantly, so brilliantly in fact that they have now become arguably the most highly sought after set/production designers in Lagos, boasting work with multinationals, Coca-Cola, Nivea and UNICEF. 

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As set designers, ANTI’s job is to bring dreams to life — sourcing materials and props, building and decorating the set, all towards realising the wild imaginations of the (creative) director. This can involve anything from filling a room with thousands of candles to babysitting a monkey. 

For Pablo, this is what makes his job even more exciting. He says:

“One thing I love about what we do is that each job is completely different from the previous one… It keeps things exciting and allows us to be constantly learning and growing.”

So far, ANTI’s projects have ranged from music videos, to coffee shop murals, to production design for the televised singing competition, Stardom Nigeria. Explaining to Konbini why this would be the duo’s most career-defining project to date, Jennifer says:

“Stardom Nigeria has been the most extensive production we’ve worked on, It spanned over 5 months with sets in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Jos.

This was a big achievement for us because in any other country it would have taken us years and years of experience to be production designers for a show of such magnitude.”

As well as smaller graphic design pieces, found on their Instagram, ANTI’s recent works include art direction for a film for a new cryptocurrency, and also set design on  Santi’s “Raw Dinner” and Tems’ “Try Me” — an eventful day that included a mini-mission to tag a train with their signature ANTI smiley.

As well as a few more music videos coming up, ANTI also have plans to drop a second collection from their streetwear brand, which launched with a sold out pop-up last year. We cannot wait to see all the other creations they’re still yet to come out with. 

Check out more of ANTI’s work via their Instagram, but before you do, watch this emotive short film the team worked on for GTBank — it’s one of Jennifer’s favourite projects so far:

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