Artist Baba Tjeko re-imagines Cape Town as a coffee

As a multidisciplinary artist, Baba Tjeko works in various art forms, including painting, graphic illustration and drawing.

But it’s his Ditema paintings and drawings he’s most known for – a form of Basotho mural art that is a colourful celebration of traditional African styles. The art form is usually comprised of geometric patterns that feature objects from nature, including plants, animals and farming fields.

“Ditema forms part of my Basotho culture so I have a traditional connection with it,” Tjeko says. “I am a lover of nature and nostalgic aesthetics so the art takes me back in time to where lafe was simple yet with substance.”

What started as a fascination with colouring books and wax crayons during the artist’s pre-school years soon blossomed into a love for drawing.

His decision to pursue art as a career led him to study creative multimedia, majoring in advertising design at the National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa in Johannesburg.

His artworks have not only built the Free State-born artist a dedicated following, but they have also caught the eye of big brands like Nespresso. As part of the coffee brand’s latest World Exploration Coffee campaign, a celebration of coffee culture in different international cities, the brand launched the Cape Town Envino Lungo coffee. But what would the Mother City taste like as a coffee? Better yet, how would that coffee look? That is when they turned to Tjeko.

“After seeing my work on social media, the agency responsible for the campaign reached out to me about their interest to have me partner with them,” Tjeko says. He says he believes it’s his authenticity and consistency in creating work that promotes his culture and ideas as an artist that attracted them to his work.

As far as his collaboration goes, Tjeko’s love for caffeine provided the kick of inspiration he needed. He enrolled in a course where he learnt about the history and process of coffee making.

“I got to touch and smell different coffee flavours and that became another source of inspiration in kick-starting my creative process,” Tjeko says.

His final Cape Town coffee packaging design was inspired by the city of Cape Town’s iconic landmarks such as Table Mountain and the Ferris wheel, the city’s jazz culture and the vibrancy of the South African traditional cultures.

As for the future, Tjeko is working on launching a website with an online gallery from where he can sell artworks and collectable products for homes and corporate space. You can also follow him on Instagram (@baba_tjeko).