360° Marketer · Creative Director · Brand Strategist · Nairobi, Kenya
Brands built
to command
attention.
I am Duke Kamanda — a Creative Director and 360° Marketer specialising in brand strategy, UI/UX, film, videography, motion graphics, and integrated digital campaigns. I build visual identities and communication systems for institutions, movements, and platforms across East Africa and beyond.
Full-scale marketing transformation for Kenya's leading Shariah-compliant microfinance institution — integrated digital strategy, ATM interface UX/UI, branch identity, Islamic finance product campaigns, and SEO-driven content that drove measurable customer acquisition growth.
Creative Director and multimedia producer for a leading East African mental wellness media platform — directed and produced high-quality podcast video content, orchestrated live streaming events with motion graphics overlays, redesigned the website for SEO, and grew audience reach significantly.
Fashion as protest. A social impact brand using editorial design and documentary storytelling to fight Gender-Based Violence — If Threads Could Speak. Identity, narrative framework, campaign photography direction, and digital communications strategy.
Business Development Manager for a Liberia-based pan-African media platform — developed brand strategy, managed content operations including website development and editorial formatting, grew subscription base through strategic marketing, and coordinated with international journalists for fact-checked investigative reporting.
Ground-up eco-travel toothpaste brand — 85% organic packaging, bamboo-forward visual identity, Kenyan market positioning strategy, and Chinese manufacturing partnership brief. A new product category, designed to travel.
Festival Administrator and brand communications lead — conducted brand positioning workshops aligning KITFest with industry trends, managed vendor partnerships achieving a 15% reduction in operational costs, and oversaw logistics for local and international guests across 4 years.
Digital Content Executive driving web development, product launches, and visual communications for a gender advocacy NGO — engineered user-friendly websites, produced graphic design for digital and print, and led cross-functional teams to launch new product lines with increased revenue.
Content strategy and social growth — building a community-facing brand with platform-native storytelling, animated social content, and a content calendar system that grew the club's digital following significantly.
Financial Services — Shariah-Compliant — Kenya
The Challenge
SMFB needed to modernise its brand and digital infrastructure simultaneously — improving online customer acquisition, clarifying Islamic finance product messaging for everyday Kenyans, redesigning the ATM interface used nationwide, and building marketing systems that could scale with the bank's expansion into Garissa, Kimathi, and Eastleigh. All within the constraints of Shariah compliance and CBK regulation.
Strategy & Approach
A three-track approach: (1) Digital marketing — SEO content strategy, targeted social campaigns, email funnels for Murabaha and Musharaka product education; (2) UX design — a ground-up ATM interface redesign and SalaamPay digital journey; (3) Communications — Jumma Mubarak brand moments, branch identity systems, and CMA-compliant investment platform redesign. Each track fed into a unified brand language.
What Was Delivered
Impact
The Challenge
ThinkTube Africa — a mental wellness and family counselling media organisation — needed to grow its audience, increase digital authority, and professionalise its multimedia output. The Boomerang Podcast brand needed visual and production consistency across podcast video, live streaming, and social media. The website needed a redesign for better user experience and search visibility.
Strategy & Approach
A full creative direction remit: end-to-end podcast video production with motion graphics opening sequences and animated lower thirds; live streaming event architecture with interactive elements; comprehensive social media content strategy with platform-specific formatting; website redesign with SEO implementation that pushed organic traffic higher; and a visual brand refresh that unified the organisation's identity across all media touchpoints.
What Was Delivered
Impact
The Challenge
GBV narratives in Kenya are too often buried in statistics or reduced to awareness ribbons. The challenge: create a brand that weaponises fashion as protest — giving survivors a platform with the cultural weight of editorial fashion and the moral clarity of an activist movement. The brand needed to reach audiences that policy papers and posters never could, using design and film as its primary weapons.
Strategy & Approach
Centre survivor voices. Make the brand unapologetically bold — a full identity system anchored in the tagline If Threads Could Speak; editorial fashion direction for documentary-style photography; a communications framework spanning social media, campaign posters, and NGO partnership materials; and a motion-driven social content strategy using animated typography to carry survivor testimonies into digital spaces.
What Was Delivered
Impact
Consumer Product — Eco Travel — Kenya & Export
The Challenge
Travel essentials are a brand graveyard — functional, forgettable, environmentally careless. Roamfresh needed to be built from scratch as a conscious travel brand for modern East African nomads who camp in the Aberdares and refuse to compromise their values for convenience. The product needed visual identity, packaging strategy, and a market entry plan that could scale beyond Kenya.
Strategy & Approach
Compete with lifestyle brands, not pharmacy brands. Build identity around 85% organic packaging, bamboo materials, and biodegradable commitment. Package design brief developed for Chinese manufacturing partnership. Market entry strategy built for Kenyan retail with an internationally scalable architecture ready for eco-travel channels.
What Was Delivered
Impact
Head of Marketing & Communications
Salaam Microfinance Bank Kenya (SMFB)
Digital Strategy · UX/UI · Brand · Campaigns · Nairobi
Business Development Manager
Afrika Unfolding — Monrovia, Liberia
Brand Strategy · Content Operations · Media Growth · Remote
Creative Director
ThinkTube Africa (Boomerang Podcast Africa)
Film · Motion Graphics · Podcast Production · SEO · Nairobi
Digital Content Executive
United Women's Council
Web Development · Graphic Design · NGO Comms · Remote
Assistant Production Manager
Creativeage Brands Limited
Brand Strategy · Content · Analytics · Nairobi (Part-time)
Marketing Associate
Reaction Power Inc
Graphic Design · Brand Identity · California, Remote
Festival Administrator
Kenya International Theatre Festival Trust
Brand Positioning · Strategic Partnerships · Events · Nairobi
Marketing & Strategy
UI / UX Design
Graphic Design
Film & Videography
Motion Graphics
Leadership & Management
Certifications
"I build brands that don't just exist — they command attention, challenge norms, and move people to act."
Duke Kamanda — 360° Marketer & Creative Director
Duke Kamanda is a 360° Marketer, Creative Director, and Brand Strategist based in Nairobi — working at the intersection of marketing strategy, visual design, film, and technology to build brands that move people.
His career spans Shariah-compliant financial services, pan-African media platforms, gender advocacy NGOs, arts festivals, and eco-consumer products — always bringing the same conviction: design is strategy made visible, and film is strategy made felt. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing) from the University of Nairobi.
He is currently Head of Marketing & Communications at Salaam Microfinance Bank Kenya, where he designed and deployed the ATM interface nationwide, built the Mombasa branch identity, and leads integrated campaigns for the bank's Shariah-compliant product suite.
As Creative Director at ThinkTube Africa, he directed podcast video production, built motion graphics systems, and produced live streaming events that grew the platform's audience substantially. When not building brands, he is on the road — camping, hiking, watching documentaries, and finding the raw material that keeps his storytelling honest.
Open to brand strategy mandates, creative direction, UX/UI, film & motion projects, and conversations about work that matters in East Africa and globally.