FOURTHCANVAS : Redefining The Creative Design Industry

When I asked Victor Fatanmi (CEO, FourthCanvas Design Agency) to describe 4C, if it were to be a person, he answered with a smile on his face – “FourthCanvas (4C) is the young African on the edge of curiosity for excellence. We embody the desire to distort and break the status quo”.

I know you would have met FourthCanvas. You doubt that? Let’s start.

Did you see those awesome posters and graphic brand designs during the historic presidential election win for President Muhamadu Buhari in 2015? Or the same “Change” themed designs that won the Ghana presidential elections with Nana Akufo-Addo and most recently, the team was part of the successful Rotimi Akerodolu campaign in Ondo State ( It’s now like, any election that 4C is part of, the candidate wins).

“We aim to break status quo with what we do and the people we do it for”

-Victor Fatanmi

Most of what you have as FourthCanvas today started as VGC Media in 2012 . As the team grew, Victor explains that the new brand, FourthCanvas was borne out of the need for an identity that captured the evolving vision with a distinctive identity.

In the company’s quest to revolutionize the design industry, Victor doesn’t work alone. Bolaji Fawole is the Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder of FourthCanvas, and is saddled with the responsibility to ensure that deadlines are met, clients are happy, designers (the team) is well taken care of and all forms of corporate communication. So the team is run by a balanced duo of Victor who oversees the technical part – design and also team development while reliability, structure and corporate communications are coordinated by Bolaji.

“There are a lot of good designs out there, but It’s our goal to give our clients the best that we can think of…our passion is in making sure the clients get the best for their money and patronage”- Victor Fatanmi.

Victor explains that as a company, what drives them in creating a design for a client is purpose. “We are a very purpose-driven company…we get into the shoes of our client, what is the purpose of this design? Like who is it speaking to? What does it want to achieve?” he explains. This is what determines the style, typeface and other elements of the design.

“For 4C, We understand that the world is a place with many alternatives . So the goal of the company is help our clients stand out. We are committed to delivering designs that attract the desired effect to our clients”-  Bolaji

For Bolaji, the centrepiece of the operations of FourthCanvas is the people. People within – The team and then the public – our clients.  “We understand that we need to embody the excellence and culture of happiness that we want to see in our designs as team and also make sure our clients are always happy and satisfied with the services we offer”, he explains.

Since we are talking design, I tried to ask Victor some technical questions.  On his personal best colour, he says red; “a subtle use of it as an accent colour”. When asked about his most used technical term, “Alignment” was such a repeated term for him that he is been dubbed  the lord of alignment. Then on Best tool: Distributing Spacing (Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator) as it helps to do the important job of equal spacing between elements and achieve neat design layouts.

“ The major building block of our company is focus on the people and  our culture of development” –Bolaji

One of the most interesting social offerings of the team is the #LogoEveryday series (you can check this on Instagram). Victor explains that it is the company’s way of representing events, trends and feelings from its own area of expertise. Bolaji quickly adds that, it has also helped to bring on clients who get to see what the brand can do and in turn contract them on projects.

A  day at the FourthCanvas design studio in Akure will convince you that they are on the path of achieving their goal, which is to earn a place on the league of leading creative agencies in the global industry.