We are TaVaTake Designs
TaVaTake Designs is an independent creative studio founded by Zimbabwean designer and visual communicator Taurai Valerie Mtake.
Based in Stockholm and connected to Harare, the studio works across visual identity, graphic design, type design, digital experiences, cultural research and creative direction.
The practice is rooted in an Afrikan perspective, but the work is not interested in being boxed into an “Afrikan aesthetic”.
- We are interested in ideas.
- Culture is our starting point.
- Design is our language.
- The future is the playground.
Our perspective
Afrikan is not an aesthetic.
It is a perspective.
Afrika is not one look. It is thousands of languages, histories, technologies, philosophies, symbols, systems and futures.
Yet Afrikan design is often reduced to colour, pattern and ornament.
We want to go deeper.
- Into the systems.
- Into the language.
- Into the stories.
- Into the knowledge.
- Into the things that survived.
- And into the things that are still being imagined.
We don’t want to decorate the future with Africa. We want to help design it.
The studio
Small studio. Big questions.
TaVaTake Designs is intentionally independent.
We work with a flexible network of designers, developers, artists, researchers, photographers, writers, strategists and other collaborators, depending on what the project needs.
- Sometimes we work with a team.
- Sometimes we become the team.
- Sometimes the project begins with a brief.
- Sometimes it begins with a question.
Founder
Taurai Valerie Mtake
Designer. Type designer. Visual communicator.
Taurai Valerie Mtake is a Zimbabwean designer and the founder of TaVaTake Designs, based in Stockholm, Sweden. Her practice moves between graphic design, typography, cultural research and creative direction.
She is the designer behind Madimi One, a typeface commissioned by Google Fonts, and her work has been recognised through platforms including Ung Svensk Form. Her projects have connected design with technology, healthcare, fashion, culture and language.
She holds a Master’s degree in Visual Communication from Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, and a Bachelor Honours in Visual Communication from Greenside Design Center, College of Design, in Johannesburg.
Her ongoing question is simple:
How can design help us remember who we are while imagining who we could become?
Recognition
Some things we’ve been up to.
2025
Afro Community
Most Outstanding Impact
2024
Google Fonts
Madimi One commissioned and published
2023
Ung Svensk Form
Winner — one of 23 designers in the national touring exhibition
2023
Type Directors Club
Judge, Communication Design competition
2023
Konstfack
Master’s research and degree exhibition
2017
Pendoring
Overall Student Award and Gold Pendoring
2017
Loeries
Gold
2026
HIV Unwrapped
Threads of Resilience
2026
New York Fashion Week
Selected work
2023
Arts Thread
Featured creative work
Before the studio
Selected experience.
Before founding the studio, Taurai worked in-house and in agencies across Johannesburg, Harare and Stockholm.
2023–2024
Google Fonts
Typeface Designer · Remote
2023–2024
Northvolt
Brand Designer · Stockholm
2022–2023
Händer (Kristina Skantze)
Editorial Designer · Stockholm
2021–2022
Grafikens Hus
Graphic Designer · Stockholm
2019–2021
CBZ Holdings
In-house Graphic Designer · Harare
2018–2019
Shift Engage
Creative Designer · Harare
2018
Quill Advertising and Marketing
Creative Director · Harare
2017–2018
TBWA Grid Worldwide Branding
Graphic Designer · Johannesburg
Exhibitions
Shown in.
2026
Fragments I Carried Back
Solo exhibition · Harare
2023
Ung Svensk Form touring exhibition
Stockholm Furniture Fair · IKEA Museum, Älmhult · Sara Kulturhus, Skellefteå · Textilmuseet, Borås · Malmö Museer
2023
Konstfack Spring Exhibition
Stockholm
2022
Madímì
Solo exhibition · Fiber Space, Stockholm
2018
Harare International Festival of the Arts
Harare
2015–2016
Greenside Design Center
Johannesburg
Talks & teaching
Sharing what we learn.
2026
ATypI
Reviving Afrikan Scripts: Designing Belonging Through Indigenous Typographies
2025
ATypI Copenhagen
Reviving Afrikan Scripts: Integrating Indigenous Systems Into Modern Design
2025
Konstfack
One Day About Typography: Research and Materiality in Text
2025
RGD, Canada
Type Journeys: preserving heritage through type design
2024–2025
Beckmans College of Design
Guest lectures
2020, 2023
Typographics NYC
TypeLab
2022
Type Drives Culture (TDC)
Virtual conference speaker
2021
Typographics
Indigenous Knowledge of the Bantu Symbol Writing
Press
Written about.
2024
The Herald, Zimbabwe
Madimi One / Google Fonts interview and feature
2024
The Sunday Mail, Zimbabwe
Madimi One feature
2024
Konstfack
Alumni publication: Madimi One on Google Fonts
Clients & collaborators
People we have made things with.
- Google Fonts
- SkyShowtime
- Northvolt
- CBZ Holdings
- Zonhub
- Posithiva Gruppen
- Capitec Handmade Africa
- Omika Health
- Afrika Hub
- Mbira Renaissance
- Grafikens Hus
- National
Additional collaborators and projects include work connected to
- IKEA
- Gucci
- Karolinska Institutet
- Ogilvy
- ABSA Group
- FNB
- Sadza Space