We’re living in a day and age where creatives aren’t subjected to one sole discipline. See: Solange, Rihanna and today’s feature, Slug Global founder, Multi-hyphenate BOSCO. As part of a new series, “Black Women Content Creators You Should Know” where we highlight Black women working in digital creative spaces, today we’re spotlighting musical artist and all around creative, BOSCO. As the founder of Slug Global, BOSCO—and her amazing tri-coastal team—are responsible for some of the coolest brand activations, campaigns and events around. Working with brands such as Footlocker, Afropunk and Facebook, they’re changing the digital landscape one campaign at a time. Slug global is a new-age full service creative art collective that dabbles in a bit of everything—just like it’s founder—from branding, to spatial and set design, to graphic design. Founder BOSCO—with her alternative rnb music discography, her background in art and fashion—is a woman of many talents. Like so many millennials, she’s making a case for all the renaissance kids out there that pull inspiration and interest from a multitude of disciplines.
GRAZIA got to sit down with the multi-hyphenate founder of Slug Global and get to know all about her obsession with 90’s Nickelodeon, her creative community, her advice for fellow aspiring multi-hyphenate creatives and what’s next for her creative cohort, below:
“I kind of see slug as the roadmap to getting back to your inner child, but doing it in a modern and contemporary way”
GRAZIA: How did the concept of Slug Global collective come about?
Slug was birthed out of the need for community. Before the internet was like backing Black artists or creating spaces for us—this was back in like, 2014/2015—we needed to be seen. I knew there were other artists and creators that were like me, that didn’t have the visibility but had the skill set to compete with our white competitors. So I was like, f*%k it, I’m just going to start my own collective and we literally started with nothing. We did our own events and activations trying things out and creating a space for fellow displaced creatives. Our first event, like 350 people came out and that just showed me that this was necessary work. Like there’s a need for this, especially during that time, because the interest in supporting Black creators financially wasn’t in fashion—especially six years ago—like they are now. You know, so we just did it by word of mouth and very grassroots centered. By doing that, then a bunch of different brands and partnerships just hit us up, like “yo, we see what y’all are doing and we want to connect” and it all kind of just grew into this thing over time. But it was really because I needed community, I needed other artists to collaborate with and to be in these spaces with.
It’s like a family right?
We are just like a family, yeah! Our family—our collective—we are all individual artists in our own respective fields but when we come together, we are Voltron (a 1980s-90s animated series) slug.
What aesthetically inspires you? Where do you find inspiration?
I find inspiration through travel. Travel is such a large bulk of my inspiration because I tell visual stories. If I’m not seeing things—I have nothing to tell. So yeah, traveling, hearing sound bites of like people in the coffee shop, seeing an old vintage car pass by and frequenting bookstores—I just like the energy of bookstores. I’m a Capricorn, so we love to consume and download things all the time. I feel like I just give myself to the world, like, I’ll just jump in the car and just drive to wherever, I can’t really jump on a plane, like I usually do because I have a beautiful baby but honestly travel is like the number one inspiration for me. Oh and music, music is a huge source of inspiration for me as well. I just give myself to the universe and then I’ll just find myself in these interesting spaces and places where I find the culture and vibes.
What advice do you have for young emerging multi-disciplinary creatives who don’t fall under one specific discipline?
I feel like I’m the poster child for that! I’m in my 30s now, and I’ve always been this way but I was never championed to do all the things that I’m doing. I do have a background in art so I’m literally split in half—like I can’t do music without doing art. Then on the flip side, I can’t do art without doing music. So when I would introduce all these concepts and different ideas, in say 2011-2013, they were like “oh, you need to pick one thing like people can’t focus, like you’re all over the place, one minute your hair is blonde, the next minute, you’re at the Art Gallery, this, that” and for a while, and just being completely transparent, for about two years of my career, it really got into my head. So I’m like “nobody understands me. They just want me to do music, but I’m so much more.” I think God and my faith are what has gotten me to this point because if I were to listen to these people, I would have been boxed in. So my advice, honestly, to, you know, young creators is to put your blinders on. Yes, the internet is a community more socially acceptable, but it wasn’t always that way. I will also say get a mentor, who is also a multi hyphenate as well, who you can get advice from and relate to.
What would you say you think the key to your success is?
I think the key to success for me personally is, I don’t operate from a space of not enough or from a space of lack, rather I operate from a space of abundance. When I operate from that space of abundance, the universe yields itself to me, because it’s like, okay, you’re taking care of the people, the people will take care of you. Then it’s this reciprocation of energy of love and community.
What advertisement, album cover or product packaging design etc. sparked your interest in design and aesthetics?
CD covers! Growing up, I used to go get my CDs from Walmart. I would wait until like 11 o’clock, that’s when they would reveal the shelf of new releases for the next day—I begged my mom to take me so I could get the project before it came out. FYE, was a bit pricer at $27.99 and Walmart was $17.99, so Walmart it was [laughs.] Man, I stacked up on CDs. So, yeah mainly it was CD cover packaging that sparked all of this. Then another packaging I was obsessed with was the iconic Lisa Frank products and then also bubble gum packaging back in the day. But for me, it was honestly CD packaging especially like the deluxe version with the fold-out poster. I love a good album cover. I love physical tangible things.
I know in past interviews, you’ve said that Slug is for the kids who grew up on 90s Nickelodeon. Things you loved growing up—like Lisa Frank and you know, the Lil Kim album covers—they’re an extension of what you’re doing now. It’s an extension of that inner child. Could you touch on that more?
Yeah, um, I feel like from the prime Nickelodeon time, there was this group of kids, that when the internet fell off, they were displaced. I call it the Nickelodeon to SNICK era. I found myself with all these questions like where was this community? Who housed these people? Where did they go? So, I was like, alright, I know for me, it’s the MTV, it’s the waking up before you go to school to watch the newest videos, you put them on while you get dressed to get out the door, making sure you’re not missing the school bus, while like trying to grab your lunch. Where are those kids? So I was like, alright, I know that they’re out there because I’m that person. I don’t know why society has made us feel like we have to grow up, yes you can mature you know in your life and in your respective fields, but I feel like the energy of that work exists somewhere within all of us. It’s up to us to kind of crack it open but if there’s no one showing us how to do that how do we tap back into that? I kind of see Slug as the roadmap to getting back to your inner child, but doing it in a modern and contemporary way that doesn’t feel like it’s so passé. There’s a difference between something feeling archaic or antique. It’s this new thing, this new term that I’ve coined—modern archival. For example; people want to always reach back into like slavery and such for Black History Month but it’s archival imagery now from all the protests, all of the police brutality, all of these things where its still archival, but it’s modern and contemporary. I feel like that’s what I’m doing, kind of gelling those two worlds, so it’s archival but also contemporary—modern archival!
What do the next five years look like for you and Slug? What’s next?
We turned a portion of our business into a nonprofit so my next set of goals are around playground design. We want to take neighborhood playgrounds and activities—basketball courts and tennis courts—of marginalized, underdeveloped neighborhoods within the Black community and make them design forward to make kids want to get outside again, to disconnect from technology. If you go to say Berlin or London, you’ll see these beautifully, graphically designed playgrounds with very modernist architecture. Why don’t we have that here? I want to kind of change the premise of activations from being something that’s just cool—you know “Let me take a picture that lasts for 24 to 48 hours” and make activations that are accessible to change lives and get people physically fit and get them outside. Also, like having green access for Black people, because for some, for our like conscious collective, nature outside is some type of disconnect. However being in nature is also free therapy! I don’t think they are connecting all of these worlds like, especially like the sensory. I mean we’re so use to sight and sound that we are forgetting physical touch, and how design and physical touch, interact with each other. So kind of connecting design and play together to make it more accessible and nature.
Slug Global and BOSCO, are the future of brand activation and design. Creatives like BOSCO are necessary as the creative sphere shifts towards embracing multi-tiered disciplines. We can’t wait to see how she changes the world next, one cool idea at a time.
Shoutout to the Slug Global squad:
Bosco—Founder and Creative Director. Chibu Okere—Co-Founder and Art Director, Kevin Gumbo—Account manager and partner, India Nabarro—Graphic Designer, Kylah Benes-Trapp—Social & Content Manager, Noel Spiva—Editor & Graphic Designer, Paula Cuevas—Set & Installation Designer, Venessa Gonzalez—Creative producer, Sheyla King—Executive assistant & production.
