We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael Kwaku Klein a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Michael Kwaku, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you walk us through some of the key steps that allowed you move beyond an idea and actually launch?

As far as i can recall, I have always dreamed of running my own business.
To tell this story properly , would be to go back much further than time would allow me.
For now, let us start somewhere in the middle.
It’s 2017, 3 years after leaving Paris abruptly and returning home in Accra, I was working as the lead designer in an architectural and construction start up firm and I was completely burnt out.
Working hours would run somewhere from 9am – 11pm 4 out of 5 times a week. And most weekends would be spent working from home.
Nobody forced me to do this – not directly, but we had wicked deadlines and your job depended on it, and you knew what you had to do.
I had hit a wall and I knew I needed to take a break.
My first thought was to make a deal with my boss and work from home for a few months ( before covid made it cool ) but my boss didn’t agree, nor did he think i needed a break ,and from that moment on, I started waking up to the realization that another person was in charge of my own life. In charge of almost all of my waking hours. And this is how most of us are expected to spend our best years. That Didn’t sit well with me, but I also did not in any way feel ready to start a business of my own. I didn’t feel ready or knowledgeable enough. It was a terrifying idea, but I was turning 30, i was broke and i was exhausted. The next day at work, i had gotten in early, organized my plans for the day and the tasks for the employees in the design department and just as I sat down to sip my coffee and start my work, my boss walked in and told us we all had to stop what we were working on immediately and work on something else, based on a whim he had about the direction of things. At lunch time that day I walked into a computer store and bought my first gaming/architectural pc on 3 month credit and begun marketing myself by word of mouth and Instagram.
After a few moths i quit my job and launched Kwaku Klein Design Studios from home.
I had no idea how much less sleep i was about to get.
I was mostly targeting the commercial sector of design because that’s what i had done for so many years working for various companies, exposed to that specific pool of clients. It was a tough market.
By 2019 business was absolutely atrocious and I had to switch strategies to survive.
I worked on expanding my network and collaborating with new people in different fields.
I pushed my work all over social media and reached out to anyone i could think of that might need design services.
I considered leaving the country but family issues had me geographically tied down for a while.
I didn’t know what else to do and in my free time i would simply design spaces for fun.
I found my self designing mostly residential spaces whenever i would design free and after a while i had a few designs which i begun marketing as actual work.
2020 hit, covid came and just like that, business picked up. For a few people, of which i was lucky to be a part of. Certainly not for everyone. Most Businesses were doing badly but not mine. Although we could say, anything looks good when you’re starting from zero.
More and more people in the west decided to use that period to start planning and building homes in Ghana, amongst other things.
Work grew gradually to a point now where the brand started getting recognized locally, and now its time to expand to the next stage.
Recently we begun our very fist construction project for a dream client. Growing from just conceptual designs to also include renovations and construction.
Its been difficult to say the least, it’s still pretty tough, but these are my sleepless nights, and i see the path clearly because it is mine.

Michael Kwaku, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

MY name is Michael Kwaku Klein.
I am a Ghanaian who also happens to be half German by blood.
I was born and raised in Ghana and for a few years I studied art and architecture in Paris.
My original reason to go to Paris was to seize an opportunity that had come my way, to study art.
At the time I had dropped out of my second year in university, doing business marketing and i hated absolutely everything about business school and my life in regards to the geographical placement of my body.
I did not like where i was and what i was doing.

Fortunately, out of sheer magic, I got two opportunities to study abroad. One was to study Engineering in Boston and the other was to do art in Paris.
I don’t know what reasonable 23 year old choses engineering in Boston.
I arrived in Paris not speaking a word of French. I would not recommend that.
After my first year of art school i fell in love with the stuff the seniors in the architecture classes would make. Their maquettes and elaborate presentations caught my interest.
I switched to study scenography and interior architecture.
I loved solving the puzzle that was presented in the task of planning a space.

I launched Kwaku Klein Design Studios in Late September 2017.

Kwaku Klein Design Studio specializes in the conceptual creation of various spaces, buildings, and furniture. We aim to assist clients through every step of the design and construction process.

We are a small, dedicated team with a strong background in architecture, interior design, space planning, arts and crafts and renovation works.
We believe spaces impact how we feel and in turn how we act. we aim to introduce a sense of calm and fluidity through our designs.

In crafting these unique spaces, we draw inspiration from the culture and ideas of a place, company, or individual. Guided by ergonomics, aesthetics, and balance, we collaborate closely with our clients to achieve the best possible results. We pay special attention to small details and integrate them into the bigger picture, breathing life and timelessness into our creations.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Honest design and Unique perspectives.
We always approach a new project with a genuine curiosity to understand and know it, and an unwavering desire to hit the target.
We design from a place of sincerity that best expresses the ideas we’re working with on the project, and not from a superficial place to simply draw attention.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

unlike most non creative work, there isn’t a straight path or a specific known formula to complete a creative project.
Sometimes part of that process of solving a problem creatively is to step away from the work and get completely lost in something else for a bit, and without chasing it, the solutions pop out from the play.

Contact Info:

• Website: under construction
• Instagram: @kwaku_klein
• Facebook: Kwaku Klein
• Linkedin: Michael Kwaku Klein
• Twitter: @kwakuKlein

Image Credits

Kwaku Klein Design Studios