We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Toks Agosu. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Toks below.

Alright, Toks thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The idea for Northwind Illustrations arrived quietly, almost by accident. I wasn’t trying to start a business. I was simply trying to breathe again through a season of profound losses: the passing of loved ones, the end of my job, and the challenge of rebuilding life in a new country.

Long walks helped me think. Drawing helped me stay grounded. A shadow on the pavement, a bird playing in a puddle, the lines of a building, everything became ink marks on paper. Those marks surprised me. They were simple, but they felt alive, honest in a way I hadn’t expected.

Over the years, I filled notebooks with hundreds of sketches. When I finally looked back, I realized I had created over 800 drawings. That’s when I began to wonder whether these small marks could become something more.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Toks Agosu, the artist and founder behind Northwind Illustrations, a small, growing creative studio built on the belief that everyday moments can become meaningful art. My journey into this work began during a difficult season of my life.

Walking, sketching, and searching for quiet became the only ways I could steady myself. What started as simple ink drawings slowly grew into a practice rooted in curiosity, colour, and emotional honesty, and eventually into a brand.

Today, I create art cushions, wall art, fine-art limited-edition drops, and a weekly narrative podcast, The Artist Journal Podcast where I share the stories, sparks, and process behind each piece.

Everything begins the same way: a walk, a thought, a shadow, a pattern that stays with me. I don’t chase perfection. I start with a feeling. Those early sketches become patterns, patterns become visuals, and visuals become functional art that people can live with, gift, or collect.

My work lives at the intersection of interior design and storytelling.

The core problem I solve is that most décor – even beautiful décor feels mass-produced. Designed to fill a space, but not speak to it. Northwind Illustrations exists to answer that gap. I create art that carries story, emotion, and intention, while still being practical for homeowners and interior designers. Many of my cushions can be customised in colourways, allowing designers to match a client’s space without losing the soul of the artwork.

What sets Northwind Illustrations apart is the way each piece is created and shared. My work isn’t driven by trends or algorithms; it’s built from lived moments, a rainy windshield, my son’s football practice, a parked truck at a dock, the rhythm of city structures. These simple observations become tactile pieces of art.
Every collection is limited, signed, and rooted in narrative. Every drop comes with the same invitation: What do you see?

I’m most proud of how far this studio has come with honesty and patience. Over 800 sketches, created across four years form the visual foundation of Northwind.

Today, that foundation supports functional artwork people bring into their homes, sometimes into spaces where they need comfort, colour, or hope.

If there’s one thing I want future clients and collectors to know, it’s this: Northwind Illustration is art made from real moments, designed for real living. Whether you’re here for the cushions, the wall pieces, the podcast, or the stories in between, you’re stepping into a creative world built slowly, intentionally, and with heart.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

A few years ago, everything in my life hit at once. My dream job ended. Money was tight. I lost my child. Shortly after, my father passed away. Grief and depression settled over me in a way I had never experienced. I felt disoriented as if the ground beneath me had shifted.

The only thing I knew how to reach for was a pen and a blank page. Drawing became a way to find myself again. Every day, I sketched something – a memory, a feeling, a moment from a walk, not to make art, but to survive the heaviness.

Through that daily visual journaling, I began to notice that even in grief, there were colours and shapes and patterns that helped me navigate the season I was in.

Resilience showed up in the smallest ways:
It was in the choice to create anyway.
To walk anyway.
To see beauty anyway.
To keep marking pages even when the world felt dim.

Over time, those small acts became a habit, a sketch after a hard day, a drawing after another closed door, a new idea when it felt like nothing was working. Years later, flipping through my notebooks, I realised something powerful, every line was a record of resilience. Every mark was proof that I kept going.

And woven through it all was the quiet support of my faith community, whose encouragement helped me continue when I had nothing left.
Northwind Illustrations wasn’t built from perfect circumstances.
It was built from the courage to stand up, take a walk, breathe, and create one small thing, again and again, until those small things grew into a brand.

The resilience I carry is simple :
I don’t wait for life to be easy to make something meaningful.
I make something meaningful, even in the middle of the hard.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The biggest lesson I had to unlearn was the belief that my work needed to be perfect before it could be shared. For years, I felt creativity only counted when it was polished, refined, and flawless. Anything less felt unworthy of daylight.
That belief began to crack when I first returned to drawing.

Most of what I sketched was messy and unfinished lines made during walks, in the car, or late at night when the world was quiet. I never expected anyone to see them.

One day, I showed someone a simple sketch, nothing planned, nothing impressive — and they connected with it instantly. Not because it was perfect, but because it was honest.
The rawness, the emotion, the simplicity — that’s what spoke to them.
That moment changed everything.

I realized I wasn’t building a brand on perfection. I was building it on presence — on capturing moments and feelings exactly as they were. The uneven lines, the spontaneous marks, the imperfect strokes — they carried the humanity people connected to.

Northwind Illustrations would not exist if I had waited for perfect.
No cushions.
No wall art.
No 800 sketches.
No stories.
No community.

Unlearning perfection opened the door for honesty.
Honesty opened the door for connection.
And the connection helped people see themselves in my work.
The world doesn’t need my perfect work, it needs my true work.
That realization changed everything.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nwindart.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/northwindartist/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559925579755
• Other: Substack Channel – https://nwind.substack.com/ – This is my podcast site.

Image Credits

Picture of myself was taken by –
Credit – Sumeet Tayade

Product pictures
Credit – Toks Agosu