Elijah N'Kai is a multimedia designer with nearly a decade of experience spanning brand identity, logo design, and key art for film and television — currently creating for National Geographic and The Walt Disney Company, following prior work at Truth Initiative and a freelance practice built since 2016. His approach blends strategic thinking with genuine craft, shaped by a lifelong curiosity for storytelling, simplicity, and design that serves a purpose larger than itself.

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​I'm a thinker, a maker, and a doer. I appreciate simplicity, creativity, and living well — and when I reflect on my life, it makes perfect sense that I grew into a designer. After all, I once drew a giant letter "A" on my mom's apartment wall in red crayon. Apparently it was good enough that my grandmother congratulated me for it. Years later, in 6th grade, a drawing of mine was selected for my class T-shirt during a school design competition. Also, in hindsight, very telling.

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Growing up on the East Coast, I loved drawing new superheroes, playing video games, and watching films of every kind — artsy independents, summer blockbusters, retro sci-fi, and quirky comedies like Nacho Libre and Napoleon Dynamite. Thanks to curious, creative parents, I was given a broad view of the world early on. As the son of musicians, I naturally found my way into music production, which led me to designing cover art — first for myself, then for others.

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In college, I wanted to expand who I worked with, which opened the door to collaborating with like-minded people focused on missions bigger than themselves — helping other people, or the planet. But my love for film never faded. Around that same time, I started designing short-film posters for friends in film school, and posters for a friend who ran a campus film club screening classics.

When it came time for an internship, I found a startup incubator in downtown Ithaca and joined a team of mostly Cornell engineering students, designing an app, product packaging, and logo concepts for their agriculture tech startup. I kept sharpening my skills through graduation.

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Once I returned home to the DMV, I stepped away from design for a year to complete a term of service with AmeriCorps — working with teens on healthier lifestyle choices, life goals, and getting back on track academically. After that year, I landed my first full-time design role at Truth Initiative in Washington, D.C., contributing my skills to educating teens and young adults on the harms of commercial tobacco and nicotine addiction.

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Today, I'm working with The Walt Disney Company and National Geographic, creating art for docuseries and beyond. I continue to take on client work as a way to serve others and keep honing my craft. Outside of design, you'll find me cooking with friends and family, learning something new on YouTube, getting outside to move and breathe, or relaxing hard on the couch with a new film or whatever's new on the PlayStation Store.

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Despite everything happening in the world, I'm grateful to build a life around what truly matters to me — with the hope that my work contributes, in some small way, to a world where health, education, creativity, and peace are prioritized and accessible to all.

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Thank you for checking out the portfolio. Check back now and then for updates — I'm always creating.

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Peace.