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Top Secret My SOTW

Athenkosi Ndzombane
Art Director, Photographer

I’m an art director & photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa and worked on brands you’ve seen on your feet, in your cabinet and on your television like Nike Football & Lifestyle, Superbalist, FIFA, and many many more. Creating stuff  that has been lucky enough to win an ADC Gold, get shortlisted at the Clios, and picked up a few Loeries in my uni years. Enough to be proud about, not enough to be annoying.

Not boring enough to say I’ve never tried to write a short film, or unique enough to say I’ve never thought of DJing but what I will always do is try to bring new things to the table. 

I throw everything at the wall when I work — sometimes good ideas, other times really bad ones buts always in the shape of a kitchen sink. Not always elegant, often hard to explain, but always easy to identify. To see some of the process behind my favourite projects, it’s all hiding in the Top Secret panel.

I studied at Red & Yellow Creative School of Business through the Loeries Creative Futures Scholarship and Mo Thulo Bursary. I somehow ended up ranked #12 and #13 in the Loeries Student Rankings two years in a row, as well as 2x Silver Student Lories wins which proves sometimes I know what I’m doing.

Along side my brother we started  Developing Agency, a content studio that exists to make creative work with people like me, photographers, filmmakers, friends, and anyone else who wants to build work that doesn’t feel like homework. We’ve worked on a ADC winning project, lost too many pitches and will live to work another day.

I’m currently freelancing, and open to projects, roles and any work that isn’t degrading, soulless or requires showing too much skin...

X-Games Aspen 2025

  • Medium: Photography
  • Brief: Capture a different sense of the X-Games to the typical action photography style the client employs.

Team: Johny Sathekge (Additional Photographer & Video)

Formula E x Sunday Times

  • Medium: Photography
  • Brief:
  • Capture the Formula E Season 9 as authentically as possible to give a 
  • ‘Behind the Scenes’ look on the ongoing circus of Formula E for 
  • Sunday Times.

  • Problem:
  • Formula E doesn’t show enough of the behind the scenes during 
  • theirraces outside of the Unplugged show they have, and need more
  • content for their social media. Sunday Times offered an opportunity to
  • look at the sport in a ‘supports’ lens.

Shot in: Jakarta, Indonesia | Cape Town, South Africa | Rome, Italy

ComUnity Fashion Show

    Role: Creative Manager, Art Director & Photographer
    Team:
    Dario Yesca - Projection Assistant (Developing Agency)
    Johny Sathekge - Videographer & Editor (Developing Agency)
    Nas Tyron - Casting Director & Fashion Show Curator & Producer (2Collide)
    Gina Walther - Casting Director & Fashion Show Curator & Producer (2Collide)
    Thato Che Bernardo - Producer & Editor - (Crat3s)

    Brief:
    Create a unique experience for viewers in the showcase the fashion
    show.

    Problem:
    The fashion show was occuring in a space that was far too big and we 
    needed to find an ingenious way to fill the space without just
    typical banners.


160b_7 Collaboration



  • Medium: Mixed media/Editing
  • Team:
  • Monwabisi Sekwane - Photographer
  • Johny Sathekge - Editor
  • Athenkosi Ndzombane - Post Production Artist
  • Xara Croft - Model/Stylist


Photos Over The Years

Collection of my favourite photos through out the last few years. 
Brands: Crates x Converse, VisitQatar, IndonesiaTravel

Technical Experiments

  • Reactive experiments through out the years on TouchDesigner - often
  • with help from Dario Yesca. 


The Guardian - CheckMate

  • Medium: Art Direction, Graphic Design & Copywriting

  • Brief:
  • To reaffirm The Guardian’s position as a freer of truth that doesn’t
  • bow for anyone through a digital tool.

  • Problem:

  • Disinformation from politicians goes unchecked on social media
  • and there isn’t a localised place for people to fact check their
  • politicians.

  • Target Market:
  • Those getting politicially engaged for the first time aged 17-24 years
  • old in western democracies.


  • Solution:
  • Create a reply bot on X that quickly and accurately fact-check
  • tweets, comments and reposts from politically influential individuals.
  • And communicating the lies of politicians through out history 
  • to promote the platform.


Capitec Brand Challenge

  • Medium: Art Direction & Copywriting

  • Brief:
  • Position Capitec as a stress-easer for the aspirational market in the
  • chaos they feel.

  • Problem:
  • Aspirants have worked hard for their money but are overwhelmed by
  • the different proposed solutions to help them.

  • Solution:
  • Taking real-life scenarios of South Africans and showing how
  • Capitec’s simplicity in a world of chaos is the benefit for consumers.

  • Team:
  • Athenkosi Ndzombane - Art Director & Copywriter
  • Kristen Lyons - Graphic Designer
  • Nombulelo Mtshaki - Art Director
  • Alet Roux - Illustrator
  • Illhaam Kessner - Digital Designer
  • Hannah Kennedy - Copywriter
  • Sarah Longworth - User Centric Designer
  • Nikita Borsutzky - Graphic Designer
  • Rebecca Gomes - Graphic Designer
  • Chulumanco Yiko - Strategy
  • Ebrahim Mayet - Strategy
  • Jaimee Baylis - Strategy
  • Kirstin - Strategy
  • Jenna Conradie - Strategy