By Sympathy Sibanda: 

Gladys Chibanda  is a  25 year old award winning creative entrepreneur, craft artist, graphic designer, founder and creative director of Krafted Ink  a line of handmade African gifts and accessories and Tisu Digital Craftsmen a graphic design and digital marketing company.

Her journey as Creative Entrepreneur started at a mere age of 21 influenced by her parents whom she watched growing up involved in different business ventures. That reality led her to start her own company, Krafted Ink.

“2016 is when I started the handmade gifts company. This was motivated by my insatiable need for new authentic, aesthetically pleasing handmade articles and the fact that when I was growing up I witnessed a lot entrepreneurship going on around me. My father was an artist and he ran his own business and my mother ran a lot different businesses.” the bubbly entrepreneur explained.

Inspite of many children growing up being told that the creative space does not offer well paying opportunities, young Gladys pursued the industry with a strong tenacity seeing her registering the company and having offices in pursuit of professionalism.

“When I started my business, I wanted to erase the stigma fostered to me by society that a person who pursued creative arts was not going to be successful, My professionalism has given me several recognition and awards among them a lot of media coverage and CBZ Yep, Proweb Young business leader of the year and Elumelu alumni,” Chibanda said.

Gladys’s work was also featured through a documentary by a German TV magazines helping grow her company at a rapid speed. It highlighted how each design philosophy is of traditional craftsmanship and afro contemporary style enabling the creation of unparalleled memories and experiences that are timeless in impact and nature.

“From 2016 till now   we have serviced a lot of Zimbabwean based large companies with corporate gifts among them Potraz , Daily News , Ministries of Education and ICT , Zimbabwe Tourism Authority  just to mention a few  as well as individuals who want personalised and custom made gifts.”

The creative company’s portfolio covers handmade products used as corporate or personal gifts for clients who want to strengthen their relationships. They manufacture notebooks, diaries, gift bags, gift boxes, folders, greeting cards, photo albums, envelopes and photo frames, with a continuous intention to grow a diverse our product line in future.  

Asked what her unique selling proposition is, Chibanda responded ,”Krafted Ink was conceived out of a strong desire to uphold the African standards of sharing gifts and memories. For many years the culture of giving has been practised in every African Society. The exchange of gifts between families , friends and strangers is what defines Ubuntu . We discovered that our products had to be born to cement the standard of Ubuntu. Mother earth whispered the secret of recycling and today, every piece is handcrafted to the finest finish using tedious traditional techniques and gently enhanced using modern designs.”

A wedding, the birth of a child, a new home, an important birthday…All of these are events that should be celebrated with a  timeless gift. Every person is in search of attractive and innovative products for purpose of exchanging gifts  and Krafted Ink is just the place to be for such.