Monica Ahanonu recently partnered with Johnnie Walker to create a design that would be worn by the players during warm-ups at the match between Gotham FC and Angel City FC on July 2nd at Red Bull Arena.
This collaboration between the two is a part of a broader initiative created by Johnnie Walker called First Strides. This initiative reinforces the brand’s eagerness to push the boundaries and move the culture forward. Ahanonu’s design embodies the brand’s motivation to progress conversations surrounding gender equality and uplifting underrepresented communities. Her design focuses on the hands of the players being represented and encompasses a variety of elements meant to highlight camaraderie, teamwork, strength, and unity. Ahanonu described wanting to convey a celebration and visually demonstrate an exchange of emotions and energy of people experiencing the same event.
Along with being a leading female artist in the digital space, Ahanonu is also an illustrator and model. The Knockturnal spoke with Ahanonu about her partnership with Johnnie Walker and the concept behind her design. She also discussed her artistic style and projects that she has coming up in the future.
Ahanonu’s work can be followed on her Instagram at @monicaahanonu
The Knockturnal: How did this partnership with Johnnie Walker come about?
Monica Ahanonu: I first partnered with Johnnie Walker to design signs of empowerment and progress for participants during the 2019 Women’s March in Washington, D.C. These along with other signs carried during the march were then featured in an exhibit curated in partnership with the New York Historical Society – Center for Women’s History to commemorate the messages of optimism and unity represented through march signage as well as the spirit of collective progress moving our country forward.
When the Johnnie Walker team reached out to collaborate on this initiative in celebration of their partnerships with Gotham FC and Angel City FC, two powerhouse women’s soccer teams, and all women in sports who are breaking barriers on and off the field, I was eager to come on board. It’s amazing to work with brands like Johnnie Walker which have steadfast commitments to gender equality and actively work to uplift underrepresented communities.
The Knockturnal: How important was it for you to be a part of such a collaborative effort to promote gender equality and inclusivity?
Monica Ahanonu: I’ve always admired Johnnie Walker for being a brand that stands for collective progress and its First Strides initiative turns this commitment into action by supporting the people and organizations who are doing the work to push culture forward for underrepresented communities. By celebrating, inspiring and enabling bold strides taken for progress, Johnnie Walker seeks to create more boundary breaking, first time achievement through grants, visibility, mentorship and empowerment.
As women’s soccer takes the ultimate stage this summer, it’s prime time to highlight the significant gender gaps in sports and provoke equal visibility for women athletes, teams and leagues all year long. In collaboration with Johnnie Walker, Gotham FC and Angel City FC, we created a unified design which the players from both teams wore during warm-ups at their match last weekend at the Red Bull Arena to underscore the one team approach to achieving equality.
Our partnership is just the beginning of a summer-long initiative to increase visibility for women’s sports, so stay tuned for more from Johnnie Walker to be part of a community that values and uplifts women athletes.
The Knockturnal: What was your thought and creation process like when developing the design that’ll be worn by both ACFC and Gotham FC on July 2nd?
Monica Ahanonu: In this design, I chose to focus specifically on the hands of the players we are representing. Hands can convey a wide range of emotions, and I wanted to capture the feelings of celebration, camaraderie, teamwork, strength, and unity in a single glance. The lines surrounding the hands represent the dynamic exchange of emotions and energy between a crowd of people experiencing the same event. By depicting hands grasping one another, I sought to illustrate how we lift each other up as we rise and break through barriers. As a team, we often celebrate not only our personal victories but also the triumphs of our teammates and the collective success of our group.
The Knockturnal: When people see the design you have created, what do you hope that they see or feel?
Monica Ahanonu: Bold, inspired, motivated and curious.
The Knockturnal: Your creations are very unique and show a clear concept of what your brand represents in terms of your artistic approach and vibrant color choices. How important is it for you to implement those aspects into your art?
Monica Ahanonu: Vibrant colors, and combining colors you wouldn’t normally see together, are both aspects of my work I’ve noticed gives me a lot of energy and satisfaction. When finishing an illustration, I’ll often realize if those elements aren’t included I won’t feel like my piece is complete – I’ll keep refining, for some times hours, and then it’ll hit me that the colors aren’t bright enough or the color combination is too even and balanced so I’ll have to mess it up a bit.
The Knockturnal: How did you get into art and modeling? What age did you start showing an interest?
Monica Ahanonu: I started showing interest in expressing my creativity at around the age of 5, it was early elementary school – kindergarten. I was always wearing wild outfit combinations and would not go to school unless I was excited about the outfit I had put together that day. I hope this doesn’t come back to haunt me when I have my own kids but I remember various times not getting out of the car for school if I felt like I rushed and put on an outfit I didn’t like.
Beyond that, I would say the biggest influence from childhood that has stuck with me today in terms of creativity is when I taught myself how to use Adobe Photoshop and other graphics programs during the summer between 8th and 9th grade. I was a gymnast and had to have surgery on both of my feet that summer so I was limited to sitting in a wheelchair for a couple months versus my usual schedule of gymnastics practice 4 – 5 hours a day. During this time, I started to draw / animate my gymnastics routines to pass the time since I couldn’t physically do them.
In terms of modeling, I had an interest in it when I was in middle school and I would create magazines on the computer with my friend Chelsey. We would take photos of each other for hours then edit graphics and add text to make our own magazines. I think we would literally only print out 2 copies for ourselves to look through and that was it. We did that many times haha. In terms of modeling more seriously – at a certain point in middle school I felt like I wouldn’t be tall enough for modeling so I kind of let that be and didn’t really think about it again until IMG Models reached out to me in 2021.
The Knockturnal: What does your art mean to you?
Monica Ahanonu: It’s what keeps me happy and excited about life. I always wonder what I would do with myself if I didn’t create art, what I would be doing to get the specific energetic feeling that I do when finishing an art piece.
The Knockturnal: What are you currently working on? Any future projects that fans should look forward to?
Monica Ahanonu: Working on some exciting Web3 projects, a fashion campaign that comes out in the fall, mixed media fine art that is done by hand vs digitally and a broadcast commercial that will run during later this summer.