Student’s fire truck design honors Nigerian roots

Campbell University graphic design major Alexander Banks received correspondence from Nigerian embassy in Washington, D.C., for a class assignment recently.

Banks’ work — a design of a Soviet ZiL fire truck from the 1970s that included “corporate livery emulating modern-day Laos, Nigerian fire trucks — was commended by Farida Muntair Kaita, who serves in the Protocol and Culture section of the embassy. 

“The 1970s Soviet ZiL Fire trucks were reliable and powerful vehicles with specialized water tanks. Therefore, it is enlightening to see your rendition of this fine vehicle as the focus of your project,” Kaita wrote. “I wish you all the best in your endeavors and congratulations once again.”

Banks said his aim was to design a fire truck celebrating two separate cultures, and he chose Lagos “because my family is ethnically Igbo Nigerian prior to the Atlantic Slave Trade.”

“I am proud of my ancestral heritage and African roots and I would love to know your honest opinion of my design,” he wrote to the embassy.

Banks is a student in Professor Dejan Mraovic’s graphic design course in the College of Arts & Sciences.