In the current milieu approaches to the design and creation of visual art and design artefacts by Afrikans, no longer follows the application of Euro-American ideologies and methods, stylised with Afrikan-inspired effects so that they are palatable to a Western audience. Colonial era atavism attempted to erase Afrikanness from Afrikans' cosmologies, citing the superiority of Western Enlightenment reasoning and their more 'sophisticated' society as preferable. Afrikan aetiologies now supersede in contemporary creative practice in Afrika, grounded in values, heritage, genealogy, mythology, prolepsis and systems that are intrinsically Afrikan, and favour that which is authentically representative of the continent.

Starting in the 1990s in South Africa, according to Sauthoff, designers in general and graphic designers in particular have sought to create an inimitable design style that is imbued with a recognisable (South) Afrikan cultural identity. This is in reaction to the entrenched hegemonic influence of Euro-American design practices. Names like Saki Mafundikwa, Karabo Poppy, Garth Walker, and Sindiso Nyoni are on the influential list of designers bracketing a so-called African design aesthetic. How is this ‘aesthetic’ related to design that is culturally significant, according to Twigger Holroyd, and that lends authenticity to an artefact, positioning it as representative of Afrikanness?