2021 Commissioned Artists Introducing the Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards' concept and trophy designers.

Embracing the connection between literature and other artistic disciplines, each edition of the Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards is built around a unique animating concept. The concept’s spirit sets the creative tone of each award season and is realised in the form of an official logo which is prominently displayed on all press and digital materials. The concept is finally translated into physical form and takes shape as special trophies which are awarded to each year’s winning literary artists.

This year’s commissioned artists are:

Romeo SinkalaAwards concept designer

Romeo Sinkala is a digital artist and illustrator. He currently works as a senior art director at Weathermen & Co. one of Namibia’s top advertising agencies. As an artist he is influenced by comic books, animation, and character design. His art explores African mythology and folklore and how questions about African histories and cultures have or should transition with Africans in the future.

Romeo wrote and illustrated SUMBU, a best-selling children’s book about Namibia’s independence that won the Best Children’s Book Award in 2018 at the Namibian Children’s Book Forum. He also co-authored Jahohora as an illustrator, a book based on the novel of the same name by Mari Serebrov. Jahohora was published in Herero, German, and English—it is listed on the Amazon and ABC websites. Romeo’s work has also appeared in Doek!.

Attila GierschAwards trophy designer

Attila Giersch is an award-winning Namibian jewellery designer. He was the first Namibian to win the prestigious Southern African Shining Light Jewellery Award in 1997, a competition in which the best diamond jewellery designers from Southern Africa showcased their talents.

His Tameka collection has been exhibited in Angola, Cuba, Finland, and Germany. Attila won the Plat Africa Award for Most Creative Design in the platinum design discipline in 1999 and received an Honourable Mention in 2000. Among some of his notable exhibitions, his works have been shown at the World Expo in Lisbon in 1998, at the National Art Gallery of Namibia in 2000, at the Finnish Fashion Week in Helsinki in 2007, and at the Angola Fashion Week in Luanda in 2011. Attila also designed the Miss Namibia Pageant crown in 2006 and 2010.


Cover Image: Windmill.
© Neal Markham.