Uganda was opening up, peace had replaced decades of war, a new dawn had opened doors for stability, electricity and a vibrant commercial sector. Before, scarcity of products meant that you took what you could find on the market. It was the early 90s, for the first time consumers had choices, which meant that generating sales became important to business owners in a way it had never been before.

QG Group began life as a two-man shop – a simple concept – a design business aiming to drive new sales in an emerging market. At that time, adverts were basic creations knocked together by a typesetter in downtown Kampala for a dollar a page. Ever the revolutionaries, PatrickQuarcoo and David Galukande decided to change that. They set up their first office with one computer, one scanner and a black and white printer so primitive it was almost manual. They spent their days looking for business and their nights working – eventually landing on their first major client. A shoe shop owner with a reputation for being expensive who wanted to move the latest consignment of shoes he had brought into the country.

Unable to agree on a rate, Patrick and David told the owner to use their advert and if it was a success he would pay them. If not, it would be forgotten. Within days of the advert running, the shoes were sold out. Patrick and David received their first $100, marking the first building block of a reputation for thinking outside the box and of course a glowing reference.

The startup years were still a period of transition for Uganda as a whole; people simply did not stand up and make noise or draw attention to themselves. QG in its early form did exactly that, this complementary blend of East and West African, technical and creative, words and art. QG spelled a new direction for Ugandan advertising. To this day our reputation is built on creating global standard campaigns with local voices and many of the steadfast techniques used in adverts today began with Patrick and David. Having worked on everything from selling shoes in the early days, to an instrumental role in setting up MTN Uganda, to a Presidential campaign which turned heads the world over – QG may seem like they have seen and done it all. But like all creatives, we’re looking for the next big project.