Behind The Design: MAKAʻALA

Creative Natives HI
Nov 19, 2020
2 min read

Makaʻala (nvt.) - Alert, vigilant, watchful, wide awake; to attend to vigilantly.

Makaʻala, to be aware, is a Hawaiian word that best describes this visual art piece. When I had originally thought this piece out, I drew inspiration from my meditative visualizations where I would imagine my soul leave my body from where ever I am and ascend upward until my vision became that of a star looking down toward a small world.

The design to the right ended up being used as the logo for my previous stage name and prototype stickers, but as time went on, I changed my stage name and reinvented the meaning behind the design and the whole design itself. Over the development of this concept, I have gone through drastic life changes and discovered newfound revelations. All of which have added to the significance behind each component. The aforementioned inspiration still holds true as the foundation for this design, but as I progress through this life, my roots grow stronger and my eye opens wider.

MAKAʻALA was a lesson instilled in me (and many others) from Uncle Dean Wilhelm while working at Hoʻokuaʻāina. Operating as a large scale loʻi kalo (taro patch), they "build lives from the ground up." Makaʻala consists of two Hawaiian words:

MAKA (eye) + ALA (awake)

There were no English words I could think of that best embodied this design, so I chose a word in a language that holds multiple meanings. This is where the beauty of ʻŌleleo Hawaiʻi lies; in the poetic depth behind each definition or as it is said mā ka ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, kaona.

The kaona behind Makaʻala 2.0