Adetolani Eko

“Oh, so it’s like Shazam, but for art?” a friend asked after I spent the past two minutes explaining my latest project. It was a platform that could help art enthusiasts identify which artist made a painting and she had just explained it in 5 words; ‘Like Shazam, but for art’. This article is about why I started the project and also how I built the first version. Why? I’ve loved art all my life.

Preface: This is an attempt to document a talk that I gave at a Tech conference earlier this year. The talk with the same title seemed to resonate with a lot of people and some people who couldn’t attend asked if I could share the ‘slides’. The slides barely have any text in them so I’ve decided to try to compress parts of the talk into this article instead. You may not know me, but

Preface*: I spent 3 days with MBA students from 2 of the top 10 universities in the world. Our interactions were within a school environment and comprised of academic and social activities. This includes almost 8 hours of lecture time, 5 hours in parties, and multiple formal and informal interactions over 3 days. Below is a summary of what I uncovered.* “I have my suit packed” I texted my friend half joking, half serious. I