DISCOVERING THE LAGOS MAKERS’ COMMUNITY
By: Edogun Osas
Tags: 3D Printing, Makers, Creative, Design Thinking, Design Thinking Culture

DISCOVERING THE LAGOS MAKERS’ COMMUNITY

Hi there, I’m Osas and this is my first blog. I was an intern at Made Culture, a design consultancy that is equipping Africans with context-specific tools that enable them to work smarter and live better. Prior to this internship, I was a freelance graphic designer and photographer, and I also created packaging boxes for a perfuming company based in Lagos. Upon joining Made Culture, my first project was focused on the Makers Community in Nigeria which I was unknowingly a part of.

I was privileged to participate in a series of three meetups for makers in Lagos which was recently concluded. The program was themed “The Ecosystem Meet-Up Series”, and was facilitated by Made Culture in collaboration with Co-Creation Hub and GIZ, MakeIT-Africa.

The first meetup took place at the Co-creation Hub in Yaba where I heard about the makers’ community for the first time and, met a bunch of manufacturers, product designers, architects, and other creative practitioners at the workshop. Initially, I was nervous, until I participated in the first group exercise which was an ice breaker. I realized the effectiveness of this methodology utilized by Made Culture in getting people to open up which made me able to share my opinion more freely.

Image 1. Cross-section of the Ice Breaker exercise.

Technologies like the CNC machine, laser cutters, and 3D printers have paved the way for more innovative methods of designing and manufacturing products. I was particularly inspired by Tosin Oshinowo and Funfere Koroye’s presentations. Tosin is an architect and the founder of Ile-Ila, a conservative furniture company, and Funfere is a product designer, whose products are designed specifically to solve problems in Africa.

Image 2. OMI Water Filter designed by Funfere Koroye.

The 2nd meetup which took place at the GE Lagos Garage in Victoria Island, it was a combination of the GE Lagos Garage tour and a crash course on design thinking. The host for the workshop was Demilade Adesiyan, an Associate Program Manager at GE Lagos Garage. I learned that Form, Function, Aesthetics and Manufacturing ability of a product are the four major pillars of product design. I saw a shoe mold that was carved out of wood with a CNC machine. I also saw a CNC machine, a laser cutter and 3D printers which is my favorite. I witnessed the machine print in action. The tour of GE Lagos Garage is my best excursion so far.

Image 3. 3D printers Image 4. CNC machine

Image 5. Wooden shoe mold.

Image 6. CNC machine created in GE garage

The principal director of Made Culture, Malaika Toyo, facilitated the second phase of meetup 2 and she gave a crash course on design thinking process. I learned that the process for human-centered design thinking is to first “empathize” — it is important to understand how the users’ really feel, the next step is to “define” the users’ needs. The third step is “ideate” — brainstorming and developing many ideas, followed by the “prototype” and finally “testing” the proposed solutions again and again in order to develop sustainable design-led solutions. I was engaged in a human-centered design thinking exercise, we were grouped in pairs and it concluded with us designing what we deduced as the ideal wallet for our partners.

Image 7 & 8. Scenes from meetup 2

The third and final meetup was integral to the Ecosystem meetup series. Understanding the human-centered design thinking process and using this process to develop ideas is very good, however, these ideas won’t fund themselves, right? So it equally is important for product designers, service providers and entrepreneurs to be able to pitch their ideas properly. I learned that a good pitch is concise, the elements of a well-developed pitch includes a “real problem” the ideas solve, a target audience, a solution to the identified problem, how it works, its market opportunity and its traction. The Executive Secretary of Lagos State Employment Trust Funds (LSETF) Mr. Akin Oyebode and the Group Head, Micro Enterprises of BOI Mrs. Uloma Ike spoke to us on how business owners and entrepreneurs can acquire financial assistance from the government and the Bank of Industry. Demilade represented GE Lagos Garage at the meetup and spoke about the incubation programs conducted by their organization. I have attached all useful links at the bottom of this page.

Image 9 & 10. Prototypes displayed at meetup 3.

I would like to wrap up with a quote from Damilola Teidi, Director of Incubation, Cc Hub. “A healthy mentor-mentee relationship is essential for personal development and the general growth of the community”. It’s been a very insightful experience learning about the makers’ community and the human-centered design process. I have found a mentor in my boss and the founder of Made Culture, Malaika Toyo. She is hardworking and charismatic, she is a good teacher and very fun to be around. Working for Made Culture has helped me on my path to self-discovery.

For mentorship and incubation programs visit:

gelagosgarage.com

lagosinnovate.com or lsetf.ng

vc4a.com/mentors

Find out more about Made Culture!

W: www.madeculture.co

IG:@madeculture_co

T: @madeculture_co