[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
first I want to ask you here how many
people speak wolof so that’s the proof
that the world of rice is not Nigeria
[Applause]
I stopped I won’t talk about the role of
rice all the time so maybe a mess
another time so as you know creativity
in Africa is abundant you know there’s a
burden creativity and this is the
reality that we are consuming a large
quantity of product design in Europe and
made in China there is a very little
industry in Africa our industry is local
artisans making the same object over and
over again without industry it is hard
to practice industrial design design
existed in Africa long time ago even
before the colonisation and I will say
it doesn’t help when to French president
challenged our history and civilization
first Sarkozy in 2007 in Dakar he said
the tragedy of Africa is that the
African has not fully entered into
history that was in that observation
ten years later the president Makran
said that Africa has a civilizational
problem they should visit the African
section of the mad Museum in Europe or
the Kabbalah Museum in Paris to
reconsider we are all designer in Africa
I know this because I grew up in the car
I will talk a little bit about myself I
spent all my childhood drawing I don’t
remember a moment where I didn’t have a
pen and a paper
well when I was 15 I fell in love for
the first time and the father is this
year I didn’t made any drawings and then
she released me but the thing is my
parents saw that I was crazy I would
lock myself in my room with paper and a
super ball pen and I will tell myself
the story that I would then illustrate
it without knowing it I was forging the
main tool that will serve me letter as a
designer like Troy my first relationship
with design was with my mother in a
heavy day life she was a teacher but my
mother will draw a dress the
neighborhood tailor will make the dress
for her she creates her own
interpretation of this famous
traditional Senegalese boo boo if she
needed a table she would draw the table
and a carpenter will pick it for her and
I want to add this she will make the
best Senegalese National meal
called the J boo known as the ball of
rice
[Applause]
she she had all these tailors carpenters
metal workers at her collaborators so
what I meant is I grew up with her
design process and I think the design
process is really important in the for
the in the creation and and I think I
got a glance of it when I grew up next
to her but I didn’t know it was a design
I never imagined that I could be a
designer 20 years later and but we all
African we grew up in an environment
that force us to be creative in people
in Senegal people designed the object
they need inspired by catalog or you
know oh by the neighbor you want to copy
the address of your sister or your or
your cousin we even build our own home
in this fashion we I don’t know why but
we don’t like to hire architects it’s
not in our abbot and some actually
textural disaster but that’s another TED
talk
when I was 16 my parents sent me to
school in France this is where I
discovered that there was cool of design
and even in France and in that time in
1986 design was very new you know and so
I discovered that this design school
when I spoke to my father the first time
I told him you know I want to do design
you know he gave me a hard look you know
each day I don’t want to have a Rasta
man in my house
so up for our Africans fathers wasn’t
enough solid you know you know they
expected us to be a lawyer a counter you
know maybe an architect but you know the
relation they have is the architect but
you know I discovered that I could draw
motorcycle logos boats and even IRA even
iron designing an iron it could be a job
and that is how I entered the design
school even my father who didn’t know
what design world he came around
actually I remember the day after he
except I entered his room and his bed
was full of a book around design
magazine around design so I start my
career designing character know I was
young 24 years old
of course I was involved in the most
designing the most complex product in
the world I was living my childhood
dream by his time but I was I keep
equipped with much more than a ball pen
well I designed a few interior at
Renault and in 2001 just after the 9/11
my boss called me his name was
particular came out and asked me if I
want to go to New York I say why
nowadays a designer in New York her name
is IC BSL we hire her for work on a
project for real you know sometime you
know we’ll hire external firm design
firm to to have a different look and my
boss he told me and even my colleague
know you’re gonna love her she’s gonna
spend three months with her you’re gonna
finish this project with her and they
told her the same thing so
the first thing I know about this
Turkish woman is Turkish and it was that
she designed the most comfortable toilet
seat we say the loo here right in the
world
so actually would become my wife
[Applause]
and and and Papa you know at the
beginning you you know you have the
employee know you hide yourself you know
the date you send I don’t know if we
didn’t have SMS at this time you don’t
know so when she was pregnant with our
first daughter I resigned from Renault
they cry and my career took a different
directions then I thought I so I moved
to New York well in New York the project
I was working on was very different we
were doing some office system for Herman
Miller kitchenware for Target and also
some electric concept for Hewlett
Packard and but when I was designing her
after no I was mainly focused on the the
product itself of the object but it’s
really when I was in the States the
United States when I was not working
anymore for any company I started to put
the user at the center of my process
being my own boss came with an
unexpected benefit I no longer need to
ask someone else the permission to
follow my interest I was really
interested in my native Africa to see
what’s going on there so I started to go
back and forth and spend time more time
in the car and actually I was wondering
how my design experience who participate
in the Africa’s ed economic growth
so if design is to think of the user
I wonder who was thinking of the African
user when you look at Africa and you
look at the oldest number this is very I
want I don’t want to say tragic number
the specific number you know most of the
time they’re talking about the Africa
they will be the population will double
in in 2050 the population will be
you know there will be too much people
the mobility will be a problem so we
will have a lot of problems we have the
water problem
the drinkable water problem access to
electricity so we will be more but a lot
of our problem will be double so this is
one of the observation that I I was I
was I had but I am not the only one who
is interested and this is like a a
warning I will say we African I think we
are a goldmine of consumer and many
Western company are taking notes I mean
you know they say Oh Africa you know
well a good situation everybody is
watching at Earth you know Oh number one
you know but the Western company are
thinking differently say ok this is more
user so more consumer so which I think
that the designer we have an essential
role to play to transform this goldmine
to our advantage we are little bit
rebels you know in any of us we have a
little bit of weebles in us know a
little bit of Sankara you know and in
this revision we need partners like my
mother who got to know Taylor and
carpenters I first got to know local
artisan in these strips obviously at
first there were more social exchange
you know you get to know each other to
speak you know the family you know
there’s something that we call in Dhaka
Salah Malik when you ask you say hello
how are you as your father your mother
your
brother sheep the the house your son the
son of your son but what was interesting
there is if you work for in design
something for Western company you could
start less estas share that will take
you they will take like foyer to develop
a car will be three or two years
so what’s too long but what was
interesting in I mean what was
impressing for me in in Senegal so I
would sketch an idea in the morning and
and I will go to tuck them in the
afternoon and the next day they will
have a prototype you know something you
got ready so you can sit here you can
see I was doing a bench for Moroso
and you have to adapt also yourself to
certain condition when if in in America
you have 3d drawings and you can print
out the full size during their in the
car if you work with the artisan and
they they shop by the sidewalk you have
to do yourself we have to do the full
size drawing so I was really interested
know how of the this artisan what they
could do with the material they use the
value they literally literally held in
their hands and I will also impress by
the speed which they could make things
so everybody knows this kind of bottle I
say but in Africa design is not a luxury
it’s a necessity the more I worked with
this talented artisan the more I realize
design is an economic necessity as
African we were used to making things
with what we have
someone who want to sell peanut we lose
small water bottle for packaging if your
car light is broken you’ll tape a
plastic container people will refurbish
all the chair so I call this chair the
eternal chair with mattered that they
have the result are beautiful I mean I’m
seduced I found that when I walk I buy
the time also I didn’t mention this but
when I start going to Dhaka I went to
other country in Africa I started to
discover Africa booking offer so I worry
cause never been to Ghana but what’s who
are now so this is like a link between
all this country but the result is good
is beautiful the more difficulty you
have the more creative you are and I
learn like I learned to draw everything
with a ball pen because it’s the only
thing that helped I have that was my
only tool I think this is the African
spirit when we the constraint make us
more creative a designer in Africa will
create object that look like us
I’m not worried about it
what we need is for product and services
to be designed in Africa made in Africa
and consumed by Africans
and we could even export them this must
be our standard product that correspond
to our user their culture their ritual
and abbot on this picture here it’s my
family there is my two sister-in-law the
kids as a friends eating in the middle
there’s another woman who’s lady now but
she’s texting maybe on to what’s up
but this is how we live you know and how
we love too late because even when we
have you know a living room with very
nice sofa
I mean people we prefer to stay I mean
in Senegal I don’t know about the
Nigeria I prefer to say close to the
floor but design in Africa cannot be
only for the elite it cannot be summed
as African fabrics design in Orland or
exhibition of African design and by the
way I don’t really like the term African
design but this is for another talk our
role as designer in Africa is to design
a product that are practical beautiful
and inexpensive design in Africa equals
to economic value design can transform
garbage into sellable goods like this
taboo collection that I design and it’s
made in Senegal made with recycled
plastic called the taboo design concerns
from traditional know-how of artisan
into new original product to sell this
is a chair that we were doing for Moroso
a company based in in Italy
it can leapfrog the Industrial
Revolution and tap into the digital
revolution this picture was taken in
purchase on which is a Fab Lab in Dhaka
and Madhu here he create a CNC machine
from everything that he could have in in
that car he create a CNC machine also it
creates a 3d printing machine in Dhaka
in Senegal design can dress Beyonce I
don’t know if if you know silly Ravi can
but silly Arabic and she’s a fashion
designer from Senegal and she she did
the birth I mean a few months ago when
we saw Beyonce wearing her with outfit
that she designs this is silly so it can
dress Beyonce and it can dress the
beautiful woman of Dhaka like silicon it
can also inspire and connect people like
conference like design in dhaba in South
Africa and it can create and to just
people and these are just a few example
from my friends and myself there is so
much opportunity and so much to do well
frequently you know people they they ask
me okay what is the design reference for
you
30 years ago I will say oh a reference
for a good design was the big lighter
you know but later and with one movement
you know you you light the frame but for
me today it’s the Ipoh roller design
first but to South African men and
improve by a young designer called Emily
pilote on the designer France for from
our own borders
a good design about people I think you
know this product it was a product to
help the woman to go fetch the water by
the river and bring it back home a good
design empower people a year ago I I
join a project with idea with nine other
designer from Africa that was designer
from Kenya from from Senegal from Egypt
from Rwanda ivory cost a few of them and
some from South Africa so the goal is to
design a collection of product for IKEA
that will represent our culture and our
needs and this is what I call the
democratization of design but as you
know I will repeat this design is in our
DNA making things with this artisan is
also in our DNA as well what will happen
if we pull from our DNA the power to
create the industry that will generate
job by producing goods for us actually
how we’re going to empower the continent
I feel an urgency urgency to showcase
the resourcefulness of African as maker
and designer there is a creatives of
revolution on its way
growing in our mind we miss the
Industrial Revolution but we won’t miss
the creative revolution thank you very
much
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
first I want to ask you here how many
people speak wolof so that’s the proof
that the world of rice is not Nigeria
[Applause]
I stopped I won’t talk about the role of
rice all the time so maybe a mess
another time so as you know creativity
in Africa is abundant you know there’s a
burden creativity and this is the
reality that we are consuming a large
quantity of product design in Europe and
made in China there is a very little
industry in Africa our industry is local
artisans making the same object over and
over again without industry it is hard
to practice industrial design design
existed in Africa long time ago even
before the colonisation and I will say
it doesn’t help when to French president
challenged our history and civilization
first Sarkozy in 2007 in Dakar he said
the tragedy of Africa is that the
African has not fully entered into
history that was in that observation
ten years later the president Makran
said that Africa has a civilizational
problem they should visit the African
section of the mad Museum in Europe or
the Kabbalah Museum in Paris to
reconsider we are all designer in Africa
I know this because I grew up in the car
I will talk a little bit about myself I
spent all my childhood drawing I don’t
remember a moment where I didn’t have a
pen and a paper
well when I was 15 I fell in love for
the first time and the father is this
year I didn’t made any drawings and then
she released me but the thing is my
parents saw that I was crazy I would
lock myself in my room with paper and a
super ball pen and I will tell myself
the story that I would then illustrate
it without knowing it I was forging the
main tool that will serve me letter as a
designer like Troy my first relationship
with design was with my mother in a
heavy day life she was a teacher but my
mother will draw a dress the
neighborhood tailor will make the dress
for her she creates her own
interpretation of this famous
traditional Senegalese boo boo if she
needed a table she would draw the table
and a carpenter will pick it for her and
I want to add this she will make the
best Senegalese National meal
called the J boo known as the ball of
rice
[Applause]
she she had all these tailors carpenters
metal workers at her collaborators so
what I meant is I grew up with her
design process and I think the design
process is really important in the for
the in the creation and and I think I
got a glance of it when I grew up next
to her but I didn’t know it was a design
I never imagined that I could be a
designer 20 years later and but we all
African we grew up in an environment
that force us to be creative in people
in Senegal people designed the object
they need inspired by catalog or you
know oh by the neighbor you want to copy
the address of your sister or your or
your cousin we even build our own home
in this fashion we I don’t know why but
we don’t like to hire architects it’s
not in our abbot and some actually
textural disaster but that’s another TED
talk
when I was 16 my parents sent me to
school in France this is where I
discovered that there was cool of design
and even in France and in that time in
1986 design was very new you know and so
I discovered that this design school
when I spoke to my father the first time
I told him you know I want to do design
you know he gave me a hard look you know
each day I don’t want to have a Rasta
man in my house
so up for our Africans fathers wasn’t
enough solid you know you know they
expected us to be a lawyer a counter you
know maybe an architect but you know the
relation they have is the architect but
you know I discovered that I could draw
motorcycle logos boats and even IRA even
iron designing an iron it could be a job
and that is how I entered the design
school even my father who didn’t know
what design world he came around
actually I remember the day after he
except I entered his room and his bed
was full of a book around design
magazine around design so I start my
career designing character know I was
young 24 years old
of course I was involved in the most
designing the most complex product in
the world I was living my childhood
dream by his time but I was I keep
equipped with much more than a ball pen
well I designed a few interior at
Renault and in 2001 just after the 9/11
my boss called me his name was
particular came out and asked me if I
want to go to New York I say why
nowadays a designer in New York her name
is IC BSL we hire her for work on a
project for real you know sometime you
know we’ll hire external firm design
firm to to have a different look and my
boss he told me and even my colleague
know you’re gonna love her she’s gonna
spend three months with her you’re gonna
finish this project with her and they
told her the same thing so
the first thing I know about this
Turkish woman is Turkish and it was that
she designed the most comfortable toilet
seat we say the loo here right in the
world
so actually would become my wife
[Applause]
and and and Papa you know at the
beginning you you know you have the
employee know you hide yourself you know
the date you send I don’t know if we
didn’t have SMS at this time you don’t
know so when she was pregnant with our
first daughter I resigned from Renault
they cry and my career took a different
directions then I thought I so I moved
to New York well in New York the project
I was working on was very different we
were doing some office system for Herman
Miller kitchenware for Target and also
some electric concept for Hewlett
Packard and but when I was designing her
after no I was mainly focused on the the
product itself of the object but it’s
really when I was in the States the
United States when I was not working
anymore for any company I started to put
the user at the center of my process
being my own boss came with an
unexpected benefit I no longer need to
ask someone else the permission to
follow my interest I was really
interested in my native Africa to see
what’s going on there so I started to go
back and forth and spend time more time
in the car and actually I was wondering
how my design experience who participate
in the Africa’s ed economic growth
so if design is to think of the user
I wonder who was thinking of the African
user when you look at Africa and you
look at the oldest number this is very I
want I don’t want to say tragic number
the specific number you know most of the
time they’re talking about the Africa
they will be the population will double
in in 2050 the population will be
you know there will be too much people
the mobility will be a problem so we
will have a lot of problems we have the
water problem
the drinkable water problem access to
electricity so we will be more but a lot
of our problem will be double so this is
one of the observation that I I was I
was I had but I am not the only one who
is interested and this is like a a
warning I will say we African I think we
are a goldmine of consumer and many
Western company are taking notes I mean
you know they say Oh Africa you know
well a good situation everybody is
watching at Earth you know Oh number one
you know but the Western company are
thinking differently say ok this is more
user so more consumer so which I think
that the designer we have an essential
role to play to transform this goldmine
to our advantage we are little bit
rebels you know in any of us we have a
little bit of weebles in us know a
little bit of Sankara you know and in
this revision we need partners like my
mother who got to know Taylor and
carpenters I first got to know local
artisan in these strips obviously at
first there were more social exchange
you know you get to know each other to
speak you know the family you know
there’s something that we call in Dhaka
Salah Malik when you ask you say hello
how are you as your father your mother
your
brother sheep the the house your son the
son of your son but what was interesting
there is if you work for in design
something for Western company you could
start less estas share that will take
you they will take like foyer to develop
a car will be three or two years
so what’s too long but what was
interesting in I mean what was
impressing for me in in Senegal so I
would sketch an idea in the morning and
and I will go to tuck them in the
afternoon and the next day they will
have a prototype you know something you
got ready so you can sit here you can
see I was doing a bench for Moroso
and you have to adapt also yourself to
certain condition when if in in America
you have 3d drawings and you can print
out the full size during their in the
car if you work with the artisan and
they they shop by the sidewalk you have
to do yourself we have to do the full
size drawing so I was really interested
know how of the this artisan what they
could do with the material they use the
value they literally literally held in
their hands and I will also impress by
the speed which they could make things
so everybody knows this kind of bottle I
say but in Africa design is not a luxury
it’s a necessity the more I worked with
this talented artisan the more I realize
design is an economic necessity as
African we were used to making things
with what we have
someone who want to sell peanut we lose
small water bottle for packaging if your
car light is broken you’ll tape a
plastic container people will refurbish
all the chair so I call this chair the
eternal chair with mattered that they
have the result are beautiful I mean I’m
seduced I found that when I walk I buy
the time also I didn’t mention this but
when I start going to Dhaka I went to
other country in Africa I started to
discover Africa booking offer so I worry
cause never been to Ghana but what’s who
are now so this is like a link between
all this country but the result is good
is beautiful the more difficulty you
have the more creative you are and I
learn like I learned to draw everything
with a ball pen because it’s the only
thing that helped I have that was my
only tool I think this is the African
spirit when we the constraint make us
more creative a designer in Africa will
create object that look like us
I’m not worried about it
what we need is for product and services
to be designed in Africa made in Africa
and consumed by Africans
and we could even export them this must
be our standard product that correspond
to our user their culture their ritual
and abbot on this picture here it’s my
family there is my two sister-in-law the
kids as a friends eating in the middle
there’s another woman who’s lady now but
she’s texting maybe on to what’s up
but this is how we live you know and how
we love too late because even when we
have you know a living room with very
nice sofa
I mean people we prefer to stay I mean
in Senegal I don’t know about the
Nigeria I prefer to say close to the
floor but design in Africa cannot be
only for the elite it cannot be summed
as African fabrics design in Orland or
exhibition of African design and by the
way I don’t really like the term African
design but this is for another talk our
role as designer in Africa is to design
a product that are practical beautiful
and inexpensive design in Africa equals
to economic value design can transform
garbage into sellable goods like this
taboo collection that I design and it’s
made in Senegal made with recycled
plastic called the taboo design concerns
from traditional know-how of artisan
into new original product to sell this
is a chair that we were doing for Moroso
a company based in in Italy
it can leapfrog the Industrial
Revolution and tap into the digital
revolution this picture was taken in
purchase on which is a Fab Lab in Dhaka
and Madhu here he create a CNC machine
from everything that he could have in in
that car he create a CNC machine also it
creates a 3d printing machine in Dhaka
in Senegal design can dress Beyonce I
don’t know if if you know silly Ravi can
but silly Arabic and she’s a fashion
designer from Senegal and she she did
the birth I mean a few months ago when
we saw Beyonce wearing her with outfit
that she designs this is silly so it can
dress Beyonce and it can dress the
beautiful woman of Dhaka like silicon it
can also inspire and connect people like
conference like design in dhaba in South
Africa and it can create and to just
people and these are just a few example
from my friends and myself there is so
much opportunity and so much to do well
frequently you know people they they ask
me okay what is the design reference for
you
30 years ago I will say oh a reference
for a good design was the big lighter
you know but later and with one movement
you know you you light the frame but for
me today it’s the Ipoh roller design
first but to South African men and
improve by a young designer called Emily
pilote on the designer France for from
our own borders
a good design about people I think you
know this product it was a product to
help the woman to go fetch the water by
the river and bring it back home a good
design empower people a year ago I I
join a project with idea with nine other
designer from Africa that was designer
from Kenya from from Senegal from Egypt
from Rwanda ivory cost a few of them and
some from South Africa so the goal is to
design a collection of product for IKEA
that will represent our culture and our
needs and this is what I call the
democratization of design but as you
know I will repeat this design is in our
DNA making things with this artisan is
also in our DNA as well what will happen
if we pull from our DNA the power to
create the industry that will generate
job by producing goods for us actually
how we’re going to empower the continent
I feel an urgency urgency to showcase
the resourcefulness of African as maker
and designer there is a creatives of
revolution on its way
growing in our mind we miss the
Industrial Revolution but we won’t miss
the creative revolution thank you very
much
[Applause]
[Music]
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