Since its founding in 1988, WDO Member L’École de design Nantes Atlantique has put international development at the heart of its strategy, establishing schools in Shanghai, Delhi, Sao Paulo and Montreal. In 2017, at the request of the Government Innovation Agency SéMè City placed under the responsibility of the Presidency of Benin, Nantes Atlantique Design School began working to establish a design school in Benin – the first of its kind for West Africa.

The project involved creating a design school that could support African students in the fields of digital learning and design creation. Design and digital learning are not academic disciplines in Benin – there are no design universities, nor training of excellence, despite the fact that the country has a 4G network.

The possibilities are immense in terms of economic and social development, this same development which beyond Benin concerns all the countries of the world for the continent of the 21st century, taking into account demographic and socio-economic issues in particular.

“In 2017, I traveled to Benin to create a design school. There I meet entrepreneurs and creatives who realize that 4G gives them access to international markets. But there is no excellent training in digital and graphic design to adapt their production to the semantic codes of Western markets. Africa design School was born, on the continent of the 21st century. The economic and social issues go well beyond the issues of education and training. The question is how to educate african designers for Africa?” – Christian Guellerin, Executive director of L’Ecole de design Nantes Atlantique.

In 2017, Africa Design School was established, offering three Bachelor programmes in Digital Design, Graphics, Space Design. The first academic year took place in 2019, driven by a teaching team made up of Beninese professional speakers supervised by professors from the L’École de design Nantes Atlantique. In 2023, a Product Design programme and a Master of Strategic Design were introduced. Today, Africa Design School brings together 230 students, and is estimated to grow to 400 over the next three years.

In 2023, Africa design School welcomed 11 French students for 2 years as part of its Master’s programme. This is the first time that a cohort of European students have decided to complete a design programme in West Africa. Come September 2024, the school will also be launching an English-language programme to attract English speakers from the sub-region.

The school’s curriculum is based on interactions with the economic world. The projects are managed in partnership with African or foreign companies with a demonstrated commitment to innovation as part of their development process. All topics are discussed and addressed with axes linked to international markets and the generation of value added for the transformation of products from local Beninese agriculture.

Given the economic challenges of Benin and the sub-region as a whole, Africa Design School has also become a political project and has been visited by several global leaders, including the President of Benin Patrice Talon, French President Emmanuel Macron and President of Rwanda Paul Kagame.

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Africa Design School is a non-profit association managed by L’École de design Nantes Atlantique. The programme is supported by SéMè City, the international city of innovation and knowledge in Benin and by the French Embassy.

For more information, please contact Kefil Saka, President of Africa Design School at k.saka@africadesign.school.