This Saturday the 19th of April 2025 the MADE event is coming to Ibadan, Nigeria. the MADE event is an event for experienced designers unpack the decisions behind their work, share real-life case studies, and explore how design directly drives business results. this edition is themed “Decision Designs and Business Impact” will happen at the Notzero Innovation Hub, Moṣọbalaje Building, adjacent Ace Mall, Akobo, Ibadan, Oyo, Nigeria. The convener, Malik Kolade features in this piece where he talks about the MADE event and what designers should expect.
What inspired the theme “Decision Designs and Business Impact” for this event?
Design Decision and Business Impact was carefully chosen to help designers find a way to track the impact of the designs they make. Design should be more than just putting shapes and text together, designer’s should be able to track if these shapes and texts have impact on the business. And if not they can reassess and improve on processes.
Can you tell us about some of the speakers or facilitators who will be attending the event and why they were chosen?
We have two case-study presentations from Senior Designers from Moniepoint Inc and Quattor Creatives. We have the likes of Dayo Okeowo, a brand designer with a decade of experience managing the entire design process — from conceptualization to delivery, and Fasasi Tariq, a senior product designer who has led design initiatives that balance usability with strategic business objectives at innovative companies such as SeamlessHR, Dot, Dojah, and Moniepoint. They have extensive experience on owning and managing design processes from start to finish.
However apart from these two, we have made it such that the DD&BI event is unlike any other design event where a bunch of “knowledge experts” come to talk to “newbies”. it is a community driven event for community members to share their stories. As such speakers are not determined yet, they are to be selected from the attendees on the day.
Why do you think it’s important to have this kind of conversation in Ibadan at this time?
I’d say this kind of community driven conversations are happening all around the world all the time, so we chose Ibadan for the first convergence solely because we are based in Ibadan and we believe we should have these kind of conversations in the city. So to us location is an important factor for the conversation, but it’s not really the center of it.
What kind of topics or sessions will be featured at the event?
As I have said this is to be a community driven event, and as such there may not be any crafted session topics per se. However some of the attendees will share their topics closer to the date.
Are you facilitating any long-term community or professional networks after the event?
I won’t say we are typically facilitating long-term community or professional networks because of the model we want to operate in. Of course, people can network after the event, but we are not particularly facilitating it.
Is this a one-time event or part of a larger initiative or series?
It’s part of a larger series of events for designers. For 2025, we have plans of hosting this conversation in 3 different cities in Nigeria. Ibadan being the first city, we also have Lagos and Abuja.
To register for the event visit Made in Ibadan – MADE. For more information about the MADE in Ibadan event call: +234 906 7821 146 or send an email: made@deardesigner.io
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