Request for 2021 Data

The State
of Design

by Àșà

Deep dive into the data shaping Nigeria's design ecosystem.

Request for 2021 DataSee 2021 Highlights

Introduction

Created by Àṣà Coteriè, the State of Design is an open and collaborative resource for understanding the factors shaping the design ecosystem in Nigeria. It was started in 2020 just before the pandemic, unfortunately we had to pause and in mid 2021, we sent out the survey to several designers and design communities.
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A sincere Thank you to all those who responded!

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SECTION 1 OF 5

Who is Designing in Nigeria?

A broad view of the backgrounds of designers practicing in the field in Nigeria today.

Gender
Age
Location
Education
Experience
3 is to 1
According to this data, for every 3 Male designer there is 1 female designer.

Although this data is still small to be statistically significant, it is consistent with the reality of how the design ecosystem is distributed across genders.
Young & free
Nigeria's design ecosystem is relatively young and as shown by the data majority of it's active design communities are dominated by young designers predominately between the ages of 18-25 followed by 26-35.

More details in PDF report!
Lasgidi
Lagos (Lasgidi) is where majority of designers in Nigeria reside. It's considered as Nigeria's most industrial city as well as Africa's commercial and technology hub. Its  growing startup ecosystem is responsible for more than 80% of the jobs in tech for young people.
A Degree?
There has been a common theme as to whether degree's make a better designer or help in some way. Majority of the designers have a degree or at least were in college.

The full report dives into the correlation with their design careers and degrees.
.cdr vs .fig
While Nigeria's design ecosystem is not exactly new or so young, the ecosystem have not experienced the current high influx of new designers.

We now have more designers in the early years of their design careers.
SECTION 2 OF 5

Where are designers working?

Where are designers working? What kinds of design work and how they're getting it all done?

Company Type
Skills
Employment Type
Years at current Job
Company Size
Traditional
Nigeria is home to some of Africa's unicorn product-led companies but also has an established and strong presence of brand, marketing and advertising businesses which explains the spread of the type of companies where designers work.
UI/UX is King
UI/UX Design is gaining more prominence amongst designers. As more product companies exist the demand for UI/UX Designers continue to surge.

Earning potential is also indicative as a major contributing factor.
Full-lance!
When designers are not working full-time, they are freelancing across several projects. Some are their own bosses and run design business on their own. The divide is clear and others are either unemployed or students.
Please stay!
Is there a rapid drop-off rate of designers in full-time roles? Are freelancers and business owners staying longer at their own jobs?

Per our survey, majority of designers are yet to mark their first year job anniversary, while very few designers have marked up to 5 years at one job.
Early-stage
Majority of the designers are working in small or early-stage companies .
SECTION 3 OF 5

How much are designers earning?

A brief insight into how much compensation and the benefits designers in Nigeria are getting

Salary
Salary by Gender
Salary by Employment Type
Benefits
The money!
Most designers earn between N50 - 150k monthly with very few designers making 10x of that. This theme is common regardless of gender.
SECTION 4 OF 5

What are designers learning?

Insight into trends and topics  designers are interested in and how they are up-skilling.

Interests
Currently Learning
Learning Methods
Time spent
Who's Paying?
Are you a learner?
Designers spend up to 90hrs/week learning, although this is more prominent with designers who are entry levels. More advanced designers either as intermediates or seniors spend up to 10hrs a week learning.
SECTION 5 OF 5

Impact of design communities

How are Nigerian design communities impacting designers in their career?

Design Communities
Impact on Career
On Job Search

Explore more with survey data

The collected data is completely free and open to everyone to analyse and we hope that by doing so, a lot can be learned about Nigeria's design ecosystem and become a key reference point.

Share and tag us to your insights on Twitter @asacoterie with the hashtag #SoDbyAsa2021

Request for 2021 Data
All identifiable user data have been removed and the data is anonymous
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