How I want to help young African designers?
Hello, fellow Shinobi. I am Ralph, a product designer at Trellix. I also happen to teach UX/UI design at Africa Design School in Cotonou. As you may have guessed, I am passionate about design, especially graphic design and product design. I started my design career in an agency where I had the opportunity to collaborate with many designers ranging from junior to senior levels. I particularly enjoy working with young designers because they are full of energy, creativity, and motivation. They are always eager to try the latest trends and do not fear experimentation. The downside is the local industry does not have enough seniors from which juniors can learn from. Therefore, this slows the growth of talents in the industry.
Being someone who seeks change and is looking forward to seeing more young talents succeed in the design field, I have decided to do my bits. So I have been thinking about organizing a series of challenges for young designers to participate and win a prize. The objective is not to win a prize but to learn new concepts and improve your skills while having fun. Unfortunately, I have been delaying this project for over a year now due to a lack of time. But thanks to the supports I received from some of my colleagues at Trellix, I am now able to make this a reality.
So this is the first edition of the Shinobi Design Challenge. Since this is the first version, I am not expecting it to be perfect, and I am open to feedback and new ideas. So here is my first idea of how this is going to work out:
- Anyone is welcomed to participate.
- Each challenge will be based on a theme.
- There will be a prize with a value of at least 50.000 F FCA for the winner.
- Tasks given would not take more than 2 hours for an experienced designer to complete.
- Quality feedback will be given to the top 5 participants.
The first edition is scheduled for September 9th, 2021. If you are interested, fill this form. If you like to chat about this or contribute, do not hesitate to message me on Twitter.
The details of the challenge are available in this blog post: What is the Shinobi Design Challenge?
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