The Creative team — day 2
I remember the first day I visited Ideo.com and frogdesign.com about 5 years ago. I cried tears of joy in my heart as I finally saw the career path that spoke to me directly. I loved all what I saw on the platforms.
For those who are not familiar with the above mentioned websites, kindly go through them……I will like to know your thoughts.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Are you done?
If yes, did you get excited and feel the need to be doing something similar with your life?
Well, as for me, I saw myself building something like it. But first, I needed to be a complete designer equipped with the important skillsets and tools. As usual, I was obsessed with the idea of building a company like it but not working on something like it. This was the first mistake I made.
Out of my desire to build the next Ideo or Frogdesign of Nigeria, I formed a company called Strawz Innovations Limited in 2015. The company was meant to create basic ideas that should solve many problems around Nigeria’s welfare. We started on a good note, but lost focus along the line and things came crashing (a story for another day). The basic thing we lacked was The right team.
THE WRONG TEAM
We were made up of a visual designer, business developer, content developers, lawyer, architect and programmer when we started. There was no one with knowledge on product design and strategy which is meant to be the basic skill set required for such a company. We were initially meant to do trainings on ideou.com and other related platforms, but we were not financially strong to afford them. We didn’t end up placing it as a priority as we were working on projects we felt were more important than learning. This made the team implode as we couldn’t successfully build the products we were working on and there were no resources to sustain the team.
THE TURNING POINT
After things were beginning to look difficult, I resulted to taking free classes and tutorials on youtube, linkedin, udacity, edx, coursera, where I learnt the principles and application around design thinking and product design. I began to sell myself as a DESIGNER rather than an architect, and I began working on digital products. This revival series I am writing promises to capture the process in which I am going to take in finishing my (dream) creative projects which have been abandoned or yet to be opened. With that in mind, I am starting afresh with a new team learning from all the mistakes I have made in the past.
THE RIGHT TEAM
Design to me, is the reason for my existence. Creating beauty out of nothing and touching lives happily with products and services you and I design and build is what we want to dedicate the whole of our lives doing. There are millions of ideas we dream of that can shape our future and better our existence. You and I want to own the future with the ideas that we (help) build. I am currently looking for people who want to own this future as much as I do if not more; because we got a **** load of work to do for mankind!
If you know my story resonates with yours, please be part of my team in the following ways:
Visual designer
- Understands Fonts, logos, colour, call to action, iconography, animation, transitions and images which all contribute to making a product look or feel great.
- Create prototype Sketch, models, samples and test solution with users.
- Experience designing video and motion graphics with tools such as Flash or Adobe After Effects.
Market research analyst
(If you own a camera, you know how to use it well, you are passionate about documenting stories on product or individuals, and you are willing to be part of this team, join us).
- Skills in Camera and Video recording
- Skills in user research
- asking open questions
- running user testing sessions
- should have interacted with so many products and services
- Data analytics — a data layer structure to ask right questions about product performance for the purpose of:
- knowing if changes are having positive effect on a product
- developing proper solution
Electrical/Mechanical engineer/
- skills in constructing products by understanding the mechanics behind them and how they can work
- Great understanding of materials for product construction.
Architect
- Passionate about interior spaces and living design.
- willing to design spaces that enable flexible interaction
Product designer
- Creative project initiators who conceive concepts for projects and products.
- produce sketches and detailed designs of products
As time goes on, we will be in need of several experts in different fields who come in time to time as we embark on various projects. From craftsmen, fashion designers, doctors to financial strategists, painters and programmers. Just indicate your interest to be part of the community. Everyone plays a role in design.
TEAM ACTIVITIES
This is not a salary based commitment, but rather a team partnership for ONE goal — Creating life changing products. We all shall benefit EQUALLY from the products/services we create and sell including giving you the freedom to create whatever you want with the flexibility you desire. We shall ideate together, build together, LEARN together and have fun times together.
What you shall be part of is one that gives dreamers like you and I an opportunity to touch lives through design.
We shall be the Strawz from which the world shall use to sip comfort and satisfaction into their lives.
If you love design and are passionate about design thinking, come and join us as a STRAWZ innovator.
Some of the projects we will be working on are:
- Affordable Classrooms: we will be designing cheap and affordable classrooms for areas faced with crisis and poor education environment, using the North as a case study. We focus on the the building, tables, seats and basic facilities to make education easily accessible in these regions.
- Traffic Wardens (Work Is Fun): We pay close attention to the welfare of traffic wardens in the busy districts of Lagos and see how we can design and improve their performances through the tools, station post and uniforms they use.
- Modern market stands: For those who can’t afford a spot in a big shopping mall, we shall focus on designing conducive and functional market stands and play around market square concepts that will promote neat environment and bring pride to the face of petty traders — market women and men.
- Filling station without an attendant: We will be “attempting” to design a filling station without an attendant for Nigerians. We shall be exploring the benefits to Nigerians.
- Fashion sketch book: We seek to help the fashion industry grow more in Nigeria by designing tools that can improve their designs for clients with intuitive sketch books.
- ilagos — You just have to be part of the team to know about this mind blowing project targeted for urban settlements.
Send an email to
if you are interested in being part of the team or the community. Indicate your interest, and be sure we take it from there.
