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Artmosphere5.0 Speakers

Talks

Panelists - How Ghanaians consume design & how their culture influences creative decision-making.

Panelists - Formal Design Education in Ghana and how it fits into our current cultural landscape

Panel Discussion & Fireside Chat Moderators

Hosts

Past Speakers & Presenters

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Speaker

Cultural Barriers and its reflection on Gender Gap

Thousands of African designers, both male and female are working hard to make their mark in the industry. However, there are still some cultural barriers that are holding some of these designers back from achieving their full potential. Are there cultural barriers that reflect in the low numbers of women who work as designers or work in design-related fields?

In this presentation, we will try to understand if there is indeed a gender gap we need to worry about. In order to act, we need to understand why it exists and what can be done about it. What role should the women already in the industry play?

About Sharon Mills

Sharon is a versatile creative communications professional with certified skills and a wealth of experience in creative services management, creative strategy, brand management, copywriting, advertising production and graphic design. Since 2005, Sharon has worked in various teams in some of the notable ad agencies in Ghana including Origin 8 Saatchi & Saatchi, ZK Advertising and Publicis West Africa, with award winning work to show for. Some of the brands & clients that have indulged her expertise through the agencies she worked with and some directly, include Spacefon, Areeba, MTN, Databank, Nestle, Amalbank, GSMF, MET Insurance, SG-SSB, Gold Field’s LCA Ghana, CLUB Beer, CalBank, Zain, Tigo, Vodafone, Rlg, Beta Malt, Inesfly, Voltic, Venture Capital, Tasty Tom, Shell and CalBank.

As a seasoned creative professional, Sharon works in diverse ways to see to the result of truly compelling campaigns and illustrious projects that deliver on promise. Sharon is the Lead Creative Consultant at award winning SMC Consulting where she partners with clients and agencies, managing the creative affairs of some of Ghana’s biggest brands as well as emerging ones. Sharon lends some of her time to help nurture young creatives through speaking and training engagements with the goal of shaping the next generation for work in the creative industry. She also builds and facilitates training programs for corporates and individuals, through the virtual SMC Creative Academy, to empower anyone to reach their creative potential. Sharon likes to describe herself as “a Creative Director and Creative Consultant; a copywriter by passion, a designer by degree, a producer by practice and trainer on purpose”.

Sharon is determined to pioneer a creative consulting culture in Ghana that elevates the creative quality of brand communications and like-projects which Africa and the rest of the world will celebrate. With her interest in education, she has the honour of being a member of the Board of Governors of Ridge Church School, a premier private school in Accra and a member of the board of trustees of the Achimota School Endowment Trust Fund; she is a proud alumnus of both schools. Sharon holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication Design from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and is a member of the 2022 graduating class of Masters in Marketing Strategy from the University of Ghana Business School.

Sharon is a Ghanaian and lives in the capital city, Accra. She is a Christian and loves to share her faith at every opportunity. Sharon would say among other things, that she is a sneakerhead, a foodie, a sports fan and enjoys Twitter as her go-to drug of social media.

Speaker

Designing Products for the African

Designing products that are a perfect fit for the African user is not a simple task. It requires a lot of research, insight and understanding of what is needed. The main factor to consider when designing for the African market is the culture.

The culture plays a big role in how people live their lives, what they do and how they interact with others. When designing products for the African market, it’s important to understand that user experience isn’t just about what you can see. It’s also about what you can’t see—the things that might be different because of where you are or who you are. This presentation will highlight what to look out for when designing products for an African.

About Dela Kumahor

Dela A. Kumahor has close to two decades of experience practicing, learning, teaching and mentoring user-centred design processes in contexts as diverse as luxury furniture-making in Italy to smallholder farming in Ghana. He began his career as a Web Developer and Designer, incorporating Graphic Design and Branding into his core skillset. His passion for Design – treated holistically and technically as a problem-solving pursuit – soon extended to further studies and practice in Product and Service Design. Necessitated by the need to understand customers more deeply, this in turn lead to extensive work in UX Research and Human-Centered Design. He now brings this catalog of skills to bear on the strategic areas of Customer Experience and Product Development.

In recent years, Dela has consulted for a variety of clients including Vodafone Ghana, MTN Ghana, PEG Solar, Star Oil, The Chocolonely Foundation, Fido Micro Credit, Petra Trust and TV3, and has served as the Head of Customer Experience and Digital Services at miLife Insurance. As an educator, he has spoken and run workshops on Design Thinking and design for inclusion, and is a former Lecturer at Ashesi University where he taught Design, e-Commerce and Human Computer Interaction.

Dela was most recently helping to build the next generation of agritech products across 7 countries in Africa and Asia by leading and coaching Product Design for the GSMA AgriTech Innovation Fund. He is currently building the future of energy access and electric mobility in Africa as the VIce President of Product Development at Kofa Technologies.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science (concentration in Digital Media Design) from the University of Pennsylvania in the USA and a Master’s in Product-Service Systems Design from the Politecnico di Milano in Italy.

Panelist

How Ghanaians consume design & how their culture influences creative decision-making.

Ghanaians consume and respond to designs in ways that are unique to their culture. What does this mean? It means that if you’re trying to reach Ghanaian consumers, you need to understand that your brand needs to be much more than just aesthetically pleasing—it needs to speak to them on a level that fit into their lifestyles. In this discussion, we will attempt to address points like; How do Ghanaians consume design? Who influences the creative ‘value chain’? Creators or consumers How has the internet contributed to the cultural lines and how has this affected the way we consume content? What drives creatives and agencies to produce the work they do and what are the challenges they face.

About Frances Quarcoopome

Over the last 10 years, Frances Quarcoopome has built JamJar Company Limited, a creative solutions company. JamJar focuses on corporate and creative events and project management on the African continent.

JamJar’s clients include Fortune 500 companies such as Meta (formerly Facebook), Diageo, Alibaba, NFL, SWIFT and the World Economic Forum, to name a few. We have executed projects in 12 countries across the continent and continue to expand.

In 2021, we decided that it was time to pivot to tech to enhance our value proposition. Hence, we have raised private equity funding from a tech fund so that we can develop tech products that will significantly impact the creative and hospitality industry.

In addition to building a company, Frances started a podcast in 2020 after realizing there were very few stories like hers that were being captured on the African continent. The Palaver Podcast aims to capture stories of African creatives and amplify their stories wherever they may be in the world. The first season ended in February of this year. It is a project close to my heart.

Being based on the continent, her goal is to continue to use JamJar as a vehicle for innovation, changing the perception of women entrepreneurs and use projects like the Palaver Podcast to inspire people across Africa. Ultimately, leading to a change in the perceptions of Africa as a continent.

Artmosphere5.0 Speakers

Talks

Panelists - How Ghanaians consume design & how their culture influences creative decision-making.

Panelists - Formal Design Education in Ghana and how it fits into our current cultural landscape

Panel Discussion & Fireside Chat Moderators

Joana A. P. Chemel

Eldad Nutakor

Hosts

Yaw Bossman

Norkor Nortey

Past Speakers & Presenters

Become a Conference Partner

Get Updates From Us

Cultural Barriers and its reflection on Gender Gap

About Sharon Mills

Creators, Clients & Consumers; Where is the balance?

About Aaron Yeboah Junior

Designing Products for the African

About Dela Kumahor

Why Africa needs design more than ever

About Dela Avemega

Finding your identity as an African designer.

About Nana Adwoa Sey

Laying down the right cultural foundation for early designers

About Sydney Scott Sam

How Ghanaians consume design & how their culture influences creative decision-making.

About Muhammida El Muhajir

How Ghanaians consume design & how their culture influences creative decision-making.

About Henry Mawuli Adobor

How Ghanaians consume design & how their culture influences creative decision-making.

About Frances Quarcoopome

Formal Design Education in Ghana and how it fits into our current cultural landscape

About Yeayi Kobbina

Formal Design Education in Ghana and how it fits into our current cultural landscape

About Farah Abdul Wahab

Formal Design Education in Ghana and how it fits into our current cultural landscape

About Paul Ninson

Formal Design Education in Ghana and how it fits into our current cultural landscape

About James Baduor