Are you ready for Design Week Lagos 2025?
Design Week Lagos (DWL) is a major annual design festival in Lagos, Nigeria. It’s one of the leading creative events in Africa, celebrating design, innovation, craftsmanship, and the creative industries.
Purpose & Vision
DWL exists to champion African design—to uplift local creators (from architects to product designers), encourage innovation, and show what “Made in Nigeria” (and Africa broadly) can be.
It aims to combine heritage, identity, and technical industrial capacity.
Scale & Scope
It’s a city-wide celebration. Rather than being only one show or exhibition, DWL includes multiple flagship events plus dozens of partner events across Lagos: studio tours, gallery shows, restaurant activations, school showcases, showrooms, etc.
Key Components: Flagship Events
For 2025, some of the main features of DWL include:
Design & Innovation Exhibition
This is a core exhibition showcasing products, furniture, and industrial design. The 2025 theme is “Building a Made in Nigeria Brand.” It’s about taking designs from concept toward production, focusing on innovation, materials, manufacturing, etc.
IDEA Awards
A design awards component.
Made by Design Show
A marketplace fair for designers to show their works.
Students Competition
Opportunities for up-and-coming design students to present and compete.
DWL Talks
Discussion panels, speaker events, roundtables to deliberate on design thinking, future directions, innovation, etc.
Citywide Partner Events
As above—besides the central events, many dispersed events like studio tours, galleries, institutional programs, restaurant activations, and more.
Upcoming / 2025 Edition
Here are some specifics for DWL 2025:
Dates: 23‒28 October 2025.
Main Venue: The Game, The Palms Shopping Mall, 1 Bisway Street, Maroko, Lekki, Lagos. All five headline/flagship events are held there.
Theme Highlight: In the Design & Innovation Exhibition, the theme is “Building a Made in Nigeria Brand.”
Partners: Collaboration with Ecobank Nigeria and the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Tourism & Creative Economy.
Global Reach Media: DWL has a partnership with Dezeen to help amplify the visibility of the event and designers showcased to broader international audiences.
Significance & Impact
Economic & Industrial: The event is not just an art/design showcase—it is tied into manufacturing, innovation, and positioning Nigeria in global design markets. It seeks to bridge designers and manufacturers.
Creativity & Heritage: There’s an emphasis on materials, identity, and culture—producing works that reflect Nigerian African heritage but are globally competitive.
Support for Emerging Designers: Through student competitions, awards, and competitive exhibitions, DWL helps upcoming designers get exposure, network, and sometimes funding. E.g., the “Design Den” (where designers might pitch to investors), etc.
To know more, check
🔗Website:
https://designweeklagos.com
You may also like the following events from RYB Nigeria:
Also check out other
Arts events in Lagos,
Exhibitions in Lagos,
Festivals in Lagos.
