Eat Your Cake and Have It: Designing for the Global Audience

We want to be taken seriously by a global audience, and we often think that happens by removing the "localness," so to speak. We think we need to strip away the Nigerian in us to appeal to the world.

Let's Be Honest...

If you are a Nigerian brand catering to the global market, you have to ensure that your product is seen, recognized, and understood by that international audience.

However, this does not mean you should code-switch. It means that even while keeping the Nigerian core of the brand, you don’t have to splatter our green-white-green everywhere.

That at the end of the day, you just know that it’s Nigerian, and not because you switched to a Western brand identity.

How Do You Do That?

Keep the core.

That "core" can be anything. It can be symbols, it can be specific colors. It can be certain markers. It could even be in the brand tone.

There are definitely ways you can keep the core while appealing to the global audience.

For example, I was working on Aeris, an air purifier brand. There was something really remarkable about the logo. It was inspired by actual breeze blocks!

And do you know the funny thing?

All they might see is a beautiful, abstract mark. But for the rest of us that understand the context, we see that symbol. We recognize it.

And that's the soul.

"Inspiration Is Everywhere"

This is what Chukwu Adaeze Victoria would say back when she was doing Moonshot '25: Inspiration is everywhere.

You could find it in a door handle, a keyhole, cement blocks, a welcome mat, a tree, anything. You could even find it on your keyboard or on someone’s outfit.

Inspiration is everywhere; it just takes deep research. Or random side quests.

You Are What You Consume

I am a firm believer in the fact that you are what you consume. And it must not even be design-wise. If you want to be a really great designer, you have to be a really good student. You have to be able to study well. That will help you know where to look.

The Future

It's my goal for Nigerian design to stand out more because we have really talented designers. The only problem is that a lot of us start out confused.

When I started out, I had little to no inspiration, and I knew very little. As I was growing, I only saw Nigerian design a certain type of way. But as I continued to grow, I realized that you could actually just... do things.

I really hope that in the nearest future, Nigerian design will be seen as actual world-class work, something that the global audience wants to tap into.