Put experienced design leadership and fractional talent to work.
Access an embedded executive for a defined business outcome, or hire vetted fractional talent through the Network.
Make Design count
Africa's first design leadership infrastructure.
We are championing and building the structural and leadership systems required to make design drive revenue and operational value in African businesses.
Why we exist
Africa has design talent. The leadership infrastructure has not kept pace.
Companies struggle to find experienced design leadership.
Experienced designers have limited pathways into management and executive roles.
Knowledge about how to build and operate design functions remains fragmented.
The economic contribution of African design remains poorly documented.
Our ecosystem
One company, four connecting lines.
Practice
Put experienced design leadership inside companies.
Fractional Heads of Design, Design Directors, and CDO-level practitioners for defined business outcomes.
For companiesFractional Design Leadership
Academy
Develop designers who can lead beyond the craft.
Leadership education for designers moving into management and executive responsibility.
For designersLearning & certification
Network
Connect senior African talent to opportunities.
A vetted professional network for leadership, collaboration, community, and fractional work.
Join the networkPlatform & community
Research
Build the evidence behind the African design economy.
Research and intelligence for companies, practitioners, institutions, funders, and policymakers.
Explore researchEvidence & documentation
Grounded in the market
Design leadership experience across teams.
Find your place in the system
Different audiences enter Design Lever for different reasons.
Build leadership capability and access opportunity.
Develop beyond the craft, join a senior practitioner network, and find meaningful leadership work.
Understand and strengthen the design economy.
Use the evidence, partner on research, and help document design's contribution across Africa.
Help build Africa's design leadership infrastructure.
Work with Design Lever as a company, practitioner, educator, researcher, funder, or institutional partner.