Bolutife Awakan
Founder & Principal
Nigeria, UK
The thesis
Design is undervalued everywhere, but Africa pays the highest price.
Africa has more than 1.35 million designers, but too few structured routes from senior practice into design leadership. Companies build design teams without the leadership systems that make the investment perform, while experienced practitioners face a narrower path to executive responsibility.
Design Lever builds that missing layer in companies through leadership education, across a professional network, backed by open research. We make design count.
How Design Lever works
One company, built around the same problem.
01
Fractional Design Leadership
Build executive design capability inside companies.
02
Academy
Develop practitioners for design leadership.
03
Network
Connect experienced design leaders to peers and fractional opportunities.
04
Research
Document what the market, companies and practitioners teach us.
What we will not compromise
Three principles we will not trade away.
01
Rigor
We hold the standard when it costs us.
02
Truth
We make claims we can prove.
03
Service
We share what we learn.
Origin
Our story.
Origin coordinates
London → Lagos
Dreamt in London, birthed in Lagos.
The idea took shape while Bolutife Awakan was studying design leadership in London and reflecting on years spent building brands, teams and design functions across different markets. The pattern was consistent: strong designers were everywhere, but the structures that helped them become stronger leaders were not.
Design Lever was built in Lagos to close that gap in practice. First through companies, then through leadership education, professional networks and the evidence produced along the way. What started as a question about better design careers became a company built around better design leadership.
The team
Build the design leadership layer African businesses runs on.
We hire people who have done the work, not people who only talk about it. A small team, senior standards and documented methods.
Kachi Kalu
Head, Partnerships
Nigeria
Emmanuel Michael
Head, Strategy
Nigeria
Tolulope Adeoye
Head, Operations
Nigeria
Advisors
Victor Fatanmi
CEO, FourthCanvas
Nigeria
Paul Otu
Group Head of Design, Interswitch
Nigeria
Cat Drew
CDO, Design Council
United Kingdom
Paul Wright
Head of Strategy, Uber EMEA
United Kingdom
Design leadership as national economic infrastructure.
Partner with us to build stronger design leadership across companies, careers and the wider ecosystem.
Partner with usFAQs
About Design Lever, answered.
What does Design Lever actually do?+
We build design leadership infrastructure across four lines: an embedded fractional CDO practice, an academy that certifies leaders, a network that places them, and open research that proves the case.
Is this a consultancy?+
No. Consultancies advise and leave you dependent. We build systems, document them, and hand over infrastructure the organisation sustains on its own.
Where are you based?+
Lagos, Nigeria, built here, for the continent, and expanding pan-African.
Who does Design Lever work with?+
We work with companies building stronger design capability, practitioners developing into leaders, and institutions strengthening the wider design ecosystem across Africa and the diaspora.
How do I start working with you?+
Most companies begin with a free Design Team Health Assessment; practitioners start with the Academy or the Network. Every path opens from the diagnostic.