The Africa International Design Awards brought their first edition to a close on 24 and 25 July in Cotonou, Benin, with a full day of conferences at Sèmè One followed by the awards ceremony at the Sofitel Cotonou Marina Hotel & Spa. Run by 3C Awards Group, the two days welcomed the 2026 winners and the jury members, as well as partners, students and design professionals from across the continent and beyond.
The first edition was considered a success, and the next one is already widely awaited, as, after all, it drew around 300 submissions from 40 countries (24 of them African) and was judged by an international jury of 41 members representing 18 nationalities.
A morning of discussions at Sèmè One
Friday opened at 10 am at Sèmè One, the first campus of Sèmè City on Rue 364, a building in central Cotonou that houses several training programmes, with the Africa Design School being one of them. After a short welcome, Bibi Seck, founder of Birsel + Seck and head of the AIDA Awards jury, gave the opening keynote, “The Power of Craft: Where Design Begins and Becomes Our Legacy”. In the following 45 minutes, Seck set out the relationship between craftsmanship and design and argued that the continent has the same capacity as already established design industries to turn craft into industry and international influence – provided artisans are given proper support.
The panel discussion that followed, “African Design Junctions: Shaping Global Futures”, ran from 11 am to 11.45 am and was moderated by Lani Adeoye, founder and designer of Studio Lani, with three jury members on the panel: Rhoda Aguonigho, executive director of Lhaude Africa, Bibi Seck and Charles O. Job, of Charles Job Design & Architecture. The conversation revolved around how designers on the continent are combining traditional knowledge with new methods, what the obstacles to that work are and how education and collaboration can widen it.
Charles Johnson, creative director of World Shoe Inc. and principal of Driven by Charles, closed the morning at 11.50 am with “Made in Africa: Designing for the World”. There, he took the audience through the making of The Rowe, the shoe manufactured in Akosombo, Ghana, that won him the Fashion Design of the Year title, using it to show how international design work, local manufacturing and sustainable materials can be combined to create jobs and influence where products are made.
Fire Talks and an open day at the Africa Design School
After lunch in the garden of Sèmè City, the afternoon was spent with a focus on the Fire Talks: twelve presentations of five minutes each in which winning designers explained the thinking behind their projects, how they were made and what they have changed for the people who use them.
To top it off, the day ended with a visit to the Africa Design School on Route de l’Aéroport, just five minutes away, where the management team and students guided the group around the campus during the school’s Open Day and showed a selection of student work.
An evening at the Sofitel Cotonou Marina
The main event came on Saturday: a ceremony was held at the Sofitel Cotonou Marina Hotel & Spa on Boulevard de la Marina, having started at 5.30 pm in the ballroom “Les Collines”. More than 100 designers, partners, jury members and guests attended, with Hossein Farmani, co-founder of Three C Group GmbH, and Helena Segon, partnership director, hosting the evening. Every winner attending the event was called to the stage, receiving either a certificate or, for the Design and Designer of the Year titles, an AIDA Awards trophy. Once all awards were delivered, guests attended the cocktail reception, where some of the winning projects were exhibited.
“The AIDA Awards were born from a simple idea: to stand alongside Africa’s designers, build a community and help their work be seen. Last weekend in Cotonou, surrounded by this year’s winners, jury members and the design community, that idea came to life.”
Astrid Hébert, Director of 3C Awards Group and co-founder of the AIDA Awards
The partners behind the first edition
The Africa Design School played a huge role in both the edition and this July weekend by hosting the Friday visit and supplying one of the winners, François Abatan. The event’s main sponsors were L’École de Design Nantes Atlantique and the African Fashion Foundation, and the awards were organised, as already mentioned, by 3C Awards Group.
Alongside them, the AIDA Awards worked with Decorex Africa, the Pan Afrikan Design Institute (PADI), Africa Fashion Tour, Africa Female Architects, Africa Sourcing and Fashion Week (ASFW), Design Education Forum of Southern Africa (DEFSA), Design Week South Africa, the Fashion Law Institute Africa and Design Week Lagos.
With such a rich first edition, the eyes of Africa and the world are now turned to 2027. Entries for the second edition are now open to architects, interior designers, product designers, fashion designers and communication designers from Africa and its diaspora.
