Coronavirus or not, the show must go on, must have tugged strongly at the heart of the dEX Ghana team when they geared up for dEX Artmosphere 4.0.

dEX Artmosphere is a creative meetup and design festival that happens annually in Accra. It’s a power-packed day of inspiration, learning, networking, collaboration and a lot of fun and arguably one of the best creative events in Ghana.  

Every year since 2017, the Design Experience Ghana collective (dEX Ghana), has organized dEX Artmosphere by bringing together the best designers, animators, illustrators, photographers, artpreneurs, creative enthusiasts, and more under one roof for this design bazaar. 

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With the pandemic in the picture, a physical event was out of the question. Instead, the dEX team tapped their superstar team of creatives and their connections to pull off an epic virtual event. The event was hosted by the charismatic Nii Nortey Vanderpuye and the charming and full of life, Norkor Nortey.

This year’s theme was Creative Entrepreneurship – Bankable Skillsets for the Marketplace.  

Figuring out where business starts and creativity ends is a very daunting task for a lot of creatives. Through this edition, we want to equip design entrepreneurs with valuable skill sets that will drive business growth, profitability, and sustainability.

dEX Artmosphere

True to the theme, dEX Artmosphere 4.0 featured sessions with top artpreneurs from Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria on topics such as personal branding, collaboration and more. Topics touched on were: 

• How to be a Valuable Creative by Sunita Kragbe (Basecamp Initiative, Ghana);
• Building a Strong Personal Brand by Osmond Tshuma (Art Director, South Africa);
• The Power of Collaboration by Tunji Ogunoye (Brand & Information Designer, Nigeria);
• Managing Creatives to Meet Project Timelines by Yaa Boateng (Creative Director, Ghana); and
• Dealing with Imposter Syndrome by Nana K. Duah (Oxygen, Ghana).

In typical Artmosphere fashion, there were fun design activities (that revealed the true font-ninjas and tested people’s familiarity with popular brands through color), inspiring Instagram account highlights and also portfolio showcases. These showcases came from Yaw Onyina (3D Generalist, Ghana), Fawaz Ibrahim (Graphic Designer, Ghana), and Wanjira Kinyua (Illustrator, Kenya).  There were also giveaways this year including a Wacom Tablet (sponsored by Ganar), wawbooks and dEX merchandise.

The fourth edition of the creative meetup made a home on Facebook and YouTube Live to connect with creatives in the country and even beyond. This year, dEX Artmosphere had plugins from Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya. The 3-hour long event pulled in a combined 6,000+ viewers from Ghana, Kenya, Ivory Coast, South Africa and Nigeria.

Some might argue that the virtual edition is even better as the lessons and memories live on forever digitally and in our hearts. 

Comprised of a team of superstar creatives, it’s no surprise that dEX Artmosphere was pulled off effortlessly. We doff our hats off to the dEX team for a well executed event that completely defied the pandemic and one-upped the disruption Coronavirus has caused. 

And let’s not forget the amazing marketing that led up to the event, especially the stunning visuals which are consistently better every year. It’s high time dEX Artmosphere held a masterclass on designing anticipation through visuals. 

Watch a recap of dEX Artmosphere 4.0 below. 

dEX Artmosphere Time Stamped Notes

• [8:00] What Does it Mean to be a Creative?  
•  [9:04] How Can Creatives Maximize Their Potential? 
• [10:16] Address by Daniel Ampofo (President, dEX Ghana)
• [13:34] Creative Etiquette – How to be a Valuable Creative by Sunita Kragbe 
• [42:34] Portfolio Showcase – Yaw Onyina
• [1:03:00] Art Inspiration from Africa (featuring: @datartgod, @bydissirama & @teabagcreations)
• [1:05:00] Building a Strong Personal Brand by Osmond Tshuma
• [1:28:12] Activity 1 – Brand Colors
• [1:30:00] Portfolio Showcase – Wanjira Kinyua
• [1:37:40] Accra Animation Film Festival (AAFFia) 2020 Trailer
• [1:40:00] Project Management 101: Managing Creatives to Meet Project Deadlines by Yaa Boateng
• [2:09:00] Activity 2 – Know Your Type
• [2:10:00] The Power of Collaboration by Tunji Ogunoye
• [2:40:50] Inspiration from Africa 2 (featuring @octopistudiox, @_sol.invictus___, @tr_vls, @wayazack & @joshuacleopas)
• [2:42:56] Dealing with Imposter Syndrome as a Creative by Nana K. Duah
• [3:06:00] Closing Remarks by Joshua Cleopas 

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dEX Artmosphere is curated by dEX Ghana with support from Ninety3 Studios, Lime and Honey, VOME, Effect Studios, Hooks Communications, Ink Flare, Nairobi Design Week, Ganar, wawbooks and Dear Designer Nigeria.

About dEX Artmosphere

dEX Artmosphere is a design conference by dEX Ghana that brings together designers in Africa and stakeholders of the design community under a common roof to connect, learn and discuss issues surrounding the state of design in Africa with pragmatic measures to improve themselves and design at large.

Keep up with dEX Ghana on Instagram and listen to the dEX Lingo podcast.