All Roads Lead to Lagos arrives at Paris Design Week following its international debut in Milan, showcasing seven emerging Nigerian designers and revealing new designer–manufacturer collaborations
Design Week Lagos brings a new generation of Nigerian design talent to Paris Design Week 2026 this September, presenting All Roads Lead to Lagos as the second international stop in a global programme connecting emerging African designers with international audiences, institutions, manufacturers, brands and collectors.
Emma Emodi
Taking place from 10–19 September 2026, the presentation forms part of Paris Design Week Factory, where Design Week Lagos will showcase work by seven designers working across furniture, lighting, sculpture and collectible design: Athanasius Johnson, Adaora Enwonwu, Emma Emodi, Oluwakayinsade Ademuson, Joan Eric-Udorie, Myles Igwebuike and Richard Aina.
The Paris presentation follows the debut of All Roads Lead to Lagos at Milan Design Week in April, extending Design Week Lagos’s international programme into another of Europe’s most important design capitals before returning to Lagos for the festival’s 2026 edition in October.
At the heart of the initiative is a belief that African design should not be positioned at the margins of the international design industry, but recognised as a dynamic source of new ideas, materials, craftsmanship, technology and cultural knowledge.
For Design Week Lagos founder Titi Ogufere, the international programme is ultimately about moving beyond visibility and creating tangible opportunities for designers.
“Our global tours are about creating pathways for African designers beyond exhibition. We want to place their work in front of galleries, manufacturers, brands, collectors and institutions, creating opportunities for collaboration, production, representation and access to new markets.”
Paris Design Week is already beginning to demonstrate the potential of this approach. This year, Design Week Lagos will reveal its inaugural designer–manufacturer collaborations with Ombré, an Italian lighting manufacturer, featuring Athanasius Johnson’s Apo Lamp and Adaora Enwonwu’s Anyanwu Lamp, alongside a special lighting feature by James Brendan Udom, whose Okkyo lamp will also be presented.
“For us, this is what Design Week Lagos is ultimately about: taking exceptional African design from visibility to opportunity, and from making to market,” says Ogufere.
Seven Nigerian designers arrive in Paris
The Design Week Lagos presentation at Paris Design Week Factory brings together seven emerging practitioners whose work demonstrates the diversity of contemporary Nigerian design.
Oche By Miles IkennaIgwebuike
Among the highlights are Bantu Stool by Joan Eric-Udorie, Ara by Emma Emodi, ISÉPÒ LOW TABLE by Richard Aina and ỌCHE by Myles Igwebuike.
Their work sits within a broader generation of African designers who are challenging conventional assumptions about what constitutes African design. Rather than treating cultural identity as a fixed visual language, these designers explore how heritage, local materials, contemporary technology, personal experience and global design culture can intersect.
The resulting objects range from furniture and lighting to sculptural and collectible pieces, reflecting different approaches to making while sharing an interest in material experimentation and cultural storytelling.
The presentation also provides an opportunity for audiences in Paris to encounter Nigerian design through the perspective of the designers themselves, rather than through a narrow set of expectations about African craft.
This distinction is central to the vision of Design Week Lagos, which has developed into a platform for identifying and supporting emerging creative talent across the continent.
Paris Design Week Factory
Design Week Lagos will exhibit at Paris Design Week Factory, which brings together more than 150 emerging designers across four galleries.
Co-curated by Jean-Baptiste Durand and Simon Geringer, Paris Design Week Factory takes over 116 rue de Turenne and Espace Commines, creating a platform for a new generation of designers whose practices challenge traditional categories. The curators have deliberately sought to create an environment in which furniture, sculpture, lighting, technology, materials and experimental practices can exist alongside one another without being constrained by conventional disciplinary boundaries.
For the designers represented by Design Week Lagos, this context is particularly significant. It allows their work to be viewed not simply through the lens of geographical identity, but within the wider conversation around the future of contemporary design.
From Milan to Paris: All Roads Lead to Lagos
The Paris presentation is the second international chapter of All Roads Lead to Lagos, Design Week Lagos’s global programme dedicated to championing emerging African design.
The programme launched internationally in Milan in April 2026, presenting work by a new generation of designers including Richard A. Aina, Olaoluwa AJ Durotoye, Nicole Adaora Enwonwu, Myles Igwebuike, Athanasius Johnson, Odema Acacia Saleh and Joan Eric-Udorie.
The Milan presentation introduced international audiences to different approaches to materials, craft, technology, culture and contemporary African identity, positioning Lagos as both a source of design talent and a destination for international creative exchange. The programme now moves to Paris before returning to Lagos in October.
The journey between the three cities is more than a geographical itinerary. It reflects Design Week Lagos’s ambition to create a continuous network between African designers and the international design ecosystem.
Milan provides one of the world’s most influential platforms for design, while Paris offers another important meeting point for designers, galleries, manufacturers, collectors, cultural institutions and the creative industries. Lagos, meanwhile, remains the centre of the programme.
The title All Roads Lead to Lagos deliberately reverses the traditional direction of cultural exchange. Rather than African designers simply travelling outward to international markets, the programme seeks to establish two-way relationships in which international interest also returns to Lagos, creating new opportunities for collaboration, production, representation and investment.
Emma Emodi Ara Chair
For emerging designers, international exhibition can provide visibility. But visibility alone does not necessarily create sustainable careers. All Roads Lead to Lagos has therefore been developed around a broader ambition: to connect designers with the networks that can help turn ideas and prototypes into commercially viable products and long-term creative practices. That means creating encounters with manufacturers, galleries, brands, collectors, curators, institutions, media and industry leaders.
The new collaboration with Ombré illustrates this approach. The partnership between an emerging Nigerian designer and an Italian lighting manufacturer provides a practical example of how international design platforms can move beyond presentation towards production.
The collaboration featuring Johnson’s Apo Lamp and Enwonwu’s Anyanwu Lamp represents an important step in that process, establishing a relationship between African creative talent and European manufacturing expertise. The inclusion of James Brendan Udom’s Okkyo lamp further expands the lighting focus of the presentation.
These collaborations suggest a model in which African designers are not simply invited to participate in international exhibitions, but are connected to the industrial and commercial infrastructure capable of supporting their practices. The shift from exhibition to opportunity is one of the defining ambitions of Design Week Lagos.
Reimagining African design
Contemporary African design is increasingly attracting international attention, but the challenge remains how to ensure that this attention translates into meaningful and sustainable opportunities for designers.
For Design Week Lagos, the answer lies partly in changing the narrative around African design. Rather than presenting the continent’s creative output as a single aesthetic category, All Roads Lead to Lagos highlights the individual voices, approaches and ideas of emerging designers. The seven designers presented in Paris demonstrate the breadth of this new generation. Their practices draw on craftsmanship and cultural heritage, while simultaneously engaging with contemporary materials, manufacturing, technology and global design culture.
The objects themselves become points of connection between different histories and geographies. A stool, table, lamp or sculptural object can carry references to place, memory, material and tradition, while also functioning as a contemporary product designed for an international audience. This intersection between cultural knowledge and contemporary production is particularly important to the future of African design.
The international journey culminates in Lagos in October with the 2026 edition of Design Week Lagos, centred on the theme “Making A New Africa: From Material to Market.”
The theme explores how Africa’s wealth of materials, knowledge and creative talent can be transformed into globally competitive products, industries and opportunities. It also reflects a wider shift in the way African design is being discussed.
The conversation is increasingly moving beyond representation and recognition towards questions of production, ownership, manufacturing, infrastructure and market access. What happens after an object has been exhibited? How can designers move from prototype to production, and how can African manufacturers participate in global design markets. These are some of the questions that underpin Design Week Lagos’s 2026 programme.
Lagos Design Week’s international presentations in Milan and Paris therefore function as part of a larger ecosystem rather than isolated exhibitions. The ultimate destination is Lagos, not simply as the location of the festival, but as the creative hub at the centre of the network.
Lagos as a global design destination
The idea that all roads lead to Lagos is therefore both a statement of ambition and a declaration of intent. Lagos has become one of Africa’s most dynamic cultural capitals, with a growing ecosystem spanning art, architecture, fashion, music, film and design. Design Week Lagos is contributing to that ecosystem by providing a platform through which emerging designers can develop their practices and engage with international audiences.
The international programme also challenges the traditional model in which cultural exchange is predominantly one-directional, with African talent travelling to established Western cultural capitals in search of validation.
Instead, Design Week Lagos proposes a network in which Lagos is itself a destination and somewhere international designers, manufacturers, collectors, curators and institutions can travel to discover talent, exchange ideas and develop new partnerships.
A new generation of Nigerian design
At Paris Design Week, the seven designers represent different perspectives on what contemporary Nigerian design can be.
Athanasius Johnson Paris Design Week 2026
Athanasius Johnson brings lighting and material experimentation to the presentation, including the Apo Lamp developed through the new collaboration with Ombré.
Adaora Enwonwu presents the Anyanwu Lamp, another example of how contemporary Nigerian design can enter into dialogue with international manufacturing.
Emma Emodi presents Ara, while Joan Eric-Udorie contributes the Bantu Stool.
Richard Aina presents the ISÉPÒ LOW TABLE, while Myles Igwebuike shows ỌCHE.
The Paris presentation also includes the work of Oluwakayinsade Ademuson, further expanding the range of emerging Nigerian voices represented by Design Week Lagos.
Together, they form a snapshot of a rapidly evolving design landscape.
From Paris back to Lagos
As All Roads Lead to Lagos moves from Milan to Paris and ultimately back to Lagos, its significance lies increasingly in the connections created along the way.
For the designers, international exposure can open doors to new audiences and markets.
For manufacturers, it creates opportunities to discover new creative talent.
For collectors and galleries, it offers access to emerging voices.
For cultural institutions and curators, it provides an opportunity to engage with new perspectives on contemporary design.
And for Lagos, the programme reinforces the city’s position as an increasingly important centre within the global design conversation. The programme’s ambition is therefore both simple and expansive: to ensure that African designers are seen, but also heard, commissioned, manufactured, collected and represented. The Paris presentation marks another step in that journey.
From Milan, through Paris, and back to Lagos, All Roads Lead to Lagos is becoming more than an international exhibition programme. It is a growing network connecting African design to the world—and creating pathways for the world to connect with Africa.
Emma Emodi Ara Chair
