Half of Bibi’s time is spent in Senegal. Birsel + Seck, his design agency, has offices both in Dakar and New York. The cultural differences between the two fuels Bibi’s creativity. “We don’t need to defend design in the United States because design is part of the culture. Somebody in the States knows that everything around him has been designed but in Africa, in Senegal, it’s not the case. They don’t realize that even a pencil has been designed by somebody. A pencil, a graphic, a lighter, a chair, even a plastic chair made in China, has been designed. A $1 plastic chair or a $1 trashcan has been designed. They don’t have this mentality in their head.”
In Dakar everyone is a designer. Solutions are improvised rather than ‘designed’ in the haughty sense. Senegal may not yet value design culture but conversely there is an exciting speed to making things. Ad hoc reigns supreme, and it’s easy to find workshops. “Let’s say I will work on a project for Herman Miller. That project can take three or four years because you have meetings, you have Skype meetings, you have 3D file exchange. Too much politics. In Dakar, I can draw a chair and have it made in two days. It’s really energetic for a creative mind because everything is fast. Even a dress, a shirt, you do a sketch, you go to the tailor, and say, ‘I want a shirt like this or pants like this with a pocket here, blah blah blah”. Three days, the thing is there. Even for IKEA, I did my first prototype in Dakar.”