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Nifemi Marcus-Bello discovered the joy of entrepreneurship and creative thinking at a young age. When he was 13 and at school in Lagos, his mother introduced him to a group of local welders and carpenters, and he began a three-month apprenticeship, learning how to design and weld metal objects. He went on to study industrial and product design at Leeds in the UK and, in 2017, founded his own studio. In the years since, his furniture and lighting designs have garnered international attention for their innovative use of local industrial materials. One series of objects uses the sheet metal usually found in cases for generators, resulting in the Selah, a combined lamp and seat, and an abstract-shaped stool. A design for a shelving unit, meanwhile, used local African mahogany.
Marcus-Bello’s lo-fi approach to materials and construction is becoming more relevant. His approach saw him awarded the Hublot LVMH Design prize in 2022 and the Design Miami Curator’s Choice Design For Good Award last year. “There’s a bit of roughness and tactility to my pieces, so they feel human,” he says. “Big companies are coming to me because they want an emotional side to the objects they put out.”
This year, he has produced a new iteration of his Selah lamp in collaboration with Madrid-based design studio Caliper, creating a flat-packable edition with a dimmable bulb and bright yellow shade. He has also entered Lagos’s burgeoning streetwear scene with a design for Amsterdam-based brand Patta’s first store in the city. Based in the new Trocadero Square mall in central Lekki, a formerly run-down residential area, it’s part of a growing community of creative outposts including the Nike Art Gallery, a smattering of glitzy record label offices and a new skatepark designed and built by Nigeria’s first skateboarding company, Wafflesncream.
Nike x Patta Running Team track jacket, £134.99
A Stüssy x Patta sweater from its sold-out collaboration this summer
Creating a vision for the Patta store as both designer and partner, Marcus-Bello sought to create a flexible shop space that could be adapted for different uses. It was essential that the shop could function both for retail and as a place for community events: modular fittings can be moved or cleared as needed. Patta’s sneakers, for instance, are displayed on his adjustable Paper Plane Shelves, zig-zagged sheets of metal that appear almost to float on metal rods. The inspiration came from the paper planes he used to make at high school, and he came up with a design that he knew his favoured metal factory in Lagos would be able to produce. “I wanted it to be as simple as possible,” Marcus-Bello says. “It’s a store and the aesthetic of the clothes needs to be prominent.” Marcus-Bello posted the design on his Instagram and was met with an avalanche of DMs asking where the shelves could be purchased.
For 2025, Marcus-Bello is concentrating on delivering the third and final chapter of his Oríkì Design Series. The project began as an investigation of materials and production techniques in different Nigerian cities, with the aim of creating new objects and forms. He is putting the finishing touches together for an exhibition at Marta gallery that will be on show during Frieze LA next February. “This year has brought a lot of clarity and understanding that the processes and ideologies that I use in Lagos can be beneficial on a larger scale,” he says. The surge in interest from European and US furniture companies suggests that he’s right. “They’re reaching out and being very clear that they want me to be me.”