AFRIcan tech futures LabA brand refresh, building a credible public home, and operationalizing a digital strategy for African Tech Futures Lab
When African Tech Futures Lab (ATFL) approached me, they were a small but ambitious research lab in need of a credible public home for their growing portfolio: scholarly memos, policy reports, media mentions, and a network of fellows. Their placeholder website no longer reflected their ambition, but they didn’t need the complexity of a heavy think-tank platform.
What ATFL needed was a mid-weight site and brand; serious, usable, and designed to publish outputs, surface expertise, and prove credibility to funders and partners.
During the discovery phase, through structured interviews, editorial workshops, and content mapping—a distinct set of themes emerged: scholarly rigor translated into usable insights; people (fellows, partners, practitioners) as the unit of change; rapid-cycle, practical publications alongside deeper reports; and the Lab’s role as a convener and translator between African practitioners and high-leverage actors: policy analysts, key decision makers and institutions.
Working closely with the ATFL team, I explored how to express that idea both conceptually and visually. The identity needed to read as scholarly but modern, center people and avoid typical clichés associated with Africa.
I developed a visual language, a palette and typography system that could flex across reports, slide decks, and social assets. I also designed a clear site taxonomy so ATFL’s expertise would resonate with funders, partners, and peers. The brand toolkit ensured cohesion across all outputs.
The site was designed around three practical principles that flowed from discovery:
Make expert content discoverable with a clear taxonomy and search functionality.
Make authorship visible through people-first bios and author filters.
Make outputs reusable with downloadable reports, shareable cards, and templated insight pages.
Defining and Implementing a Digital Strategy
I helped the ATFL team articulate their Phase 1 communication goals: establishing credibility and visibility via a steady content and communications pipeline on an intentional set of online channels. To operationalize and build capability, I designed repeatable workflows for repurposing content into LinkedIn posts, newsletters, and videos. ‘Grab and Go’ playbooks complete with custom video tutorials, templates and pre/post-publishing checklists empowered their small team to execute the strategy independently. The result was a sustainable comms system that enabled consistent output, external amplification, and measurable outcomes without heavy staffing.
COMPLETE LIST OF SERVICES PROVIDEDI brought senior-level expertise, with solo efficiency to the ATFL team. Agency level strategy without the agency overhead; delivering results faster and more cost-effectively. My ability to translate intricate concepts (from policy wonks, researchers, or industry experts) into clear, human-focused design outputs, processes and workflows allowed me to offer the phased, practical delivery of a maintainable solution the team could work with and trust.
My eclectic skill set blending strategy, design, communications, UX, project management and methodology design was leveraged in the activities listed below.
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Brand refresh (color palette and typography proposals; homepage visual direction)
Logo refinement (wordmark/stacked versions)
Image strategy and shared image library curation
Headshot standardization (background treatment, consistent overlays)
Creation of master templates (quote cards, social banners, taxonomy card template)
Production of social and launch assets (LinkedIn banners, people-grid, quote cards)
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Full Squarespace website design and implementation (site architecture, page templates, launch-ready build)
Sitemap, navigation and content architecture (Theme → Issue → Project → Output model; flattening/ restructure)
Custom page templates for Insights, Reports, Memos, Media and Project pages
Project page and focus-area consolidation (reorganizing projects under four pillars)
Responsive/mobile optimization and QA
Domain transfer and DNS work; Squarespace account and subscription setup
Integrations: Google Search Console setup, Google Sheets/form syncs for submissions
Search configuration (Monocle/Search adjustments)
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Communications strategy: phased comms plan (Minimum viable strategy), channel prioritization (LinkedIn, newsletter)
Media / PR playbook items (media-hit handling, featured expert linking)
Content repurposing strategy (video clips, short-form assets, newsletter feed)
Creation of SOPs and onboarding documentation for comms tasks (embedded Loom tutorials)
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Content mapping and single-source workflow (Google Doc content tracker)
Setup and management of Insights/Media workflows (how to categorize and publish different content types)
Newsletter strategy and template setup in Squarespace Campaigns
Fellow interview workflow (recording in Alitu, edit in Canva), short video production for social
Video editing and repurposing (YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn-ready clips)
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Master template for ~75 climate intervention infographics, iconography, color-coding system
Creation of template and SOP for infographic card production; oversight of graphic production pipeline
Design of downloadable report landing pages and PDF mockups
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Dashboard buildout for comms calendar, SOPs, and task tracker (templates, publication checklists)
Training and handover sessions (live walkthroughs, backend training)
SOP Library and templates for site management and processes
Creation of Sandbox/manual backup strategy for site sections
THE RESULTConfident, empowered and credible.
The refreshed brand, clean site, and organized insights proudly showcase ATFL as a professional and credible organization.
The team now has a tangible, working system; a website that’s easy to manage and simple processes they can actually use. Their content, people, and funder-facing needs have a clear home and repeatable systems.
Routine tasks no longer require senior oversight or tech support and are now manageable by junior staff. Day-to-day friction is gone; they are empowered to focus on strategy, impact and quickly publish and share work with funders and partners.
With their digital infrastructure and strategy in place ATFL is excited to run campaigns, publish reports, produce videos, and pursue funder outreach with momentum and confidence