Based
Nairobi, Kenya
Education
Recognition
STARTS Prize Africa 2025
01 — About
Practice
Coltrane McDowell is a designer and communicator whose work blends strategic design, visual storytelling and human-centered research. With an MA (Cum Laude) in Social Design from the Design Academy Eindhoven and a dual BA/BFA from Concordia University, he has led initiatives with Impact for Health, Herzog & de Meuron and Atelier Luma.
Working across grassroots and social projects, human-centered design, design research, exhibitions, film festivals, film production and information design — these collaborations are unified by a creative, empathetic and inquisitive approach to problem-solving.
Since graduating he has received the 2025 STARTS Prize Africa and featured as a main artistic exhibitor at the United Nations Environment Assembly in collaboration with Kairos Futura. He was named one of the top 20 design graduates of 2020 by Design Indaba Antenna.
Education
MA Social Design (Cum Laude)
Design Academy Eindhoven
BA/BFA
Concordia University, Montréal
Awards
STARTS Prize Africa — 2025
UNEA 6 Featured Exhibitor
03 — Selected work
INDEX OF
PROJECTS
Ref.
Project
Client
Discipline
Year