About Us | AisAD

History

Realizing that the paucity of professionally trained practitioners has created a vacuum that encouraged unqualified persons to trade in the industry and concerned about the consequences of such a situation, Christian Obeng Boadi founded the Accra International School of Advertising and Design (AisAD) in 2008. This was after he had led a full-service advertising agency as the founder and CEO for close to 8 years.

The school initially was going to offer academic programmes but after travelling to North and South America, Europe, South-East Asia and South Africa and learning about their advertising and design industries and educational institutions Chris changed his mind. Chris discovered the portfolio school concept and finally preferred that to the academic type. Chris learned that employers in the creative industries rather look out for creative portfolios instead of academic qualifications. Creative portfolios are what matter to employers. For them, creative portfolios are what determine the creativity and employability of job seekers. Degrees per se do not.

The global exposure and valuable insights Chris gained helped him to create educational offerings he believed would help in providing solutions to corporate Ghana’s human resource problem of mediocrity in communication design.

Christian Obeng Boadi, Founder & CEO.

In November 2010, the business of the school started with short courses. Courses offered included graphic design, advertising design, photography, motion graphics design and film making. The school’s faculty were mostly South Africans who were brought to Ghana to teach the courses. In 2011, the school rolled out 18-month and 24-month portfolio programmes which attracted students from neighbouring countries including Nigeria, Cote D’Ivoire and Burkina Faso. Classes were held at the Accra campus until early 2020 when COVID restrictions forced the school to move about 99% of their courses online permanently. For nearly 15 years, AisAD has been offering portfolios courses which continue to attract students from many African countries. AisAD still remains Africa’s only creative portfolio school.

Statutory Authorization and Certification

The Ghana Education Service and Ministry of Education have approved AisAD as a post-secondary professional training institution. Due to its concept of education, it cannot offer any training programme that leads to award of certificates, diplomas and degrees. Portfolio schools don’t offer certificate, diploma and degree programmes. Students of portfolio schools leave school with creative portfolios and Certificate of Course or Programme Completion. This kind of certificate does not fall into the categories of national qualifications framework. The school obtained authorization from the statutory bodies in order to operate as an educational institution.

Leadership

Unlike academic institutions, portfolio schools operate with lean staff. The school has a three-man board that includes Chris who is also the CEO. Two administrative officers support Chris to implement the activities and policies of the school with the guidance of the board.

Instructional Philosophy

Students will be given real world challenging projects and assignments typical of the advertising and design industries. High quality is expected and students will be given the chance to redo their work until it meets assessment requirements specified during instruction. All courses develop strategic thinking, conceptual and the necessary technical skills required in providing innovative solutions for brands.

Our Faculty

Our distinguished faculty believe that our concept of education and instructional philosophy define the best nature of teaching and learning. Let our experienced European, South African and Ghanaian creatives who have distinguished themselves in their fields help you to develop a creative portfolio that can get you noticed and hired.

Our Promise

We are serious with students who take our courses seriously. Students who take our courses seriously and successfully complete graduate with creative portfolios that demonstrate professionalism and excellence from a professional’s perspective.