Detroit Optimists Get To Work
“try it”
Good Girls Go to Paris Crepes owner Torya Blanchard says ”it just gets better and better for those who believe in Detroit”
Signal-Return Letterpress director, Megan O’Connell. The shop ”seeks to connect the community to traditional + emergent forms of printing”. It’s a gallery. It’s a resource for design entrepreneurs. It’s a meeting space with all the signature displays of process and craft that we love so much.
Jessica Hicks (also a designer mentioned on Design Sponge) and her husband opened Astro Coffee in Detroit after living as expats for several years.
What her husband says about their choice to move to Detroit to do this:
“You can do something here that means something. Open a coffee shop in another city and you’d drown. Here there is cooperation.”
26-year-old Hostel Detroit owner, Emily Doerr cutting the ribbon in 2010 on her non-profit accomodations aimed at educating visitors about Detroit.
The Empowerment Plan: Veronika Scott invented a Sleeping Bag Coat to do something about the gargantuan homeless problem in Detroit (1 in 47 are homeless). It is “self-heated, waterproof, and transforms into a sleeping bag at night.” She employs homeless women to manufacture the coat.
The video by 4exit4 inspired this post. See them all here!
Links:
Good Girls Go to Paris Crepes!
Hostel Detroit
The Empowerment Plan
Signal-Return Letterpress
Astro Coffee
*lead image credit: Michael Goettner 0 Comments
If I Had Ten Million Dollars
Here’s what I’d invest in:
Digital Publishing - New platforms that offer immersive media experiences for literary fiction lovers
The literary fiction part is due to my own personal interests (and my fear of the death of imaginative work in a dumbed down world) – but this model could be applied to all fiction and non-fiction. The innovation and technology put into gaming could be applied to merging documentary, non-fiction writing, photojournalism as well as literature, independent cinema, the best in illustration, cinematography, music composition to create rich multi-lateral access to imagination, knowledge and story. Hell it could work for low culture too, that’s the low hanging fruit after all.
Pinterest Retail
I read on Fast Company that this already exists as The Fancy so I signed up – but Pinterest still gets my vote because it builds context with such fluidity as a visualization board for all kinds of planning and creativity. By placing objects or experiences that would lead to acquisition next to the the stuff of life that thankfully does not – plants, a cityscape, a curled up cat – buying becomes more of an act of careful consideration than blind consumption. Organic self-directed retail. Facilitated by a platform that takes the whole spectrum of your life and imagination into account.
Farm-to-Table Fast Food
A farm fresh menu with crops chosen by ease and season. The company would work in cooperation with various local producers. It would mimic the fast food experience in some useful and familiar ways but act as a teaching tool for change in the food system. Done right, it could be replicated anywhere (along the sidelines of the football field? On a corporate campus or at a university? In lower income or subsidized housing estates?) I haven’t worked out the kinks, but I’d invest in this. Jamie? Where are you?
Open Education and Other New Education Business Models
Browsing articles on the rise of homeschooling, statistics in online learning, and the movement against traditional degree programs, nothing on the horizon is due for such a complete overhaul as education. I’m appalled by the idea of the 40,000 dollar Manhattan preschool. (Nobody wins.) Nonetheless, I think progressive dynamic and creative education is invaluable. I look back to my fondness for Montessori and Bennington (no grades) and the New School (essays instead of tests) and know this approach, and ones that incorporate working in a natural environment, is applicable to the future. I’d love to sign on to a new model of education which balances real world social interaction and problem solving with democratic access to the best possible learning tools from top educators.
Micro-Manufacturing
Skip the middleman. Think. Plan. Make. Sell. I love the 3D printer and I can’t wait until prototypes can be passed onto small factories that can afford to make small batches putting the designer / maker / entrepreneur in the drivers seat. A mini version of this idea exists in Spoonflower.
Data-Mining For Good: Customer Service 3.0
Ignoring the spook factor of privacy concerns, I’d defer to someone else on that one – if you could know enough about your customer to serve them as well as they expect to be served, remembered, listened to, customized for, well I find that very exciting. Innovations in customer experience that really put the customer first could extend to healthcare and safety, travel, home buying, and finance. It could be a good thing put in the right hands. -Chauncey Zalkin
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Prescription: Design Therapy
Apartment Therapy Design Evenings at ABC Carpet are a bright spot in the design scene here – the incandescent lighting flowing through the oversized glasses of wine, the luxurious mishmash of couches and chairs, and a packed room of enthusiastic design and decor citizens smiling in their camaraderie.
It couldn’t be more fun, more lively. But as I looked around, I wondered, what exactly is this scene?
Coming from Europe where there’s a massive design presence to here where there are so many lovers of beauty and talented creative minds of every ilk, I’ve starting to see a distinction between Europe and Asia’s definition of design – the beautiful and functional and functionally beautiful object - and what design is in the U.S.
First, just to get it out of the way, yes there is the design awareness made possible by Steve Jobs and Apple Computers. There’s Fast Company’s championing of design thinking and design in business. But for the lovers of design festivals and design schools, furniture design, and manufacturing, the individual maker and craftsman, there is a big empty silence filled only by ICFF and it’s satellite shows.
New York is largely about Decor and Shelter. It’s Design Sponge and Etsy. Pinterest mood boards and Decor 8. It’s decorating tips and DIY. It’s interior design and real estate lust.
I love decor. I do. I mean where else are you going to put your design but within some sort of decor? Decor can be very practical and personal at the same time. Hey, even I found myself doing a DIY project for the first time and I’m pretty proud of it.
See? Here it is.
From this
To This
I found an old ugly beat up nightstand on the street and went out and bought some white high gloss paint, a bottle of Mod Podge, some paper from Paper Presentation and found endless how-to sites to make sure I didn’t screw the whole thing up.
Pretty cool, right?
But I’m not a designer. I would never call myself that. So there you go. You’ve got design and you have decor. America is about decor.
I really enjoyed what Maxwell, the founder of Apartment Therapy had to say when I asked about the state of American design (which meant where the hell is American design?) because it was clear that he cares about design as much as I do. He told me that it’s hard to nurture design here because manufacturing has left America. I told him about my experience in Europe and he said “yeah, Europe’s ahead of us.” So in our haste to automate and simplify everything, to sell everything and consume everything, to consolidate everything and to watch the bottom line on everything, we forgot about design. Not good. And honestly, not very modern. I think all of this DIY activity is just another sign of how desperately we need design leadership. It’s not just about dressing things up but making things that are truly beautiful, thoughtful and reflective. Right now, the design landscape is practical and commercial, not gutsy. It doesn’t marry inventiveness and innovation with reality. Design can be the perfect summation of right and left brain and, at the risk of sounding lofty, hope for the future. It’s a visual manifestation of spirit, intelligence, and hope. In other words, design is more than a gorgeous bedspread with eclectic throw pillows.
The last Apartment Therapy talk I attended was a few weeks back. It was with the very popular and very personable Deborah Needleman, the founding editor of Domino magazine who has gone on to start a beautiful style magazine at the Wall Street Journal. I was a subscriber of Domino. In fact, it was the very last magazine I subscribed to before moving to Paris at the end of 2006. Domino was so pretty and useful and collectible where nothing else really was. I was tired of the stuffy celebraphotog-generated nonsense, the Vogues and Visionnaires. I was tired of being talked down to and dictated to. Domino was different. It wasn’t ‘design’ but it was great. She herself admitted that while she loves the practical application of decor – she’s coming out with a book about making your home ‘cozy’ – she ‘doesn’t know anything about design’. It’s hard to wrap my head around but I think ultimately I know what she means. I just hope the dialogue will open up and decor-lovers will also start to see just what design is and how much value it has.
Just imagine, a New York with a design scene as robust as London.. Heaven!
(It looks like our company Show Love may be doing some yet-to-be-announced work with the American Design Club led by the effervescent designer and design advocate Kiel Mead so more excitement to come!)
-Chauncey Zalkin
links:
Apartment Therapy
Decor 8
Etsy
Design Sponge
Pinterest
How To Get The Most Out of a Brainstorming Session
Article written by Kristina Drury – founder of TYTHEdesign
In early January I was invited to teach an interactive design thinking workshop for ‘The Center for Leadership Innovation‘ (TCLI) 2012 National Summit in New Orleans. TCLI is an organization that serves communities through leadership training. During the event, I learned a lot about the frustrations a lot of executives share when leading their team through these kinds of exercises so I came up with sometips I that can help everyone looking for a productive brainstorming session. Here they are:
1. Pick a person to be the facilitator. This person will lead the group through the activity. Remember that the role of the facilitator is to keep the ideas flowing, not stir the conversation. The facilitator doesn’t have to be the project lead; it could be a team member, which is a great way to empower your team.
2. Before starting, briefly introduce the challenge you are working on. Providing handouts with the needs and the overall goal for the session. If possible, post the handout so everyone can see it. This way the team will stay focused.
3. If it’s a large group, divide them up into smaller sub groups. This gives everyone the opportunity to be heard and it might allow for more ideas to be building simultaneously.
4. Start the activity by asking your team to take a few minutes and write down their first ideas before starting as a group. This makes sure that everyone gets heard right away.
5. Set ground rules with your team. Ask everyone to defer judgments; there are no bad ideas at this point. There will be plenty of time to narrow ideas down later. As a facilitator if you notice a team discussing the ideas or talking through the details, encourage them to put the idea out there and move on.
6. Ask that there be only one conversation at a time. This allows each participant to be heard. As a facilitator, if you notice one person putting out most of the ideas, ask them to allow others space to share.
7. This should be fun, make sure to encourage wild ideas. Even if an idea doesn’t seem realistic, it may spark a great idea for someone else.
8. Draw your ideas; don’t just have them write them down. Sometimes stick figures and simple sketches can say more than words.
8.Be realistic. Your team can only come up with ideas for a short amount of time. Limit the whole process to 10-20minutes. This keeps your team engaged and will end on a high note.
Also check out how to create an empathy map and how to ask the right questions, other tips I’ve shared with What Women Make readers.
—–
KRISTINA DRURY is an expert in design thinking and the Executive Director of TYTHEdesign, a consultancy serving the social sector based in New York City. TYTHEdesign uses design-based approaches to support the goals and needs of agencies in the social sector, drawing on communication and organizational design to increase the impact of their work. Feel free to contact her if you have questions at all! She’s here to help.
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PHOTOS Goodbye Whitney – you were an angel, a badass, and a SUPERstar. We will miss you.
For all the teen-girls-singing-into-their-hairbrushes-turned-adults-with-husbands… Whitney almost makes you miss having a broken heart. She always made you feel beautiful and righteous in your sadness and confusion — when a man disappointed you or confused you, or you needed a reason to feel confident again after a fall.
She was a pure superstar - and we just do not have those anymore. She was also one of the most beautiful creatures I’ve ever seen. Unadulterated, sweet, powerful, feminine, warm, fiesty, fierce, and her voice was like no other. Even those who imagined they were too cool for Whitney listened to her in secret.
When I first heard that she did drugs at all, years before Bobby Brown’s reality show, I just couldn’t believe it. The woman who told us about the Greatest Love of All? The woman who was every woman? The young woman who wanted to dance with someone who loved her had to end up at the heartbreak hotel. I am so sorry that she got pulled under. I’m sure she fought hard to stay sober.
Whitney, you helped so many young women love themselves in the worst of times. This is a real loss for the girl in all of us. You will be missed.
xo
now here are some pictures of Whitney being a bad-ass..
Before the Thaw – Women Bursting Into Spring – The Artist Designed Accessory
A lovely merino scarf on greyarea.com by an artist named Taiana Giefer. I wish I could say more about the processes that goes into a scarf that is so fluffy, dense yet somehow diaphanous at the same time – but it doesn’t say anything about it on the site. Check out her work with beading, feathers, even horsehair. It’s definitely unique and beautiful, very urban but with a nod to the southwestern style.
Links
Grey Area (New York)
Taiana Giefer (California)
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Before the Thaw – Women Bursting Into Spring – House of Hackney
House of Hackney makes fashion look short-sighted; Why stop at your body, when you can just swathe your whole bedroom in unadulterated loveliness? Frieda Gormley and partner Javvy M Royle create the world I want to live in.
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Before the Thaw – Women Bursting Into Spring 1
What do these incredible critically acclaimed major visual artists or our time have in common? It’s (in order of appearance followed by image of their work) Phyllida Barlow, Nathalie Djurberg, Tacita Dean, Klara Lidén, and they make up the spring line-up at New York’s New Museum, an all-female line-up. Most importantly, it has not been overtly publicized as such.
- Tipped off by Art Info and my friend Amy Mendizabal.
Links – New Museum Upcoming Exhibits (New York)
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