Detroit : Features

Detroit Creative Corridor Center Events Director Melinda Anderson reflects on the evolution of this year's Detroit Design Festival and how much it has already grown and evolved from its first year in 2011. Signature events like Eastern Market After Dark, a record-breaking hopscotch and countless design community partnerships were key to this year's success and will enable the festival to continue to grow from one year to the next.

Detroit is seeing a new wave of creative startups, and fashion is one industry on the rise. Recently, more capital has been made available to technology companies, aiming to turn Detroit into a “Silicon Valley of the Midwest." If, as they say, 90% of fashion is marketing, and social media use is at a high, shouldn’t apparel businesses be considered an investment opportunity in Detroit’s creative economy? What ways can we extend these tech startup incentives to multiple industries?

The "hive" was buzzing with ambitious doers leading everything from youth programs to community art projects to startup businesses and micro-lending programs. They came to learn about urban innovation in Detroit, and they left with some new strategies for leadership and social entrepreneurship from special guest Christopher Gergen. Check out our recap & video.

Photographer Noah Stephens goes out in search of innovation and crosses paths (more than once) with a young Detroiter on a mission to transform unused parcels into parks. Meet Kyle Bartell, who has a vision to create more public gathering spaces in places where trails are already being blazed. (Photo essay from The People of Detroit for UIX.)

You’re going to fail...and that's great! If you're out there innovating and DOING things - trying to add value, generate opportunity, hire employees, build communities, develop talent, create wealth or start something new to move Detroit forward - you're not going to succeed every time. So how do we turn failure into a badge of honor rather than a mark of shame?

Who doesn't love a "design on a dime" makeover show? You know the ones, where a homeowner is given an impossible budget and deadline to totally transform a space, then through sheer creativity and resourcefulness (and maybe some clever editing), the place comes to life - huzzah! Well, the same is possible with public spaces. Urban designer-types call this "tactical urbanism." What they really mean is activating places quickly & cheaply. How can we do more of this in Detroit?