Center for Economic Growth Through Inclusive Design / Center for Economic Growth Through Inclusive Design / Center For Economic Growth Through Inclusive Design / enter for Economic Growth Through Inclusive Design
UNESCO City of Design / UNESCO City of Design / UNESCO City of Design / UNESCO City of Design /UNESCO City of Design / UNESCO City of Design / UNESCO City of Design / /
Home of Detroit Month of Design / Home of Detroit Month of Design / Home of Detroit Month of Design / Home of Detroit Month of Design / /
/ Focus On Creative Business Support / Focus On Creative Business Support / Focus On Creative Business Support / Focus On Creative Business Support / Focus On Creative Business Support
2024 Detroit
Month of Design:
Creative Currents
This year's theme, Creative Currents, pays tribute to Detroit’s unique legacy of artistry and innovation, while emphasizing the importance of collaboration and collective action as we look to the future.
The ripple effect of Detroit’s design history stretches across the globe, spanning time and space. Detroit forever changed the way the world lives, works, and moves.
Today, the resonant connectivity of Detroit’s creative community creates a collaborative circuit where inventive energy flows freely as creative minds unite and amplify each other's ideas.
UNESCO City of Design
As the only UNESCO City of Design in the United States, Detroit is a global hub of culture and creativity.
Design Core champions the transformative power of design in Detroit by supporting the creative problem-solvers using design solutions to improve our city’s economy.
PROGRAMS
Client Services Boot Camp is an annual, six-session program based on the fundamentals of client service targeted to small- to medium-sized design companies and freelancers.
Client Service
Boot Camp
The City of Design Challenge is one of our key programs that invites designers, residents, policymakers and others to collaborate around ideas that make life better for more people in Detroit and cities everywhere.
City of Design
Challenge
A citywide celebration of creativity, Detroit Month of Design gathers designers and the greater community to celebrate Detroit’s role as a national and global design capital.
Detroit Month of Design
The Design Jam brings together creative problem solvers, end users & manufacturers for a two-day collaborative design spring style workshop. Participants learn, share, imagine & fabricate adaptive products with real-world applications.
Design Jam
Design Jam
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FEATURED PROJECTS
Our
Programs on
Press
AZURE
"Post-industrial. Rust belt. Across the Great Lakes, descriptions of American cities are almost inevitably furnished with at least one of the two phrases, conjuring up images of abandoned warehouses, broken sidewalks and empty streets. Conversely, the same terms are a prelude to the gentrifying coffee shops, boutiques and art galleries that seemingly erase the city that came before. From Cleveland and Milwaukee to Buffalo and Pittsburgh, the narrative follows the same dispiriting pattern — though nowhere more acutely than in Detroit."
Dezeen
"This year's edition of Detroit Month of Design features a number of adaptive reuse projects, including furniture made from recycled bulletproof glass and religious buildings converted into art spaces.
The yearly festival, put on by local NGO Design Core Detroit, creates programming to celebrate design projects and initiatives in the city."
dwell
"Detroit has roughly 72,000 vacant lots according to the city’s Land Bank Authority, and some neighborhoods only have a few houses per block. Between them are wide open spaces, many of which have become meadows after a swath of landowners sold their property to the land bank and headed for the suburbs when times got tough during the deindustrialization of the automotive industry and when Detroit declared bankruptcy in 2013.
Now, local architect Bryan Cook, principal of Develop Architecture, and nonprofit Citizen Robotics have teamed up on a concept that could help fill those empty parcels with affordable housing."
What our community says...
One of the biggest reasons we moved to the City was to be part of something. Design Core has not only facilitated a community to belong to, but has exposed us to a sea of talent that we can tap into. While working on our space we’ve had the pleasure of working with other Design Core Members such as Woodward Throwbacks and Donut Shop. Through sponsorship we’ve also gained exposure and have increased our client base adding organizations such as Eastern Market, CCS & the DIA just to name a few.
Nicole Piach,
Digital Print Specialities, Detroit Design Network Member
Through the Design Jam, I had the opportunity to meet with recreational athletes from the limb loss community, as well as inventive manufacturing partners from Detroit, which made the experience of conceiving and creating a new product quite remarkable.
I'd like to thank Design Core Detroit and CCS for producing a wonderful Design Jam centering on adaptive products for outdoor leisure, which made my weekend amazing and unforgettable.
Akash Iyer, 2023
Design Jam Attendee
I have nothing but gratitude for the great support, belief, and commitment to see us succeed, that Design Core has shown.
Not sure what to expect from this upcoming year but one thing is sure, success is in there. Cheers to an amazing year that you helped to spice up.
David R. Medina Alvarez,
Detroit Design Network Member & Detroit Month of Design Alum
OUR PROGRAMS ON PRESS
