Design for Creative Placemaking
WITH POWERHOUSE PRODUCTIONS, THE HINTERLANDS, CARRIE MORRIS ARTS PRODUCTION, AND POPPS PACKING
Four arts organizations partnered to highlight, activate, strengthen, and inspire existing cultural centers, artists, and businesses on the border of Detroit and Hamtramck.Carpenter Exchange was a creative placemaking initiative along the Detroit / Hamtramck border that was funded in large part by a National Endowment of the Arts, Our Town grant. These grants are best known for encouraging creatives to deepen public engagement and open fresh connections between local organizations and small businesses.
The Work Department facilitated a 9 month collaboration with the partner organizations called, “Let’s Talk About It.” Using a customized collective impact model, our process began with planning and designing workshops to develop a set of shared values, a communication strategy, and engagement strategies for participatory implementation. Our goal was to make the work accessible to broad perspectives ranging from Hamtramck’s vibrant immigrant community, where over 6 major languages are spoken, to art collectors and national purveyors of design and culture.
Informed by the workshops, we refined a dynamic identity and communications system for the initiative. We synthesized and visualized an enormous range of ideas that emerged from the artist partners and developed a prioritized set of simple messages. We packaged this process into a design toolkit that utilizes a kinetic brand, and applied the ideas to an array of digital and print design templates that partners could use to communicate the programming over time.
