We are pleased to announce our first film festival selection for “After the Factory.”

The film makes its West Coast premiere at Filmanthropy Society Film Festival in Los Angeles. The festival showcases films that inspire, educate, raise awareness and motivate. All film festival proceeds go to the charities of the winning films (ours is Georgia Street Community Collective and the race track we are building). Pretty cool.

If you are in LA, check it out this weekend!

LOCATION
Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Avenue
Building I
Santa Monica, California

SCHEDULE
Thursday, May 17, 2012
2:00pm-7:00pm: Film Screenings
7:00pm: Writer’s Boot Camp Mini-Camp
7:30pm: Premiere of “Staging Hope” followed by Q&A

Friday, May 18, 2012
2:00pm-8:00pm: Film Screenings
8:00pm-10:00pm: Speaker Panel with Andy Lauer of Reel Aid, Ben Phelan of Play It Fwd, and Josh Tickell, Green Technology Strategist and Director

Saturday, May 19, 2012
1:30pm-4:30pm: Film Screenings
6:30pm: Red Carpet
7:00pm: Torch Awards Gala Event

OK, so this post will be a little brag-heavy, but hey, somebody’s gotta do it.

DL! got a shout-out the other day from Richard Florida which was kind of cool. If you’ve read any of his books, you can start to see some of the similarities between his thinking and Detroit. Nevertheless, this series he is writing and filming via the Atlantic (titled “How Detroit is Rising”) ought to be interesting. I hope that the research and the thoughts delve deeper than what has come to be known as the “revival story of Detroit.” I think it’s great that large media bodies are conglomerating around some of the miniature victories being seen in the city right now, it’d be cool if Florida found a way to advance some of his thoughts a step further through Detroit. But anyway, he makes a shout to DL! in the article kicking off the project. See it here.

Separately, Urban Outfitters in the UK is now selling a DL! print. Quite cool I’d say. We are really excited. Mega-fives (the more grandiose equivalent of a high five) to Scott Waraniak for the design work on that particular print and for helping to make us look so good (this is the same guy that did the motion graphics for the Be a Venture piece, designed this site, all kinds of stuff). Anyway, check it (click on the photo to see more or order if you are in the UK):

So yeah, feeling good on this Wednesday morn.

Here’s an interesting projection for you: given annual increases in labor and manufacturing costs in China, in five to six years it could cost the same to produce that same product in the United States. Think about that for a second. Sure, we probably won’t be producing iPhones in the US given the amount Apple has invested in China’s supply chain, or because of the fact that they can be so responsive to spikes in consumer demand. But electronics aren’t the only opportunity. Perhaps, however, the ace in the hole is our ability to produce consumer goods locally that are already seeing a spike in American production– things like soap, ceramics, ethically sourced and produced clothing, etc.

Today I had a meeting with Janet Lees, director of programs and communications for SFMade– an organization in San Francisco that is building a robust network of companies that manufacture consumer goods within the city limits. 300 companies within their network make everything from iPad cases, handbags and beer to electric motorcycles. All in, it’s equating to roughly 2,500 jobs and 80% of San Francisco’s total manufacturing sector– two very impressive figures. Aside from that, it provided 10.5% more new jobs in 2010, so it’s also a growing sector. All of this completely revamps the idea of modern urban manufacturing– for San Francisco most definitely, but how can we learn from this in Detroit?

We have the space. We have the supply base– that is, hundreds if not thousands of people and businesses making stuff. We have the infrastructure to support light and heavy manufacturing. We even have low business barriers. The two hurdles we need to jump in Detroit are two of the things that make San Francisco’s manufacturing sector so successful: an able and willing consumer base that demands the goods and a mayor’s office that supports their growth and activity. All of which presents interesting options and ideas for Detroit’s forward progress. One, let’s try to align public and private resources around cultivating the growth of what is already a robust network of makers (perhaps by starting a task force that funnels resources in to infrastructure improvements to already vacant properties). Two, consider the creation of an organizational body similar to SFMade.org to give the Detroit-based companies a unified voice. Three, let’s put politicians in office that support this kind of activity and want to build it in as part of Detroit’s identity. Four, let’s tell the world about it and get these goods sold in every city in America.

China will grow, it already is. As Americans and Detroiters, however, we have to figure out how to make that liability an asset. We can still have our niche. And of course, let’s not forget that the idea of Detroit’s manufacturing base has already revolutionized the world once.

After a couple weeks on the road, the latest ATF mini-tour came to a smashing close last night in Brooklyn. The good folks at Playground Detroit– a NYC-based non-profit who are drawing ties between the Big Apple and the Motor City– were gracious hosts and brought in a nice crowd with all kinds of interesting questions afterwards. Once again, the Q+A lasted longer than the film itself– a sure sign that something about the film is resonating with people. After stops down south and now in the Northeast, it’s good to wrap things up with an empire state of mind, and head back to the homeland. Home is where the heart is.

Check out some photos from the road, a visual journal of the last couple weeks of our little Detroit roadshow.

Campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

A room full of incredibly smart MIT’ers watching ATF

From big brains to the big apple. NYC!

Promo posters spotted in Bushwick for our Brooklyn screening

A blurry Brooklyn crowd. Cool venue!

Graffiti in Brooklyn. Call your mom for Mothers Day this weekend!

See you back in Detroit, can’t wait to get back home. We have some cool work to be rolling out in the next few weeks!

Through the graphic above, taken from a Freep article by John Gallagher, we get a look at what could potentially be (again, hypothetical!) a neighborhood-level plan for development in communities across Detroit as part of Long Term Planning within the Detroit Works Project.

DWP, all in, is Mayor Bing’s attempt at right-sizing the city, through a variety of civic engagement efforts, design and long term planning measures. If we get this process right as a city, the possibility of our transition to solutions-exporter for other struggling cities gets astronomically higher, which of course plays in to a lot of the work we are doing creatively.

Been on the road the last few days screening “After the Factory” in New Orleans and Austin tonight. We’ve been having some good conversations– in NOLA, particularly about looking at the devastation via Katrina and how folks from Detroit/NOLA can learn from each other in there ability to see through the struggle. Powerful stuff. Tonight will be great to have another film added to the bill in “Lemonade: Detroit”, directed by Erik Proulx. Next week we’re in Boston (MIT!) and NYC (see all the dates here). As I move along via trains and planes, I can’t help but think about coming home and getting back to work– in a good way.

DL! has been growing up these days. What started with creative work doing projects of our own (t-shirts, murals, films, etc) has morphed in to a situation where now people are coming to us to design stuff for them. I kind of like to think of DL! these days as a creative agency and social brand. We’ve grown a ton in the last 4 months or so taking on about 300% more work than we did last year. That’s pretty cool. And it’s leading to us being able to take bigger steps in the community which is obviously important– like building that race car track for the kids at the Georgia Street Community Garden.

But all I can think about is more! MORE! How can we continue to grow, to be inventive with the way we blur the lines between a traditional creative agency and a social brand. The next step of course is getting space– an office. And all I can think about is how we can put a refresher on the traditional agency model whereby it’s not just strictly production space where we make films for clients. What if it has some sort of user-generated component? What if it had a cafe attached to it with a performance space like 1515 Broadway? What if it became a hacker space where people could dissect content from pieces we developed to fuel their own projects across a variety of disciplines? What if the “office” became some form of a new-wave civic center pairing traditional consumer behavior (buying/selling) with philanthropy (commoditizing goodness)? At the end of the day, how can we create a valuable retail and experiential model abutted to that of a traditional ad agency? I know some of this stuff is vague, and slightly unclear. But that’s by design.

Stay tuned. How will DL! grow up and stay relevant by refreshing the way we do business and perhaps inventing a new “system” for others? I ask all these questions so that all of you can hold me accountable for moving forward with it down the road. And if you’ve got some thoughts– give me a jingle.

See you in Austin tonight if you can make it for the screening of “After the Factory” and “Lemonade: Detroit.” Tickets and info on the event (tonight, 7pm) here.

Ohhh baby, you wanna talk excitement? We’re hitting the road again with “After the Factory.” First stop? Tomorrow– in the culture capital of the south, no less. New Orleans! So pumped to be playing at the Zeitgeist Theatre, of which we found thanks to Alan at Civic Center– a really great organization doing some pretty unique and innovative stuff in NOLA.

After a stint in NOLA, we’re headed to Austin-town, Texas where we are more than honored to be screening as a double feature alongside the likes of Erik Proulx, director of “Lemonade: Detroit“, the film you’ve certainly heard about in the last year. We are screening at Austin Studios, part of the Austin Film Society, on May 2 at 7pm. Tickets are only $5 so if you are in the area, you should really consider coming.

Then it’s off to see the big dogs at MIT where we will be doing a special screening on May 8 with various faculty members and students at one of the most prestigious research universities in the country. Again, we are so honored to even have the opportunity to screen the film and connect with some of the brightest minds that higher education can offer. After Boston and MIT, you guessed it, we’re off to the Big Apple.

If you can make it in NYC, you can make it anywhere, right? Well, we’re trying. We’re doing two screenings in the city, the first of which being at the offices of ?What if!, a really innovative consulting and creative agency that helps companies develop their brands and come up with cool ideas to roll out products. We are screening at their offices with a convo to follow about innovative distribution models in the film industry right now. Hopefully we’ll get some cool ideas on ways in which we can push the film forward. That following night we are then screening again alongside Erik Proulx and “Lemonade: Detroit.” Follow all the details at afterthefactoryfilm.com.

How’s that for some action. Ready, steady, GO!

We added another piece to the Speakers Burea this week, an ongoing film series we are creating for the Detroit Creative Corridor Center highlighting the movements coming from Detroit’s creative economy. This week’s featured subject is Lander Coronado-Garcia, a partner in Rippld, a company that is building a internet-based platform to serve as a service exchange platform for creative professionals. They serve as but another example of the kind of innovation that is shifting Detroit’s image around. When design agencies in Paris are finding their talent via Rippld, then it’ll be obvious Detroit is changing the world

Without further ado:

A huge part of what we do here is making sure that the work and innovative models we are creating in response to interesting economic circumstances and opportunities is projected outward in to the world. I always say Detroit could write the rule-book for next-generation cities. It’s true. Economic systems worldwide are crumbling, cities are re-thinking their positions amidst globalization, and in Detroit we’ve been confronting the dire version of those circumstances for many years. And over the past three years, we’ve gotten significantly better at innovating with minimal resources. And this is the stuff that the country will deem more and more significant as cities struggle more and more. In the last week or so, two outfits locally have been getting national coverage that plays a significant part in moving the narrative about Detroit’s potential forward.

DETROIT Soup featured in Dwell Magazine, a national publication:

Patrick Thompson Design featured on Design Sponge:

Now we can finally conclude what’s been going on along Woodward along the former site of the old Garden Theatre, seen here:

As Louis Aguilar reported in the Detroit News, the prominent space in Midtown along Woodward Avenue between Alexandrine and Selden, will get a renovation via a $750,000 incentive from the Michigan Strategic Fund as a live music venue and performing arts center. The place will hold up to 1,300 people and will create 84 jobs. Not bad. A tip of the cap to Sue Mosey and the gang at UCCA for making the deal happen.