I’ve been wanting to explore Detroit for ages and finally there were enough reasons and planning to make it happen two weeks ago over Easter.

At the outset it’s hard to prepare for Detroit’s massive abandonment, decay, and poverty, even though I knew to expect it. To fresh eyes, large swaths of the city look, no jokes, like the leavings of a war zone. It’s pervasive, you can’t go more than a block or two before encountering it. Once opulently designed & crafted buildings are now windowless skeletons, sunken and rotting like forgotten jack-o-lanterns, scrappers having come and gone long ago. A particular image that won’t be leaving my head easily is the sight of the former Packard Motor plant. It’s a carcass that goes on for literal blocks. When Christina from printmaking shop Perfect Laughter showed us around her brand-new printmaking studio in the Corktown neighborhood she told us of the rubberneckers on the hunt for “ruin porn” documenting as if Michigan Central Station were the Acropolis or the Coliseum in Rome. And I can certainly understand that pastime, though it’s not my particular style, because the ruins really are a breathtaking sight to see.

Yet it’s undeniable that there are just as many marvelous things happening despite the sad parts of the city. Everyone we met in Detroit is doing something or working for something, their efforts beautifully poignant in the face of the city’s hard edges.

Culture is also on the rise in Detroit too. Chicagoans would not believe the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) rivals our Art Institute, but you’d be wrong there. It’s every bit as good, if not better. MOCAD, the contemporary art museum, is consistently one of the most creative and innovative contemporary spaces out there. Every visit it’s completely remade new and you can expect to be surprised, that’s for sure. This time around we enjoyed an incredible installation by Joshua White & Gary Panter’s Light Show. The best way I can think of to describe it as a modern fun house, a huge echoing space vibrating with psychedelic rhythm and sound. So intense it’s almost repellent at first, but then little surprises and funny things start appearing and then it’s all smiles if you hang out awhile. It’s like a little mini vacation, and a pretty perfect metaphor for how the city is itself.

We stayed at the adorably rustic yet modern inn, Honor & Folly, run by Meghan McEwen of Designtripper. The space was filled with plenty of handmade and thoughtful cozy touches, just as I imagined when I posted about it before. We made good use of the full kitchen and even hosted a meal with our families who hiked in from the suburbs to hangout.

Every place comes with a story in Detroit. At the Peacock Room, a little boutique near the DIA, the shop owner told me how she tore down the drywall in her space, only to discover it was hiding a 1920′s ballroom with mirrored walls, marble columns and tin ceilings. Talk about hidden treasure, eh? Or Café D’Mongo’s, a former speakeasy which is a feast of 1920′s nostalgia. It only reopened recently, pretty much intact from it’s original heydays. The charming & feisty older lady running the joint seems like she came back to life with the bar too.

We ate really well, plenty of BBQ and soul food, as well as fresh picks from the open air Eastern Market. Lafayette or American for Coney Island Dogs, though I can’t say I can tell the difference between the two places. Maybe the joy of a boiled hot dog in a white bun with chili and mustard is lost on me though. There was also plenty of music, we saw live shows almost everywhere without even trying. Detroit’s got Motown in its blood and that influence is clear. If there wasn’t live music at a venue there was a fatty juke box instead – the real kind – not the cheesy wall-mounted electronic ones with the same 20 songs that are popular in Chicago pubs. One place we went to (The Bronx) even has a bench thoughtfully placed by the juke box so you can get comfy while you rifle through the extensive collection.
 

The Heidelberg Project, while not exactly new (it’s a non-profit art installation that’s been evolving since the 1970′s), is a totally unexpected response to the city’s downfall. There is color and brightness on every possible surface, with bizarre objects in not normal places, it’s like Dr. Seuss came and built landscape with trash. Here it’s okay if nothing makes sense, it’s a nice reminder that chaos can also have beauty and meaning.

For next time: bookbinding classes at Signal Return that come with home-cooked farm-to-table dinner, another visit to the DIA, Belle Isle Park, a closer look at the Frank Lloyd Wright architecture. I’m sure there’s plenty else to do and see, I just hope I get to come back for it soon!

{iPhone photos from Instagram & Banana Camera’s Cross-Process, Wikipedia, and Ina Weise.}

Big internet day for me today! Our house is on Design*Sponge! What a fun collaboration this was, Angela Finney-Hoffman (my Post 27 partner in crime) came over to help up hang some of the art and do some organizing and styling. And then our incredibly talented camera-head friends, Brian Guido & Julia Stotz took the pictures. I’m seriously pinching myself, I never thought our things could look so good. Also major high fives to Anne Stark Ditmeyer from Pret a Voyager & Design*Sponge for having us. Thanks, thanks, thanks. friends!!

Here’s some outtakes and some photos D*S didn’t publish, including one stereo & vinyl collection which is a particular favorite of mine.
 

Vintage magazine organizers, endearingly named after countries. Always make me ponder their previous & worldly life before they held our magazines. The little figurine buddy hanging out on the edge of the photo is by Friends with You. Instead of installing curtains or using the standard mini-blinds, we covered these bay windows with semi-transparent fabric. It’s adhered right to the glass with straight liquid starch (Sta-Flo). We rent so this will come off with a sponge & water once it’s time to move. 

Vinyl collection is almost exclusively inherited from our parents & grandparents. Runs a wide gamut from musicals, barbershop & oldies, jazz, disco, to more modern folk and electronica. Plays on a mint-condition 80′s Technics turntable with round speakers, also vintage. The speakers are unfortunately more style than substance and this shows in the quality of sound. I love how unique they are though so maybe we’ll one day get to commission a modern remix on them (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun!).

Make sure you hit up the whole tour on Design*Sponge for the full rundown on the rest of the space!

These are bread spoons: “a set of containers made specifically for measuring bread ingredients. the size of each the vessel is precisely large enough to hold the ideal amount of water, flour, oil, sugar and yeast needed for a loaf. The white ceramic bowls have labeled wooden handles, making it easy for users to bake home-made bread.”

Oh, major want. Our tiny kitchen barely has the space for the basics, much less single purpose tools, but these are so beautiful it would be worth it. And no grocery store loaf can compare to the real deal! Still in prototype by design student Niels Datema, I hope these go into US production pronto. Via White Wood Grey.

My friend Meghan just opened her own B&B: Honor & Folly! Features all the love & trappings from Detroit’s finest designers and artisans. It’s a really authentic way to experience this hard city. I can’t wait to stay the next time I’m Detroit! Book rooms here. Oh, and they also have cooking classes too!
 
 

BACK! Did you miss me? I missed you terribly, but I have to say I am glad for the break. Never before have I had such little interest in committing content to the web. I just couldn’t seem to find a way through all my crap and stress to contribute something useful to the fray, something that didn’t seem like thought shrapnel. And apparently an absence for the better part of two weeks makes it feel like I have to start all over again too. That’s okay though. Starting comes easily to me.

In the meantime, between working 12-14 hours a day at an agency, managing my own clients, dealing with a dead (if only temporarily) computer, I also had a show at Post 27! I barely talked about this event, my biggest regret of this whole holidaze-craze season. I was so wrapped up in making the work that I just didn’t have it in me. I needn’t have worried though, to my shock and awe, because it was a success! We sold over half the work, which has never happened to me before!

Heaps of gratitude to Veronica Corzo-Duchardt & Post 27, the other two-thirds of this show. Without Veronica’s Neche Collection test prints, screenprinted notepads & tags, or Angela’s usual furniture & display skills this would not have come together. Together we all got to craft office of our dreams, even if it just existed for one night.

This is just one of the project I’m currently incubating. It’s for all you post-it note hoarders, marker sniffers and obsessive filers (you know who you are). It’s for all those times when you have so much work you can’t see straight and you need a little extra oomphf to get motivated. Re-Classified is a show about work, the office, and the multitude of tools that go into stuff-making. Get organized (or die trying) surrounded by beautiful, inspiring things, we offer all the promise of a fresh sketchbook or a box full of brand-spanking new school supplies. Including office furniture by Post 27, office-themed Neche Collection test prints by Winterbureau, and keep going kits of curated vintage & up-cycled office supplies by yours truly.

Ch-ch-check it out.
Opens next Thursday December 8th at Post 27. Free!
1819 W. Grand Ave
Chicago, IL
60622