Yesterday evening in Corktown, the Detroit Creative Corridor Center (DC3) hosted its monthly Drinks X Design event. The parties serve as gatherings for design and related professionals from across the metroplex. The former Catholic School building, still called "St Vincent," is now upscale office space and studio space for designers, artists and lawyers who serve that community. The venue seemed especially well-suited to hosting the combined Drinks X Design/Detroit Design Festival Kickoff party. Many of the businesses that rent space at St Vincent are in design or art, and all these businesses had doors wide open at yesterday's party.
One business inside St Vincent that had doors open for the event was Detroit Wood Type Co. The firm run by College for Creative Studies illustration department chair Don Kirkpatrick makes prints using elaborately chiseled blocks of wood. Kilpatrick is an amazing draftsman, and his works have a dreamy, surreal quality that make Detroit seem like a fairyland. Kilpatrick, tall and bearded, greeted Drinks X Design partygoers and showed off some of Detroit Wood Type's portfolio, which includes work for Shinola.
A few doors down the epoxy-floored hallway, I visited a room hosted by the American Institute of Architects. There, I chatted with AIA rep and Sam Moschelli, an architect with Integrated Design Solutions in Troy. He recommended checking out AIA's entry in Detroit Design Festival. Outside, a DJ laid some calypso beats and the Hero or Villain Deli Truck offered sandwiches, fries and sides of bacon. A dashing couple, both apparently in their sixties, danced a strong, quick tango. Both wore all black. She wore large sunglasses, her grey hair held in a loose bun by a black plastic clip. People gathered to clap.
Drinks X Design takes place the third Thursday of each month at different venues across the city. The Detroit Design Festival, run but Drinks X Design organizers DC3. Detroit Design Festival takes place Sept 22-26 at a variety of Detroit venues including Eastern Market. Just a few of the large collection of offerings in this year's event include a Design Village sponsored by Dwell Magazine, Eastern Market After Dark (food trucks! popups!) and activities geared towards children.
·Detroit Wood Type Co [Detroit Wood Type]
·St Vincent Building [St Vincent Corktown]
·Don Kilpatrick [Don Kilpatrick]
·Hero or Villain [Roaming Hunger]
·Goddess323 [Instagram]
·Integrated Design Solutions [IDS]
·Detroit Design Festival [DDF]
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