Design Core Detroit

Design Core Detroit, based out of the College for Creative Studies (CCS), works to strengthen and grow the City’s creative economy through professional development programs, business acceleration, and business matching programs. Design Core Detroit also houses the only UNESCO “City of Design” designation in the United States. They produce a number of events throughout the year, including September's Month of Design. Ani’s work on various programs follows below.

Design Jam - Adaptive Sports Apparel & Accessories (Month of Design)

September 2021-2024

Each September, Design Core hosts a weekend-long workshop focused on inclusive product innovation. Students, families, and professionals across varying industries are put into interdisciplinary teams to prototype a range of solutions around adaptive and accessible apparel. While partners and focuses change from year to year, Ani facilitates an opening session to ground participants in disability, design, and explore where ableism shows up in existing products often touted by mainstream media. Goals are for participants to have a better understanding of the power dynamics often present when non-disabled innovators design for disability-centered solutions. 2021 Design Jam Report, About the Design Jam.  

Partners included Teach Access, A New Life Prosthetics, Urban Manufacturing Alliance, ISAIC (Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center.

City of Design Challenge - Community Tech Hubs & Digital Inclusion.

Partnership with Connect 313 & College for Creative Studies. Community Juror & Advisor. 2021 - 2022
Ani acted as a community-juror, co-facilitated a session on building relationships, and provided mentorship to Challenge participating teams. This design challenge invited teams to imagine the role of digital tech hubs and how Detroit residents can better access public services. In June of 2021, six teams were awarded as challenge winners and granted participation stipends and accessed an inclusive design curriculum, engaging with community experts as they refined and developed their solutions. Three final teams were awarded in October with additional funding and a year’s worth of mentoring from community jurors, experts and different forms of support. These teams are the 18th Street Design-Build Green Tech Hub, Underground Music Academy, and Crosstown Connection. Ani worked closest with the Underground Music Academy.

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Detroit Month of Design (2022) - Event Accessibility Training

Ani facilitated a workshop on producing accessible events for Month of Design host organizations. Themes included foundational concepts such as disability, Ableism, language and engagement tips as well as curation tips, how to communicate the offerings of your space, and graphic design.