Alabama Design Summit
The following entries recap and report on the progress of the Alabama Design Summit project.
Gee's Bend.
Since July, work from the summit has continued on a smaller scale. Sheri Schumacher and Steve Cox have been working behind the scenes to test our strategy in Boykin Alabama. Boykin gained international fame many years ago with the discovery of the Gee's Bend Quilters. Boykin faces many of the same challenges as other rural areas in the U.S.. This area, however, is home to a national treasure and a great place for us to implement our strategy in a smaller geographic area.
The opportunity to help this community rethink it's economic future and celebrate it's rich artistic heritage makes me pinch myself everyday. Several of Sheri’s students at Auburn University College of Architecture, Design and Construction, created a variety of ideas to get the residents of Gee’s Bend and potential partners thinking about the possibilities for this beautiful place. Those proposals can be seen in the Gee's Bend proposal book we created. On January 9th, 2012, at the the Quilter's Collective in Boykin, we presented the books to the community in advance of several upcoming meetings to promote the Gee's Bend project. The link below will take you to the full layout.
http://issuu.com/alabama_engine/docs/geesbend
P.S. Sheri recently hosted our first quilting workshop. Stay tuned for details and dates for future workshops!
The Morning After.
I don't really know where to begin. I find it very hard to fully explain the experience of the 2011 Alabama Design Summit. I think AIGA's new president Doug Powell said it all with one word. "WOW!".
Last night, I tried to describe to my wife the enormity of our tasks, the seamless collaboration of the teams and the inspiring results of the work, but words fail. I can only offer this analogy... I can tell you about the grandeur, enormity and awesomeness of a redwood tree. I can even show you pictures. But, until you personally experience a walk in a grove of those amazing trees, you can't comprehend the scale of the emotion.
The summit brought together a mix of local and national creative professionals to work alongside local community and business leaders. Each diverse "Studio" was given a problem to solve and 3 days to work together to understand the problem, define an objective and offer actionable solutions.
Our team was Studio 2 and our task was Tourism for Community Regeneration. The team was built with a creative strategist, four designers, an Architect, an Intern from the Auburn University Urban Studio, an Archaeologist, an Associate Professor of Architecture, the Co-founder and executive director of International Expeditions, and the President of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama/former President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz U.S. International.
We started out Wednesday as a group of strangers. But, by Thursday afternoon, we had become a cohesive group of trusted and respected teammates.
A full report (probably many) will come later. I hope I have been able to share a quick glimpse into the scale and importance of what just happened. So many new friendships were forged. And, so many life-changing stories are still to come. To check out the background on the summit and look in on the Flicker stream, click here.
I am proud, tired, excited, inspired and ready for more.
© 2011 Rocketfuel Design Inc.