Open City
Design by Claire Nelson (2007)
Open City is a group I started with the formidable Liz Blondy of Canine To Five in the fall of 2007. We were noticing a lot of interest from friends and customers about starting new businesses in Detroit. And not the high-tech stuff -- more the low-tech, old-school, mom-&-pop corner store kind of stuff. Over several chats at our favorite watering holes, Liz & I realized the best start-up advice we received was not from consultants or bureaucrats, but other fellow business owners. So we called a monthly gathering at the beautiful Cliff Bell's bar in downtown Detroit to share information between aspiring and existing entrepreneurs. It started with a handful of friends, and thanks to Model D and several awesome partners and participants, it has grown into a movement.
Design by Claire Nelson (2007)
Open City is a group I started with the formidable Liz Blondy of Canine To Five in the fall of 2007. We were noticing a lot of interest from friends and customers about starting new businesses in Detroit. And not the high-tech stuff -- more the low-tech, old-school, mom-&-pop corner store kind of stuff. Over several chats at our favorite watering holes, Liz & I realized the best start-up advice we received was not from consultants or bureaucrats, but other fellow business owners. So we called a monthly gathering at the beautiful Cliff Bell's bar in downtown Detroit to share information between aspiring and existing entrepreneurs. It started with a handful of friends, and thanks to Model D and several awesome partners and participants, it has grown into a movement.
The logo and website I created were pretty basic -- this was another no-budget initiative, so we just wanted to keep things simple. On our website, to show what we meant by a "thriving local economy," I stole all kinds of images of Detroit small businesses (apologies, photographers) to create this pretty mosaic. Each of these businesses participated somehow in Open City, and many (not all) off them opened in Detroit within the last 5 years. Detroit is hardly dead.
