A brief PowerPoint presentation on the key elements of the Design Studio (proof of concept center) and the Design Corps.

1. Design Corps
of Rural America
• Forgotten Legacy
• Missing Link
• The X Factors

2. Rural Legacy
In the first half of the
20th century, the Midwest
was a center of innovation
and a creator of industries
many in rural towns.
In the second half of the
20th century, the Midwest

3. Design Corps Goals
• Locally Owned Headquarters (3-5)
• High Paying Professional Jobs
• Local Design Studios Networked
• quot;Gifted & Talentedquot; (3% to 5% )

4. A Design Studio is:
• A self-sustaining nonprofit
• Organized and led by the “gifted and talentedquot;
• Networked regionally and nationally
• To identify technology and inventions
• Bring home those ideas for niche markets
• Add value by redesigning the inventions
• Patents are then sold to their HOMETOWN or
other towns in return for a royalty and/or cash
Michigan Public Act 444

5. Missing Link
Entrepreneurs
Inventors &
& Companies
Researchers (Private & Public)
“Crash and Burn”
Inventions are seldom commercialized because
the connection is often never made!

6. Missing Link
Design Studios
Entrepreneurs
Inventors
&
&
Bridge to: Companies
Researchers
(Private & Public)
Identify Inventors
Market Analysis
Redesign & Add Value
(Ketchup Bottle)
Sell Patented Idea to Hometowns

7. A Competitive-Edge
• Designing products within a
system
• For national markets: $10-$100
million
• With higher than normal
profits
• Where the profits come back

8. Screening Criteria
Headquarters
Niches are
limited to the
intersection of
the three
circles

9. The X Factors
Gifted & Talented
• Most creative & underutilized natural
resource
• Most likely (3%-5%) to think outside
the box
• Most likely resource to create
jobs/companies
• Most of them have gone underground
• Towns export them and they do not

10. Design Studio Process
• 2-6 “G&T” staff within six months in
• Virtual teams of 3 to 4 on several
projects will
• Design and redesign products and
services
• Around the passion of a “champion”
• Collaborate with other design studios as
well as
• On-line collaboration with teens in

11. Design Studio
• It is not a simulation
• It is not a volunteer
program
• It is about a solution…
the destiny of their

12. Design Corps Staff
Role
• Identify teens & adults
– Creatively gifted
– Organizationally talented
• Town representatives meet together
monthly
• Three objectives (teach--challenge—
ignite):
1. Functioning Design Studio in 4-6 months

13. Ten Design
Studios
1
2
3
4
5
Virtual
Design
6
Network
20 Teens 4-8 Teens
7
10
Design
8
Studio
9

14. Where do towns fit
in?
• Privately funded: $200,000/county/year
– ($25,000 for the network)
• 3-4 town leaders introduce the
project to:
– Teens, Parents, leaders and Public
Educators
• Be available to problem solve…and
mentor

15. Does it make sense to you?
Can it work?
Would you actively
support this idea with
teens and adults?

16. Design Corps
of Rural America
• Forgotten Legacy
• Missing Link
• The X Factors

17. Dr. William R. Wilkie
471 West Long Lake Drive
Harrison, Michigan 48625
989.339.4998 or
989.539.1928
wwilkie@design-corps.org
www.design-corps.org
Reference: Dr. Emmett Lippe
Former Superintendent
Novi Public Schools
Currently: CEO, Lippe
Consulting