Redefining Mobility with Sketchbattle, From Four Wheels to Flying Skateboards: Part 1

Good afternoon listeners and viewers. This is another episode of disrupt debt. I'm Ron to Fansky your host, and I am so excited to be broadcasting a live from the new lab studio right here in downtown Detroit. And as you know, I'm not a very cool person. I'm a old dog trying to learn new tricks, but one of my super powers is I affiliate with the cool people. And so we have two cool people on the show today. My long time, Fred Rich Folly, who runs strategic partnerships, marketing, and a whole bunch of other stuff for new lab, Rich. Welcome to the show today. Thank you, Ron. School. You're breaking this in for us. No. No. This is a new studio a new lab. And for those of you who haven't been following the new lab story that we've been sharing in the disrupted community, it is lit here. They took the book depository from the Detroit Public School System, molding books and all, and they blew up the second floor and turn it into loft space and a whole lot more. And Rich can tell you what exactly they're doing down here now after their heroic success at the naval yards in Brooklyn, New York. So NewLab is on the scene in Detroit at Jason two, the Michigan Central Innovation campus, This is where mobility is happening. This is the heart of disruption in our community here in Detroit And I understand there's a new moniker. I'm not supposed to be saying no mobility. It's it's transportation, innovation zone. So it's Tiz now. It's not it's not mobility, but it's a whole bunch of really cool stuff. Yeah. And sure. Rito Run. It's it's definitely still mobility. That's our focus here at NewLab. The Transportation Innovations on is the larger Michigan central space that we are one of the occupants of, and it's an exciting place to be to your point. I think it's, ground zero for what's happening in Detroit and in the mobility space in general. Yeah. I think, you know, when I think about mobility, I think of it as a definitional term. I mean, Detroit invented the term, right, in the last century. In the last century, Detroit was the world's most or or the country's most economically prosperous city. We brought mobility to the stage we created the middle class here. So now for it to be coming back and to have a hub of this on the campus of what used to be the old train station is simply extraordinary. And you're you're cooking up so many things here, Rich. It's it's amazing to watch you work because you've got ten major things going on at one time, and you brought us a guest today to talk a little bit about your latest, program that you're hatching here. So why don't we jump in and and bring, your guests right onto the show here? Sure. Well, it's your guest, and I'm really pleased to be on the show with you today, Ron. Thanks for sharing your microphones with us. But I am really excited to introduce you and and to introduce your listeners and and viewers to Brooke Banham, who runs an incredible event that happens every year in another cities as well called middle middle cut sketch battle. It's the also known as the Fight Club of Design lovingly known. It's a it's a really cool competition as we were looking around to figure out how we can sort of, we're new to the city, obviously, a new lab, but we wanted to sort of break into the auto show. Community and the and the event scene. There's an existing event that I've been to in the past that has incredible energy, great design you know, great vibe, great music, which is all very much part of the new lab ethos. So of course, when I was, introduced to Brooke, that was one of the first things wanted to do. And I'll turn it over to Brooke to explain a little bit more about this incredible event that as I said, I've I've been a part of before in the past. Yeah. Brooke, it's great to have you here on the show. Yeah, Ron. Thanks so much for inviting me. And Rich. Also, this, the pleasure's all mine. And I I take great pleasure in, telling you a little bit about where the viewers about, Sketch battle. So Sketch battle As you said, Rich, nicknamed the fight club of design, well meaning because it's, it's competition. It's a competition of designers celebrating designers as athletes, as kind of like boxers. Well, I'll tell you this. One of the things I love about the event that has been really exciting for me is that it's, these of designers who are essentially under the clock with people looking over their shoulder under pressure. It's a tough pro form a Kaiyote. There's a timed element, and then there's, like, rounds that you keep moving forward, and and you can just watch these designers at work. They have small lamps on their desks There's a really cool vibe. There's great music in the background. And there's pressure. Yeah. Well, we're trying to bring, design as a pursue it as a competition, because it is competitive. Design is competitive. Whoever has the best sketch, gets the best job, gets the best gets good pay. And so, to bring out that competitive nature, that's what we're doing with the sketch battle, you know, Normally, design is done behind closed doors and deep secret, you know, especially with the car auto industry. Right. And so we bring this out to the open for public to see So it also opens up career possibilities. Some people don't even know that this type of job exists. So exposing that as well And, it's just a really fun event. It's always held during auto shows. We do them in LA, San Francisco and New York City, Chicago as well. And so these these events is, a chance for people to relax also in terms of the auto industry during the auto show is quite kind of in a stiff mode during during the actual auto show, but then afterwards they can just hang out and relax. So they they come to the Sketch battle after the auto show and relax in there. But then also there's students there. They're, design students. There's, parents, there's there's a lot of mixed, local creative community. And so it works out really nicely to have this blend of a non official auto show So that's also part of the attraction to the sketch battle. You know, as I was hearing from Rich about your story, Brook, what what captured my interest was this idea, you know, I always think about things in terms of this massive disruption we're seeing. Yeah. And nowhere at no industry is more disruptive than automotive right now. And so when I think about that, you know, maybe you can speak a little bit. To our listening and viewing audience about the disruptions going on in design. Design used to be. My my, uncle Bob used to work at CCS. That used to be the GM design building. Yes. And he worked in metal and he worked in wood and clay and with a pencil. Now design has been completely disrupted by that. Right? Absolutely. Absolutely. Apart from just digital tools, in this in our sketch battle, we we use, manual tools, which is going back to the old school So, I guess, in a way, talking about disruption, going back to manual tools sketching and disrupt, disruptive in itself, because everyone's using Photoshop and Katay. So, and and, well, also along the terms of disruption, the Sketch battle is, It's a passive aggressive thing. You know, we want to showcase the well, aggressive is not the right word. But everyone's trying to kick everyone's butt in the world of design. So it's very competitive. Climate that. Right. And so, as I say, we'd like to bring that out into the open one of the things that's cool about this event too, and is that you see some of these winners who've gone on to great careers in the automotive industry and elsewhere for that matter. And this was their launch, so to speak. And the other thing that I thought has been really cool, and I think that Brooke brought this up, and I think it it's really important is to think about opera opening up the eyes to the people who live in this community. Some of the great designers who are coming out of schools like CCS, the college for creative studies, and other programs here at the various colleges and letting them see that there is a place for them in this industry that is progressive, that interesting, that is next level, that is artistic, that is design centric, that can tap into their sort of deepest desires to be an artist. And I love where mobility is going on top of that. You take the the designs of of robo taxis and autonomous vehicles and all the other elements that are coming into play now drones. And you start layering that on top of what is the traditional automotive industry, and you're you're you're able to take all those skills to another level. Well, and you're really bloating what we consider the definition of mobility. You know, in my grandpas, we're working for Chrysler in nineteen twenty six. Mobility and new tech was an automobile, a carriage with four wheels. And now mobility can be any number of things. What I always find fascinating, Rich, is to look at all the mobility applications we're seeing right here in your building. So you have Avenue, you have, you have LaVAC, which is building a, battery powered, ATV, and then you have, I forget the name of the company that's building these really cool trans advanced that are gonna be off grid and they're gonna round it. Grounded. Thank you. You know, and so mobility is taking on a very expansive view here. What did you say? Absolutely. You you have recreational vehicles. You just mentioned a couple grounded. It's a camper van, essentially. All electric. You've got LaVAC. This off road ATVs, using, like, the, you know, carbon fiber outfits really fast and sleek. Then you've got, you know, sort of more, sort of utilitarian vehicles, grocery delivery vehicles, robo taxis, etcetera. But there's this infrastructure component that you talk about that's in the background of all this that may not have the sleek design, but that is so essential, and there's so many layers to that. That when we move into electrification, whether whether you're talking charging grid infrastructure, whether you're talking smart streets, whether you're talking connected cars, technologies, there's an element that goes well beyond just the design of some of the hard tech that you'll find in this building too. Right. I also think that with mobility, you're also saying you know, as we lay out the future, it's all gonna be about talent. So you have this sketch battle, which is about talent. But generally speaking, as we look at mobility, It always seems to me like if you want more kids to take stem and if you want more kids to move into automotive venue, faction or automotive design or mobility design. You need to bring them to gear the belly and showing the cool stuff that's I mean, I'm gobsmacked by the stuff that they're building now and what gets designed anymore. Well, that's an interesting point. You make the wrong, especially for young people because young people are not so much into cars in terms of the gasoline stuff in the environmental. So opening up this car design and steps in car mobility, way more interesting for the young people because the the scooter battery powered scooters, drone stuff, drone delivery on gasoline using stuff, basically. Is much more appealing for the young people. So that's one of the really the things that I find fascinating about mobility and about, seeing what people produce in the Sketch battle because this Sketch battle will be mobility based. And so, for example, I'm imagining things like we've had topics and a top, it started in Paris, the final mile where and then our last sketch battle we had, which was at CCS in January. The topic was the final mile. And, basically, it's following along the model of in Paris where cars are not allowed in downtown, because because of congestion and pollution. Right. So people had to park outside of town, a mile outside of town, and they have to find their way to get in. So that is a very compelling mobility pro conundrum to try to to to to create answers for. I mean, so, basically, what I was doing with the last sketch battle was to I really wanted to open it up to all, all all disciplines from fashion to product to transportation design, how do I incorporate all of those into this mobility thing like fashion? How does that well, who wants to look the coolest coming into town that last mile when it'll stroll in looking like hot as heck or, do you wanna come flying in on, like, a flying skateboard or, you know, all this imaginative stuff So, so the mobility and and sketch battle is it can really come out as as long as we, have a very good theme and get everyone behind it. So we have to brief the contestants before the, before the event, like a weekend event so they come in practice. They're gonna know they should know what's gonna draw. And and those are the ones who are gonna win. But so here's an example of how mobility goes multi multi deep. So for example, you park a mile outside of town. So how do you wanna get into town? Let's just say a scooter for argument's sake. Well, this scooter should be should be built into the jeep. Okay. The jeep that you park your jeep up, the jeep is electric. It's also a charging station and a kind of a home base for all your, for your electronic stuff like your scooter, write your scooter into work, go to work and stuff. Go back go ride your scooter back for lunch, back to your jeep where you have, like, your fridge and and sandwiches or coffee maker. It's all self contained hub, and take the scooter back to, back to your work. And and so, you know, the thought of mobility is not just a drone or just a car or whatever. It's it's super dimensional and and that they can all be linked and they are all linking together. You know, Brooke, you remind me when I first my wife and I first moved with Detroit in two thousand twelve. I remember listening to Bill Ford talking about the automotive industry and where it was going. And one of the things that was keeping Bill and his executive team up at nights was the idea that this next generation, simply not interested in owning cars. Yeah. And that really could send the industry off a cliff. And so -- Yes. -- I think all this imagination around building mobility hub. I mean, I think Bill was inspired to think about the Michigan Innovation campus and new lab as an extension of, well, we're gonna bring a lot of people together. We're gonna start inventing mobility differently, or we're gonna lose this whole another generation, and it doesn't want a big hulking piece of steel in their driveway anymore. It's not gonna work eleven. Yeah. That's that's exciting. You know, the one of the things that I think has been so powerful about Detroit as a mobility hub is that you get to take advantage of the entire engineering and automotive ecosystem that existed here and has existed here for so long. At the same time, you bring in some of that forward thinking and all that sort of beauty and the new the the new, sort of, thought process that's driving a much broader definition of mobility than in the older days, and you combine those two things in which you have as a powerhouse hub. And a place that people wanna be. They want access to the OEMs. They want access to the tier one suppliers. They want access to those engineers and eat that ecosystem, but they also bring speed and dynamism and interesting new concepts and designs that are gonna just change the way we move, people and goods for a long time. Well, you know what, you and Brooke just talking about a second ago, and I wanna bring back into the conversation. There's this idea of design as something beautiful, the idea of the concept of beauty You know, when I think about that, when we first launched disrupt ed, I guess it's been about eighteen months now. One of the first people we had on disrupt Ed was Kevin Zinger from diversion three d, and he had not only build the skunk works around a new manufacturing system. That was software forward that was designing manufacturing, assembling vehicles differently, but they also used AI to tribute to a system of design that was uniquely powerful in that it incorporated all these tech tools to take design to the next level. What I find interesting about Kevin's first launch, the twenty one C, which is now the world's fastest hyper sports card, not really. It's a very cool But the thing is it reminds me of Harley Earl. It reminds me of the Buick guys. You know, it reminds me of design out of Detroit in the forties. Because when you look at everything Kevin's done at the end of the day, it's still a beautiful piece of machinery. Yeah. You look at the twenty one c. It's beautiful. I mean, beauty is at the core of that car. High performance. It's high performance. And that's a thing of beauty. Right? So beauty does manifest itself in the design. And I think it's coming from all over the place. You know, it's interesting. Rich, you and I are from the Detroit area, but, our friend Brooke here is not. So he's only been here for the last dozen or so years, but but you have been inspired in your design from places as far as Munich and Germany and and Englandlands. Yes. Tell us a little bit about how those cultural influences have changed the way you're thinking about disruptive design. That's a really interesting Well, I was born in Texas, and then I, I moved to England when I was, like, thirteen years old. I went to transportation design school there. All very traditional, transportation. It was Jaguar where the school was, Jaguar, Esther Martin, ranged Land Rover and all those. So that was the the Detroit of, England, Ray, carpentry. So that was all pretty, non disruptive stuff at that time. There was not much disrupting going on. Moved to Munich in Germany, and then started working at shoes. Perpuma, And then, went to San Francisco. That's when my my disruption started to happen because yeah. Because San Francisco is so, like, the consumer electronic hub, right, you know, and that's where I was working a lot of stuff. That started getting me into thinking about electric cars. This was two thousand four, two thousand five. Because people were taking minis for they were shipping minis over from England and and putting and then retrofitting them with electric stuff. That was so cool, you know, back in Jacob before. I was like, damn, that's hot. And those things are fast as heck. So, anyway, so recession, you hit two thousand and nine. Two thousand eight, two thousand nine, I was like, you know what, I gotta go to Detroit. That's the hub of of, of automotive stuff in America. And so San Francisco wasn't the big hub in. It is now a little bit. But anyway, so it came to Detroit and, yeah, just just all of this the big tree around here, all my friends of designers and car design, the inspiration for the sketch battle. So, Now how is the well, I'll tell you what's really disrupting me right now in terms of, like, design. NewHub definitely. And when I first came into NewHub, couple of months ago with Rich. He gave me a tour. New lamp. Yeah. New Bob. Yes. It is a new Bob as well. So, That was that was like, oh my god. I was already falling in love with Detroit. I've been falling in love with it for the last five years at first. I started, like, but now I'm really loving it. Now it's coming here here and seeing what they're doing here with all of these startups and and, you know, the the for bringing in this whole setup, I just, like, really super elevated and loving this This new culture of Detroit is this breathing new life into the city and, and just the fact that we're changing the world, well, America. Let's start with and nationally, we're changing the way people think about move cars. Let's call it now mobility, and, and how to choice this becoming the center stage of this it's becoming, like, the Silicon Valley of mobility. And so this has made me love this anymore, and this is disrupting my thought And, as as far as design, because I'm drawing Well, I was originally for the poster and for the sketch battle. I was drawing three very hot modern muscle cars. Gas lane, no, they're gonna be electric. But now after coming to, new lab, I'm like, you know what, these things are not gonna be stuck on wheels. These things are gonna be fly. I mean, I wanna make these things fly. So I'm changing my poster for the Sketch battle from wheeled electric vehicles to now flying electrical vehicles And, now, actually, it's from drawing these flying electrical vehicles. By the way, just for a visual taste, I'm thinking, James Bond, the one where they have the lotus lease summary. You know, those with the fins, that type of really that's really hot stuff. Then I'm also finding inspiration from back to the future where the the wheels pop up. It's one of the the third one. I never watched it, honestly, but I've seen the car. Anyway, so All of this electronic stuff and all this crazy cool stuff happening around here is changing my thought about designing cars. And I'm trying to get away from wheels stuck on the ground and trying to think of flights and drone stuff and maybe no drivers in the cars. And so, I think we need to bring Kevin to Detroit again. I think it's cyber's anger to bring this twenty one feet here. Oh my god. It's crazy. Right? When I heard that thing, it sound, and I saw that thing. I was like, well, this is a certain, form follows function, or is it function follows form? Cause it's all in there. It's it's in there. It looks all functional. There's no basically b s on there. Sorry. No. The three d, what's happening in three d printing, carbon fiber printing, metal, three d, you know, three d metal printing, all this stuff that's happening there. Is so exciting. And the people that are at the forefront of that, it is an art form to them. They're they're making these parts much more efficient. They're creating one part where their once was twenty. They're they're they're creating a m a more efficient vehicle essentially. And the the pride that they feel for some of that is amazing. They've been to some of these, factories lately to see some of that work, and there is it's an artist's pride that you see, something that they've created that has not been created before. Well, you know, even among the design groups and even among the software engineers, we're seeing artistry entering in. So we're seeing, first of all, we're seeing, software design companies and software engineering companies hiring more people with an art background. Why? Because they're thinking outside the box. Right? But then they're also looking at the software and saying, we've gotta enable new tools because now that you're thinking about new structures, we need a new way of conceiving them. And being constrained by CAD is not gonna be enough in this three d you know, kind of environment. So we're also seeing that software is being transformed by what you're doing on the design floor because it's changing the way we envision structures to support the kind of mobility vehicles or transporters, I guess, that we wanna see on the planet. Yeah. Absolutely. And the know, the other thing that I I just wanna bring up because I I really appreciated you bringing it up, Brooke, is that during the auto show, there's, there's a lot of that has to be done on the floor, at at the auto show and and out in the city for people who are working. This event is meant to sort of allow yourself to sort of lower your guard to to let that design centric element sort of wash over you and to just relax and have a good time and to be, essentially inspired. And so I I love the event for that reason. I think that speaks to the, sort of vibe of a new lab, if you ever been in our building, our building is a beautiful structure. I think it has a design centric sensibility to it, and yet it is it is an Albert Khan structure. It will stand through earthquakes if it needs to. It is built solidly, and it will last forever. But it's had this new layer built into it of beauty. And I think that really speaks to the entire event that Brooke and and Judith put on every year. It's incredible. Hi, agree. I mean, Albert Khan, think about him, and he constructed the architecture of the twentieth century, Detroit, as we know it. I live in an Albert Khan building on the riverfront, and know, there's an asceticism to design and and beauty in what he did. He made factories good looking. You look at the old packet plant. You look at some of the, you know, you look Ford Rouge. These were things that were not only functional, but they were also, you know, he and he inserted into them a certain aesthetic that I think is the, you know, timeless. Yeah. So as we wrap this episode of disrupt ed to our listening and viewing audience, you've been listening to Brooke Banham from I'm gonna say it right, middle cut design. Yes. Right here in the d. That's right. And then my friend and, cool adjacent friend, Rich Folly from New Labs. Thank you, Rich, for sending this all up. A wonderful studio, wonderful place. So much is happening here. Can we come back and use this? Because I know I'm not cool, but but I think I wanna be cool adjacent in this -- Yeah. -- this space. I appreciate you doing disrupt that on the road. That's really kind. I appreciate it. Yes. Of course. It's mo yeah. Disrupt that is mobility. Right. Right. We'll have you back. Alright. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you folks for listening and joining us today for this episode of disrupt ed. Hey, if you're listening, give us your feedback, send your comments, send your feedback on social media. And get disrupted with us. Subscribe the podcast, subscribe to the newsletter, send us your feedback about who else you wanna hear from, even as cool as Rich and Brooke. We want more people to build upon our growing community of people out there who are getting disrupted with us. Thanks so much for joining us.