ANDREW BRADY
Work
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Target Accelerators
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Start Up North Gallery
Client
My Contribution
Every year, the Minnesota startup community gathers for Twin Cities Startup Week (TCSW) to network, learn and collaborate. In 2019, Target Accelerators was hosting the week-long event and came to us a few weeks beforehand. They had a whole floor of Target HQ left empty, and they wanted to use it for a VIP social event. Could we create a high-end art gallery aesthetic for the event? Also, could we do it with essentially no budget?
We need art. We have no money.
High-impact, low budget: that was the name of the game. We scrounged around in Target's basement for interesting objects that had been collecting dust (like a wrought-iron bullseye and a branded claw machine game). We spent hours coming up with inexpensive installation ideas, and then we built them all ourselves. This was, without a doubt, my scrappiest project ever.
The Alumni Gallery highlighted a few notable product launches from teams that had successfully completed the incubator program. We made a unique installation that included red circular lamps — literal bullseye incubation. Cost: $297
The Cocktail Tables each received a rather unusual floral centerpiece. One of the TCSW event co-sponsors was Cargill, which runs their own accelerator program for farm-to-fork initiatives (food logistics, supply chain automation, etc.). As a nod, we created roses and sunflowers from metal spoons. We tried forks, but they looked terrible. Cost: $46
Full-scale installation (~6.5 ft tall)
Close-up of 3"x3" Post-Its
The Display Wall was a reference to 3M, another TCSW event sponsor. Naturally, the focus of their accelerator is geared toward science and innovation. In that spirit, we pulled out one of 3M's most ubiquitous innovation: the Post-It Note. We made a 40 sq.ft. QR code out of more than 300 of them (and yes, it actually worked). Cost: $13
This project involved a lot of sifting through interviews with entrepreneurs. After reading a bunch of them, I had a couple related words and ideas rattling around my brain. So I wrote a thing. People called it a poem, but I don't much consider myself a poet. Regardless, after all the dust settled, this is what was left. Cost: $0
And, in an even more surreal twist, I won a Gold Pin in The Show (MN AdFed) for it. All for something that I wrote on a lark, just because we didn't have a budget for anything that wasn't homemade. But, given the occasion and the gallery topic, I suppose it was only fitting.
Here was the gallery install location.
Hey look, I won a thing.
Holy s**t! I'm on a display!
Niambi C, startup entrepreneur
Of course, many alumni of the Target Accelerator program were invited to socialize at the event. Knowing this, I found quotes from many of the entrepreneurs to print on acrylic panels. The idea began as an easy way to dress up the concrete columns, but I definitely underestimated how meaningful it would be for the entrepreneurs.
