What is an object actually worth? Not what the maker says or what the market pays for it, but when it's sitting in your hands.

SCOPE
Brand Identity, Product Design, E-Commerce, Systems Design

INDUSTRY
Independent Retail / Product

STAGE
Self-Initiated

CREDITS
Presented by: Design Core Detroit, Detroit Month of Design 2026
Venues: The Raw Space, Detroit (Eric Cook); Eastern Market After Dark
Brand, product, storefront: Corbin Mohr
Photography: Skylar Healy
Talent: Max Dashevsky
Official listing: Detroit Month of Design

Welcome to The Dystopian Charm Vendor

Ad fatigue isn't a trend, it's a wall. The DCV was built around the idea that the best way to get someone's attention is to give them something worth finding. No funnel. No push. Just a system deep enough that people choose how far they want to go and get rewarded for their efforts.

Most buy charms, but the vendor has many ways of getting a charm into your hands...

Self-initiated and shipped: I designed the brand, the charms, the storefront, took it to market, and exhibited it at Detroit Month of Design 2026. Three weekends as storefront at The Raw Space and a pop-up booth at Eastern Market After Dark.

The DCV Site
Related: NODES, Detroit Month of Design

+ EXECUTION +

Detroit Month of Design

Online, a charm is a photo and a number. That's a problem for a shop built on the idea that an object's worth is decided in your hands. Detroit Month of Design put the charms where the argument could actually happen.

Most bought, but some solved five Nodes across the city and earned one instead. The exhibit answered the question the store couldn't: the same charm, reached two different ways, and you decide what it was worth.

Four dates across September, 100 charms, hundreds of players, with a stop at Eastern Market After Dark.

Above: Interactive Kiosk for onboarding and navigating node map. Charm database and BiNK chat bot too.

+ CORE +

GUERRILLA - SACRED - RAW

The DCV meets people where they are. Buy a charm at whatever price the market set that minute, or solve your way to one across the city. However far you go is up to you. You decide what it's worth: the price, the time it took, the effort it cost.

+ VOICE +

Meet BiNK.

Every storefront needs a clerk. BiNK is ours; a repurposed bot running the register at DCV. 

BiNK manages stock, live charm pricing, sales and pushing updates to the discord server. All automatically. 

But BiNK has ulterior motives. Buried in its responses are fragments that don't quite fit the transaction...

Above: The current live tracker from our site. Click to see most recent sales. Automatically increases the cost of each charm live after every sale, and pushes notifications to the discord. Weekly price reset.

+ DEPTH +

Something the market can't price.

Outcome

Some people buy a charm and move on. A few go all the way in. Every level is intentional. The community that forms around that is different from anything a media buy can build, it's made of people who chose to be there.

175+ 
Charms Made

Handmade & Sold. Each one cut, primed, hand-finished, no two Variant charms alike, no mass production line.

Detroit Month of Design

Physical Activation. Four dates across September, a marquee stop at Eastern Market After Dark.

$30→?

Every charm opens at $30, the dynamic price tracker automates live pricing, notifications, and new stock alerts.