Nick Foster

The Future Mundane

2015

About this talk

Design projects fall into three distinct categories: now, next and future. For near-term projects the design industry has developed and refined a variety of processes, but when approaching ideas for the future, things begin to fall apart. Designers are left to wander aimlessly between science fiction cinema, futurist literature and technology digests, and it’s clear from their output that something is amiss. Current sources of inspiration have their uses, but they often pull the designer in unhelpful directions, blinding them to the realities of a world to come. The future will include spacecraft, artificial skin and self-driving vehicles, but it will also include garbage, staplers and milk. It will be, in a very real sense, mundane. You will not be a hero. You will inherit furniture. Your morning will be spoiled when your toaster fails to sync with your bread app…

Nick will introduce an approach which looks at the role of the mundane in building a view of the future, and how experimenting with format and delivery we can make the future more tangible and achievable. It’s more fun than it sounds.

About Nick Foster

Nick Foster ​is and industrial designer, futurist​, film-maker and writer. He graduated from the Royal College of ​A​r​t​ in 2001 ​and worked for companies including Sony, Seymourpowell and Nokia. In​ 2012 ​he moved to California ​to take a role as ​creative lead for Nokia’s Advanced Design ​studio​. ​He currently ​w​orks​ with a brilliant team in Mountain View​ to help define the next generation of Google products.​ Nick is also a partner at the Near Future Laboratory, developing projects in the field of ​design fiction, speculative and critical futures.

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