How does Design Fiction do the work of reporting on the future? Most futures reports are heavily analytic, styled to be read analytically and interpreted as data. Very seldom if at all is there any point of entry to create a sense of the future as something the report has come from. And this is important because the artifact itself — the report — provides little opportunity to experience the future as it could possibly be.

This is where Design Fiction provides an opportunity for teams and organizations that are working towards a future to gain a more full spectrum sense of possible futures that can tie directly in to their day-to-day work.

This is how Design Fiction has always functioned. From the seminal TBD Catalog (10th Anniversary Edition coming soon!) to IKEA Catalog and the scores of other Design Fiction projects the Near Future Laboratory has done for commercial clients over the years. Design Fiction brings the future to you, rather than simply projecting into it.

In this episode Patrick Pittman and I discuss a recent client project where we created a Magazine from the Future, in this case we took our client to the autonomous vehicle future, took a look around, found a trade magazine for autonomous vehicle enthusiasts, and brought it back. It's full of context.

Visit https://magazinefromthefuture.com to find out more and schedule a call to get more details.

Also, consider supporting the podcast and the Near Future Laboratory Discord community over at patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory

Thank you for listening!

- Julian

https://tbdcatalog.com

https://ikea.nearfuturelaboratory.com/

https://magazinefromthefuture.com

https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory