Straight from our brains.
The futures sure feel complicated, but they don’t have to be.
Similarities Between Industrial Design and Futures Work
What are the links between the fields of industrial design and futures studies? Here we take a quick look at some of the overlaps.
How to Analyze Trends
Curious as to how best to analyze trends for more effective foresight-driven innovation? We’ve create this short guide to get you started with the foundations of trend analysis. From context setting to speculation, it’s all in here (with bonus one-pager to download and use).
FUT(-)ILE: Avenear’s Design Futures Framework
An overview of Avenear’s FUT(-)ILE framework for designing products and solutions for the future. It hybridizes methods from design thinking, strategic foresight, and design making to bring the futures to life through tangible artifacts and immersive experiences. Learn how to use this methodology for your own innovation project.
Library | Strategic Foresight
A list of some of our favourite strategic foresight, futures, and speculative books - straight from the Avenear library.
Futures Bingo
Watching sci-fi and future-themed movies is especially important as we’re influenced by what we see in these movies, but how many of the futures we’re shown are predictable versus unexpected? We’ve got two bingo cards to help you think critically about the futures you’re viewing. Print them out and fill them in the next time you watch a future-themed movie!
5 Consumer Trends to Consider
Here are five consumer trends that will impact services and businesses of the future.
Futures Menagerie
A look at the menagerie of postnormal potentialities: the Black Elephant, Swan, Jellyfish with the addition of the Grey Rhino.
A Glossary of Futures + Design Terms
A glossary of key terms used in design, futures, and innovation work. Learn what Applied Futures are, what Futures Thinking means, as well as what characterizes Design Fictions or Critical Designs.
Looking Back to Better Look Ahead
As futurists we spend the majority of our energy understanding the present and imagining the future… but what about the past? What value might be gained by first taking the time to understand the forces that led us to this present moment?
Futures & Strategic Foresight Podcasts We Love
A list of futures and foresight podcasts to help you stay up to date with the ways technology and innovation are (and will potentially continue) shaping our world.
The Future Now Past
Examining visions of futures that have now come to past. What did past societies believe would be true for the future? We present a curated list of some of the more well known works that have taken a stab at future speculation in the hopes of kick-starting the imagination.
5 Futuristic Industries On Which To Keep An Eye
As technology and society continues to evolve, it’s only natural that new industries will pop-up while others fade away. Here I outline 5 industries that are likely to emerge as “everyday” future industries.
Mother of Invention
A quick review (share out) of Nnedi Okorafor‘s science fiction short story Mother of Invention.