The Design Futures Initiative connects designers, strategists, engineers, scientists, artists and futurists from around the world. We facilitate programs and conversations on the ethical, environmental, political and economic impact of future products and services.

 

Our Programs

We are passionate about undertaking projects that help to promote the profession of futures design

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We partner with individuals, communities, and organizations on initiatives that help spread awareness about speculative practice and futures design thinking. We do this by:

  • Promoting the development of Design Futures & Foresight as a discipline, focusing on issues for the practitioner

  • Providing access to new knowledge and the application of design futures approaches to new sectors and disciplines

We are always looking for new ideas and projects to work on. If you would like to partner with us on a program or initiative, let us know!

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Futuring Peace

The United Nations is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. To mark this special occasion, the Innovation Cell of the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) and Design Futures Initiative (DFI) are calling for designers and futurists to create speculative artifacts that evoke novel futures of how to better sustain peace.

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Youth Program

How might we use Futures Frameworks to help our youth identify life, career, and social challenges and design better life pathways as they move into adulthood? DFI has partnered with the Boys & Girls Club of San Francisco and now evolving our youth program to work with children with disabilities. We are currently looking for partners and sponsors.

Learn More

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Music in the Barns

We are partnering with Music in the Barns and the Canada Council for the Arts to explore how we might make music pedagogy more accessible with the development and early testing of a prototype digital musical instrument designed for creating and learning music at home and in the digital space.

 

We are working with a core team to gather information from various communities, exploring the barriers to participation through cultural differences and traditional ways that the art form is presented and taught.

Music in the Barns is looking for community partners and digital creators!

For more information contact musicinthebarns@gmail.com