»Futuring defines a collective and individual disposition, a mission and the organizing of principles of practices. At its most obvious, it means giving the self a future. In this respect good design is futuring.«
As the complexity of our world is becoming more and more obvious, the demand for tools to think about, better understand and imagine preferable futures is growing. This opens up a new field of action for designers: Design Futuring. But how can we teach this in a methodical and robust creative process?
The intersection of Design and Futuring is an emerging field for designers. In this new role designers have to enable stakeholders from all areas of society to imagine and negotiate different (desirable) futures using the tools of design. By designing future scenarios that are tangible, experiential and imaginable in order to motivate decision makers from business, politics and society to take action.
Eileen and Benedikt authored the book »Zukünfte gestalten« (published Oct 2022, ISBN 9783874399586, translation to English upcoming) to offer designers an entry door into this new realm of design.
In a structured creative process, various thinking tools enable an analytical and systematic examination of many different future scenarios. Different creativity methods expand the imagination for »better« future scenarios that portray everyday life of ordinary people.
Because there is no seemingly inevitable future.
Eileen Mandir
Research Professor for Systemic Design at the Faculty of Design, Munich University of Applied Sciences
Prof. Dr. Eileen Mandir combines several disciplines in an unconventional way: 30% engineering, 50% design, 20% coaching. Eileen studied Cybernetics at the University of Stuttgart and then completed her PhD in Traffic Management. She facilitates public future dialogues and accompanies corporate and institutional transformation processes. Eileen uses design to create discourse and change – for people, systems and organizations. Eileen is co-author of the book »Zukünfte gestalten« on the emerging field of Design Futuring. Since 2022 she has been a professor for Systemic Design, Social Design and Design Futuring at the Faculty of Design at the Munich University of Applied Sciences.
Benedikt Groß
Program Director, MA Strategic Design and AI+D Group at the HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd
Prof. Benedikt Groß is an antidisciplinary designer. Working at the intersection of people, data, technology and environments. Benedikt is the co-author of several books, including »Generative Gestaltung« – which is considered being one of the standard books in the field of computational design, and most recently »Zukünfte gestalten« on the emerging field of Design Futuring. He is an alumnus of the Royal College of Arts in Design Interactions (under Dunne & Raby), the MIT Senseable City Lab and the CMU Studio for Creative Inquiry. Since 2017, he has been a professor of Interaction Design and Strategic Design at the HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd and heads the master’s program Strategic Design there.
