Day 05. Activating Corporate Futures
Designing Futures in a changing world, or how artists can break the norm
Friday June 26, 1:00pm EDT
🎧 Talk, 30 minute session
Like oil and water, artists are not expected to mix in a business environment. But what if we tried? What are the consequences of bringing creative, out-of-the-box thinkers in an environment that is not ready for them? And what kind of change will they spark? Now imagine not one, but two stubborn artists with a common vision and a dire need to design change. Imagine the transformation they will ignite and what they can set in motion. In our talk, we will speak of our personal experiences as being the ‘artist’ within non-creative environments.
How we applied critical and speculative design to shape strategic, global change; the ups, the downs, and the new we designed by being tenacious creatives that believe in their vision. With critical design as a North Star to enlighten the journey we will share with you how, and most importantly why it is essential to break the rules and seek for place of discomfort to bring not just something new but something legendary.
Justine De Ridder
Strategy and Innovation Designer, NonZeroSumLab
As an avid dreamer, Justine always sought for ways to make her dreams come true. First through engineering, life sciences and computer sciences, then through the arts. When she became acquainted with future-based design, she realized that being a rigorous dreamer was key in solving challenges and shaping (real) innovation. Ever since, she has been exploring ways of re-shaping environments and methodologies to allow people to envision new futures, understand what they entail for society, and believe in making the steps to realize these futures. In short, she wants everybody to start dreaming again, and to wonder: what if? Currently, Justine works at Quint Wellington Redwood, an international consultancy company supporting organizations in designing and implementing digital transformation. Together with visual storyteller and fellow futures-enthusiast Liudmila Sharafutdinova, they are working on developing ways to shape a digital vision through future-based design. In their ongoing research, they are merging their personal strengths in organizational culture and innovation through foresight to develop a methodology bridging the future with the now. As a designer/engineer/artist, Justine likes to consider herself as a Swiss army knife, able to bring the necessary tools to the table to drive new ways of thinking and to initiate perspective shifts.
Liudmila Sharafutdinova
Strategy and Innovation Designer, NonZeroSumLab
Liudmila Sharafutdinova is a visual storyteller and a linguist of change passionate about futures and speculative design. She was born in Russia and moved to the Netherlands with the aim to study arts. Soon enough she realized that she is more of a designer than a painter and over traditional art, she preferred solving complex problems using design as a method and a language of change. Passionated graphic designer and illustrator, Liuda worked for small and big organisations as a communication and visual designer. Inspired by what future-based design can bring, and with a dire need to create change, she started working at PVH Europe (the American clothing company owning brands such as Tommy Hilfiger or Calvin Klein) where she merged artistic design practices of transmedia storytelling and agile methodology to drive change in the organizational culture. She currently works at Quint Wellington Redwood, an international consultancy company supporting organizations in designing and implementing digital transformation. Together with Justine De Ridder they are researching the current models of innovation and are working on establishing a new methodology aimed at bridging the Future with the Now. Liuda believes in the power of combining the “uncombinable” by bringing interdisciplinary solutions and eliminating the boundaries between corporate and artistic worlds.