Dear Future, I'm Ready!

Listen to our fascinating new episode of the #21for21 podcast 🚀  🌏  with Ruurd Priester, 

Ruurd talks with Marco and Carola about the stack of crises, doughnut economics and how he thinks we should transform (the) design (field) for good.

• 🎤  Most designers are in fact not designers, because they are working in the current or old economic models. And designers solve problems, and the old economic models are in fact the problem...
• 🎤  Dear Future, I am ready to work for the younger generation, so that their powers will be released for good.

Listen to the episode below 👇 🎧

Ruurd is a systems thinker/doer, a social entrepreneur and researcher, with many years in digital design, marketing, innovation and strategy. He is Co-Founder and strategist of Groundforce Studio, which developed the Doughnut Economics Action Lab website and platform. Ruurd is Co-Founder and Acting Chair of the Amsterdam Donut Coalitie, Co-Founder and strategist of Climate Cleanup, and a former Research Fellow at the Amsterdam University of Applied Science – where he is also leading the sustainability program re-set. Ruurd's favorite motto is from Charles Eames: 'eventually everything connects'.

Listen carefully en leave with fresh inspiration from our new episode of the #21for21 podcast again 🚀  🌏  with Kees Klomp, professor, author and the voice of a different sound in economics.

Kees talks with Marco and Carola about existential economics, personal transformation and being vulnerable in order to thrive.

Kees Klomp is professor of Purpose Economy at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences where he researches and develops an existential approach to economics. He is co-founder of Thrive institute, an organization that aims to re-invent economics and society. Kees is a recognized voice in topics of transformation and new ways of thinking and solving for the complex times we live in.

In his latest book ‘Thrive. Fundamentals for a New Economy’, Kees and co-author Shinta Oosterwaal provide insights into alternative approaches to economics that are sustainable and just for both society and the planet in the long term.

Such an inspiring new episode of the #21for21 podcast again 🚀  🌏  with Orlando Wood, award winning Chief Innovation Officer of System1 Group and author of Lemon and Look Out.

Orlando talks with Marco and Carola about about technology, media, brands and the transformation of advertising.

• 🎤  The Internet has caused us to look inwards and downwards. The algorithms push us to the extremes and hollow out the center ground.
• 🎤  I am not against technology, I am just pro-human.
• 🎤  Detachment from each other will make us very vulnerable as a society.
• 🎤  How, in a left-brain dominated world, do we reconnect with meaning and our very own human nature?
• 🎤  We need to reconnect with the world and rediscover that sense of place, which for example in advertising has really disappeared over the last 20 years.
• 🎤  A bit of self-doubt is helpful at times and will help us get to a better place ultimately.
• 🎤  It is the right-brain that gives the world that bit of meaning, of togetherness.
• 🎤  We have to look back at times. Only by looking back, to the culture that has gone before, you will be able to find the energy to push things forward.

Listen to the episode below 👇 🎧

Orlando Wood is an advertising effectiveness expert and author of Look out (IPA, 2021), Lemon (IPA, 2019), and co-author of System1, Unlocking Profitable Growth (2017). His research on advertising effectiveness draws on psychology, cultural history and the study of the creative arts. Orlando’s work describes the features of advertising that capture attention, elicit an emotional response and so establish lasting business effects; his work also shows how these very same features have been disappearing from advertising in the digital age. Orlando has influenced thinking and practice in research, marketing and advertising, winning him awards from the ARF, AMA, Jay Chiat, ISBA, MRS and ESOMAR. Orlando is a frequent conference speaker and podcast guest.

Orlando is Chief Innovation Officer of System1 Group, Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and member of the IPA’s Effectiveness Leadership Group.

"When you bring together design, technology and media, maybe you can start thinking about the human experience and how we can make it better. It can’t be done in isolation.”

“We were caught off-guard in this moment, and it tells us: ‘here are the gaps’.”

“We need to constantly re-imagine, re-frame and re-shape… and therefore respond and resolve."

“Design is in the space of creating brands, changing behaviours, creating movements. A lot of that is possible by design.”

"We want to spread design as a way of feeling, thinking and doing things.”

“I’m a big believer in dreaming.”

“Complex ideas can be explained simply when you create the right environment.”

“Dear Future, I’m ready… to release the past, remain ever-present, resolve the future, be sensitive, sensible and sensational.”

ABOUT SONIA
Sonia Manchanda is Founding Partner at Spread Design and Innovation. Building expertise at tremendous speed in design, media and technology.

She has a stellar reputation in building creative organisations and leading transdisciplinary project teams on massive transformational projects for governments and industry nationally and globally.

Including the highly recognised Open Innovation and Design Strategy Project Dream:in

More recently, she has designed the Design Barn from the ground up. It is India’s first independent Design Center, which bridges the design and innovation gap.

Her intent is to spread design as a way to sense the shifts, to respond with creativity, optimism and imagination.

Sonia is a graduate of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. She is a member of the CII Design Council, a Governing Council Member of the incubator Forge, and a trustee at

Nityegram, the only ‘dance village’ in the world.

Listen to the latest inspiring episode of the #21for21 podcast 🚀  🌏  with Philip McKenzie, an anthropologist, strategist and dj from Brooklyn New York.

Philip talks with Marco and Carola about (r)evolutions, systems change, taking bold steps and diving deep in order to thrive.

• 🎤  We have to question everything that we do. That is what revolutionaries do.
• 🎤  It is the people who are not included in the central conversation that question why the world is operating the way it is operating. Discomfort spurs deep questioning of the status quo.
• 🎤  When I look around, I actually see very little transformation. We live in a plug-in world where we are mostly adding things to the existing systems.
• 🎤  Our systems are seductive frameworks. The difficulty is that you have to actively work against them, by building different ways of community, support and being.
• 🎤  Dear Future, I'm Ready... to love. Everything starts with love.

Listen to the episode 👇 🎧

Philip L. McKenzie is an anthropologist who uses his expertise in culture to advise organizations on how best to thrive in an increasingly challenging and uncertain environment. Philip uses his quantitative background and Wall Street experience in combination with a qualitative understanding of social, economic and cultural movements to unmask complex opportunities and identify significant trends that impact and uncover viable futures.

Philip’s work has placed him at the center of understanding the significance of culture as a reflection of shared values. As a result he is a sought after strategist working with a myriad of global organizations. He is a content creator and writer. He is the current Executive Director of Advancing Diversity and a columnist for MediaVillage. He is the creator and host of The Deep Dive, a leading culture and insights podcast.

In the past, he has manifested his creative vision as co-host/co-creator of 2 Dope Boys & a Podcast.

Philip is a global speaker, having provided keynotes and workshops in London, Moscow, Sao Paulo, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Mexico City and more.

Prior, he was the Managing Partner of FREE DMC, a multicultural and influencer-marketing agency that specialized in integrated marketing strategy, digital content creation, and experiential events. He was also the Global Curator of Influencer Conference, a global content platform that exists at the intersection of values, creativity, culture, and commerce.

Philip is born and bred in what he terms “Real Brooklyn” but travels extensively wherever the wind takes him. He is completing his first book titled No Shortcuts! The Revolutionaries Guide To The Future.

Alan Moore is a designer and business innovator on a mission to help businesses discover their own unique beauty.

Working directly with companies and organisations, Alan mentors teams and individuals, delivers inspirational leadership programmes, and advises clients on how to design and build a regenerative business. Alan has shared his knowledge in the form of board and advisory positions, and has taught in institutions including MIT, the Sloan School of Management and INSEAD.

Alan is the author of four books on creativity and business transformation, including Do Design: Why beauty is key to everything (Do Books, 2016). He has spoken at The Do Lectures, SXSW and the Hay Literary Festival and has featured in the media.

Alan still works as an artist. Every day, he tries to lead his life as beautifully as he possibly can.

You can find out more on his website: beautiful.business

A conversation about being pioneers and catalysts, strong design, eudaimonia, and about reconnecting with nature. Marco and Carola speak with Dr. Anne Stenros about transformation, design and society. 

🚀 “Dear Future, I’m Ready” says Anne, “because the Earth is.” 🌏 

A thought provoking episode, that unpacks the metaphor of transformation as sailing and the quote by Alan Watts: “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” 

About Anne Stenros 

Dr. Anne Stenros is thought leader and an architect with a doctorate in technology. She has over 25 years’ experience in creative leadership and strategic design. Between 2005-2015, she acted as the first Design Director at KONE Corporation, a world leading elevator and escalator company. In 2016- 2018, she was appointed as the first ever chief design officer CDO of a city, namely the city of Helsinki. She has also had a professorship in Creative Leadership at the Aalto University. She has participated as an expert role in many different EU forums, and she was the Member of the World Design Capital WDC 2022 Selection Committee by World Design Organization WDO. Currently she is speaking, lecturing, writing, mentoring and catalysing change. She is curious about the future of cities, architecture, and urbanism. She believes in collaboration, co-creation, and creative collective. 

Links and more 

• Edward Wilson: Biophilia (1984) https://www.amazon.com/Biophilia-Edward-Wilson/dp/0674074424 
• Howard Gardner: Multiple Intelligences (1983, 2006): https://www.verywellmind.com/gardners-theory-of-multiple-intelligences-2795161 
• Suzanne Simard: Finding the Mother Tree (2021) 
• Ted Talk / Camille Defrenne and Suzanne Simard, The Secret Language of Trees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4m9SefyRjg 
• Architect Kengo Kuma: The Pandemic Changed My Work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4Mf8hrxWKM 
• Quote by Architect Louis Kahn:“A city is the place of availabilities. It is the place where a small boy, as he walks through it, may see something that will tell him what he wants to do his whole life.”

Nora Bateson, is an award-winning filmmaker, research designer, writer and educator, as well as President of the International Bateson Institute based in Sweden. Her work asks the question “How we can improve our perception of the complexity we live within, so we may improve our interaction with the world?”. An international lecturer, researcher and writer, Nora wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary, An Ecology of Mind, a portrait of her father, Gregory Bateson. Her work brings the fields of biology, cognition, art, anthropology, psychology, and information technology together into a study of the patterns in ecology of living systems. Her book, Small Arcs of Larger Circles is a revolutionary personal approach to the study of systems and complexity. Nora coined the term Warm Data and is initiator of the Warm Data Labs for the exploration of transcontextual information. 

In this introductory episode of the new series #21for21 (21 Transformational Leaders for the 21st Century), Your hosts Carola Verschoor and Marco van Hout will share why they started this series and what you can expect in the next episodes.

Carola is founder and chief creative officer of Transformational Studio, a transformation design agency with the aim of revolutionizing change through design and making transformation irresistible.

Marco is co-founder and creative director of Digital Society School in Amsterdam, a neutral training ground for responsible and sustainable leadership in today’s and tomorrow’s digital society. 

Together, they bring new questions for topics that are still largely unanswered. Engaging with thought leaders on transformational topics to open up the conversation and the exploration of what’s next as we navigate the 21st century. So that we can all say: “Dear Future, I’m ready!”

Interview with John Maeda, design/tech guru/ initiator Design in Tech Report. Recorded at SXSW 2019 in Marriott Hotel, Austin, Texas.

DSS caught up with design and tech guru John Maeda to talk about his famous and highly anticipated Design in Tech report:
We talked about how design and tech can use the right tools and methods, have the right mindset and catch up, to have positive impact on the sustainable development goals and the planet and society in general. And how can designers and design change?

This year, John's report has stirred some controversy within the design community, as one of his main conclusions was that design wasn’t that important after all.

In this episode, listen to how I asked John about his report in the light of sustainability, change and cross cultural collaboration and responsibility.

This episode covers the Paris Design Summit where professionals, academics, agencies, governments and NGO's gathered and take action for a BETTER WORLD.

This was the first gathering of a 12 year initiative to create an effective framework for design, tackling the 17 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS of the United Nations.
These goals include all urgent challenges that we face and want to have solved before the year 2030. They include goals like Zero Poverty, good Health and Wellbeing, Better Education, Sustainable cities and gender equality.

During the summit, Marco van Hout talked to the organisers and some of the most inspiring speakers and experts that attended.

In these 20 minutes you will hear
1. how the Paris Design Summit aims to form a community of change-makers, how a renowned city builder from Canada is changing our cities and communities to tackle the most complex challenges on our planet,
2. how one of the largest architecture companies in the world believes society and the design community should be trained for more impact,
3. And, how a former punker made sure to channel his ‘fuck you’s’ towards positive change.