Future-ish f(x)

No, we're not a South Korean girl band (although we are big fans).

Future-ish f(x) is the consulting and creative services area of Future-ish and we are thrilled at the prospect of working with you.

Science, design, and culture shape our future in thousands of ways every day, from providing innovative products and services to addressing the big social and environmental challenges facing our world. The Future-ish team is driven by our keen interest in the science, design, and culture shaping our future and we’ve become pretty good at seeing connections in things no one else can see and in picking up on global inclinations that are still only whispers in mainstream popular culture.

Understanding and preparing for how science, design, and culture will impact the future isn’t easy though, especially in companies, agencies, and organizations. Well, we’re here to help. Future-ish offers a range of professional and creative services to inspire, inform, and engage leaders in thinking about and planning for the future. Our offerings range from image consulting and strategy salons to research promotion and brand strategy. Below you’ll find information on some of our most popular services:

Consulting | Future-ish offers advisory and consulting services to companies, agencies, organizations, and individuals ranging from facilitation, strategic planning, and image consulting to new product/service ideation, creative strategy, and branding. One of our strongest competencies is social media for science, design, and culture professionals. View a selection of our past projects.

Research Promotion | Here at Future-ish we do have a keen interest in the intersection of science, design, and culture. That said, the majority of inquiries tend to come from scientists and researchers wanting to start marketing and social media efforts to increase the visibility of their work and to cultivate new funding sources. Although much of this work is classic public relations and marketing, we call it 'research promotion' and it involves everything from lab blogs and Facebook pages to personal Twitter accounts and strategic media campaigns. We can help initiate these efforts as well as help maintain them.

iLab | iLab is a short-format workshop (1-3 hours) in which we utilize science, design, and culture to experiment with information, innovation, and our own individuality to develop creative solutions and contributions that address extraordinary challenges facing our world. All this while having a LOT of fun!

META Performance Framework | Our META Performance Framework is a business model for next century innovation and development that Future-ish developed in response to the new and dynamic global marketplace of the 21st century and beyond. META elevates John Elkington’s triple bottom line. By focusing on three fundamental areas of an enterprise (income generation, operations, and stakeholders), META essentially translates the triple bottom line concept into enterprise vocabulary and provides a framework for integrating broad innovation into core enterprise strategy. We turn the often reactive and prescriptive 'corporate social responsibility' mindset into a more proactive and innovative 'sustainable business and development' strategic thinking. Best of all, META can be applied in many sectors, from retail and healthcare to education and nonprofits.

Next 101, 201 | Our Next 101 and 201 workshop modules provide people from all backgrounds a baseline level of information and understanding about key elements of next century innovation and development. With a little science, design, and culture, as well as a lot of sage advice, the workshops ease participants into drivers of innovation in the coming century. Next 101 suffices for many, but for those looking for a more detailed look into next century success, we offer our 201 module.

Optimized Product Stream (OPS) | Our OPS module is a workshop that Future-ish developed to better understand and optimize how companies, agencies, and organizations can work with their vendors and/or partners to create value throughout the lifecycle of their products by creating unique channels for effective communication, cooperation, and creativity.

Strategy Salons | Led by our founder, Sean Schmidt, Strategy Salons are events in which key constituents of a company, agency, or organization come together to 1. learn about issues, innovations, and trends in science, design, and culture that may impact their endeavors, and 2. strategize steps to position their companies, agencies, or organizations for these impacts in ways that create value for their stakeholders. Strategy Salons are generally informal, creative, off-site events that make the most of each group’s ideas, skills, and experience.