Client
U.S. Soy
Services
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Design-led research
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Strategic foresight consulting
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Creative AI expert consulting
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Speculative design artifacts
Eating Tomorrow
Question
How might a brand like U.S. Soy increase their brand relevancy while considering the future of food?
Method
To attract and engage Gen-Z consumers, increase brand relevancy, and ensure future consumption of soy, U.S. Soy asked to launch a podcast about soybeans. Through extensive signal scanning, trend analysis, and causal layered analysis, we realized U.S. Soy had a unique opportunity to hold space while establishing dominance within the industry—gathering competitors, colleagues, and stakeholders to discuss the future of food as a whole.
The result? Eating Tomorrow—a speculative futures podcast exploring the future of food. Dozens of scientists, indigenous chefs, biologists, and other industry experts were interviewed. Each episode centered on a specific theme (such as the future of protein, the future of farming, or the science of food), and began with a speculative design artifact priming the audience to imagine the future of food.
Read more about the podcast here.
Results
What they asked for
A podcast discussing soybeans.
What they gained
A podcast discussing the future of food, creating a shared, industry space while establishing themselves as industry leaders.
23
Interdisciplinary experts interviewed for the podcast.
17+
Countries tuning into the podcast.
5
Episodes with corresponding speculative artifacts.
How might we identify potential consumer preferences in 2050 using community-driven design processes?
Bigwidesky, a communication and foresight consultancy, wanted to help their community explore speculative design as a tool for strategic foresight. We collaborated on a five-month engagement to host a community-driven, three-part interactive webinar series focused on futures literacy and speculative design. The series introduced Bigwidesky’s five-step foresight process—probleming, researching, imagining, gathering insights, and strategizing—while guiding participants in co-designing artifacts and products from 2050. Deliverables included speculative design artifacts, narratives, and a takeaway futures starter kit.
Between sessions, our team conducted sociocultural research to refine the community’s speculative concepts, ultimately producing the Human+ 2050 product catalog featuring three finalized, future-forward artifacts. Visual renders and narratives brought these artifacts to life, immersing participants in a plausible 2050 future and demonstrating how speculative design can inform business strategy. This project exemplified participatory futures literacy, with each artifact grounded in sociocultural signals of change and shaped by the collective imagination of Bigwidesky’s community.