The Future Laboratory Blog

Covid-19: a catalyst for change

Earlier this year we looked at the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic across six key sectors, and explored what this meant for brands and businesses. As we emerge from a second lockdown, The Future ...

In Conversation with David Shah

The Future Laboratory co-founders meet their one-time boss, Viewpoint publisher David Shah, and discuss the future of business travel, the value of insight in the age of Zoom and the future of ...

Brightseed maps the dark matter of nutrition

Emma Cooper-Mullin, director of brand marketing at biotech start-up Brightseed, delves into the world of phytonutrients and their power to revolutionise diets Can you begin by introducing Brightseed ...

In Conversation with Robert Buckingham

The Future Laboratory co-founders Chris Sanderson and Martin Raymond talk to one of their oldest associates and supporters, Robert Buckingham In 2003, as founder and director of the Melbourne Fashion ...

Immaterial Fashion : The end of ownership

The Future Laboratory hosted a panel on Selfridges’ Instagram Live as part of its new Project Earth initiative. Watch Tilly Thorns interview three industry experts about how they are helping to make ...

Urban Wellness Market

Consumers are re-appraising what it means to be well. Post-Covid-19, they will demand higher levels of urban health and more civic cities Covid-19 has brought with it a re-awakening of Wellness ...

In Conversation with Linda Hewson

Chris Sanderson talks to Selfridges Group’s global creative director Linda Hewson about 20 years of pioneering retail projects and the changing retail landscape, and considers the future of the ...

The Age of Nesting

As we navigate recurring lockdowns, emerging trends are teaching us more about the role of the home. Beko commissioned The Future Laboratory to produce a new foresight report identifying these trends ...

Transparency means business in the Covid age

Covid-19 brings an opportunity for brands to radicalise a generation of recycling moderates into consumers that demand transparency from retail brands Many of the world’s ecosystems have felt the ...

Augmented restaurants

Augmented reality restaurants are creating unconventional, interactive dining experiences that bridge the gap between physical and digital environments Playful plates The future of food is digital. ...

23 : 10 : 20 : Weekly Debrief

This week: a modern Judaica brand, ancestry-driven dishes, cryptocurrency for music fans, Universal's UMUSIC hotels and socially distant tableware.

The New Extraordinary: making better futures happen for global businesses

In this episode of #TheNewAbnormal podcast, Sean Pillot de Chenecey interviews Chris Sanderson, co-founder of The Future Laboratory In this episode (which coincides with the agency's 20th ...

Off-price retail strategies

With surplus stock from Covid-19 closures and slower spending, brands are innovating with off-price retail strategies that add to the cachet of their brand As a result of the pandemic, retailers ...

Back to the F**kture: PCH Innovations

In the second episode of our Zoomcast and podcast, The Future Laboratory’s co-founder Martin Raymond talks to Stefan Liske and Adrien Hobt from the PCH Innovations studio about Changing Matter, their ...

Macrotrend: Pleasure Revolution

With every second of our free time colonised by the cult of busyness, future consumers will turn away from a life of relentless productivity and shift their focus from enhancement to enjoyment ...

Inclusive exclusivity is the new retail experience

With physical retail experiences curtailed by the pandemic, brands are driving desire through secretive stores that target only those in the know In a world where some of the wealthiest people dress ...

Post-urgency diversity strategies for real change

As businesses re-assess their role in society and take active and meaningful steps towards inclusion, The Future Laboratory is seeking provocative radicalisation of the way we work With the recent ...

Pandemic-proof Properties

Lockdown has highlighted the health impacts of life in isolation. We forecast how the design of our future homes and interiors will strengthen human wellbeing The outbreak of Covid-19 has turned ...

Product design is failing its problem-solving purpose

In the era of circular economy enthusiasts, designers should stop rehashing pre-existing products and begin designing true era-appropriate goods Product design, once a problem-solving profession, has ...

Selfridges x The Future Laboratory - Project Earth

As we consider the future of retail in the inter-Covid, climate emergency era, London’s foremost department store Selfridges is launching a new sustainability initiative, Project Earth, which will ...

It's time for brands to engage with de-growth

The pace of the last decade combined with a tumultuous 2020 is driving people towards radical community models – and brands must do the same As a society, we’re thinking a lot about the future. We’re ...

Money Market: Baby Boomers

Turning their backs on the term ‘elderly’, Baby Boomers are working until later in life than previous generations and re-inventing retirement on their own terms Born between 1946 and 1964, Baby ...

It's time to decolonise education, say Gen Z

Galvanised by the Black Lives Matter movement, Generation Z are using social media to (un)learn behaviours and decolonise education through reform In 2020, education is not as diverse as it should ...

Accessible Gaming

While the mainstream gaming industry has long ignored disabled people, a host of new technologies are enabling brands to adapt to their every need, by accessible gaming Rethinking game play While ...

Raw and real: A new era for influencer marketing

A migration towards smaller influencers more deeply in touch with their audiences will shape how brands work in the future of influencer marketing Influencers whose aspirational lifestyles feel out ...

24 : 07 : 20 : Weekly Debrief

This week: Resilient city garments, genderless sexcare, Universal Everything's phygital humans, post-work exercise snacks and an eco-first Indian school.

Financial Feels: How Gen Z are reshaping the retail landscape

Invested in learning more about the generation raised in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Afterpay commissioned The Future Laboratory to produce a new foresight report identifying key ...

Food waste innovation

From food-sharing to upcycling, the growing need to create innovative and sustainable solutions to food waste presents a range of opportunities In the midst of a global drive towards sustainability, ...

Financial Feels: How Gen Z are changing retail

Working with fintech retail payments platform Afterpay, The Future Laboratory has produced a new foresight report exploring how Gen Z are reshaping the retail landscape For a generation more fluent ...

10 : 07 : 20 : Weekly Debrief

This week: Celebrating queer blackness, the rise of African e-commerce, Yeezy’s immersive online store, a pandemic-proof property and Daily Paper's utopian future.

Back to the F**kture: Devon Powers on Pandemic Futures

Our new Back to the F**kture series asks renowned thinkers to put foresight predictions under the hindsight spotlight. This month Devon Powers discusses why forecasters failed to spot Covid-19 In the ...

Retraining Sleep Market

With technology having fundamentally inhibited our ability to sleep soundly, consumers are seeking new tools to help them with sleep retraining and to relearn positive sleeping patterns Sleep has ...

Staycation Market

With carbon emissions and now a travel-restricting pandemic at the forefront of travellers’ minds, a resurgence of the domestic travel market and the high-end staycation is emerging. Just 3% of the ...

Supporting Black Communities

A collection of resources to read, reflect, open up discussions and enact positive change as we work together for an anti-racist future in all societies.

The post-Covid consumer : Hedonistic or minimalist?

Brands and businesses must prepare for polarised responses to the pandemic as established consumer paradigms are either accelerated or abandoned As the coronavirus crisis continues to send shockwaves ...

The New Abnormal : Martin Raymond on the push for transformation

The Future Laboratory's co-founder Martin Raymond delves into the origin of trends, the patterns of change and how these have been accelerated by a new Covid-19 world on The New Abnormal podcast In ...

COVID-19 Contingency Planning : Luxury

In our fourth feature from the Covid-19 Contingency Planning report we explore the impact the outbreak is having on the Luxury sector. Luxury has been far from immune from the impact of Covid-19. Its ...

IAM Weekend 2020

This year’s symposium at the IAM Weekend 2020 Show offered new perspectives on youth activism, remote connection in the Covid-19 age, and the downfall of human-centred design.

COVID-19 Contingency Planning

Learn the immediate impacts of Covid-19 across key sectors, and discover best-in-class case studies and future considerations for your organisation. The speed at which Covid-19 has hit trade, travel, ...

COVID-19 has brought chaos - and vast new possibilities

With existing systems crumbling, businesses will need to quickly recalibrate, using fear as a positive catalyst to create future-fit strategies. Covid-19 is forcing the world to act, despite being ...

Generation Homebody

Generation Z staying in. From TikTok bedroom dance-offs to CBD-infused bath bombs, the home has become Generation Z’s ultimate hangout. JOMO (joy of missing out) has never been more appealing for ...

COVID-19 is accelerating our working landscape

The fallout from Covid-19 has transformed not only how people work in the UK but where, marking a major turning point for how organisations operate. As society shifts to contain the spread of ...

Wellness Architecture

As health and wellness becomes entrenched as a mainstream mindset, it is spreading into new areas – moving beyond gyms and expanding across communities and real estate. Each year about 1.3m potential ...

28 : 02 : 20 : Weekly Debrief

This week: London’s accessible members’ club, banking the unbanked, mouldy marketing from Burger King, Burberry kicks off carbon insetting and waterless beauty.

Tech brands must address the environmental emergency

The challenge for tech firms over the next decade is to transition from profitability to solidarity, says Andres Colmenares, co-founder of IAM 'This really now is an emergency', stated Christiana ...

Sex, Drugs, and the New Minibar

The New Yorker editor Sheila Marikar attended the launch of our recently published report commissioned by Mr & Mrs Smith, where Chris Sanderson, co-founder of The Future Laboratory, summarised ...

The Future of Romantic Travel

As the luxury travel market size is expected to reach $2.5 trillion by 2025, Mr & Mrs Smith commissioned The Future Laboratory to identify key trends that will shape the romantic travel market in ...

Modern Love

As Stormzy puts it in his hit, All That Matters, ‘tonight we’re doing things my way’. And if you’re in doubt about what the my way of modern love looks, feels and smells like, check out our recent ...

Hoteliers must embrace the rise of non-monogamy and polyamory retreats

Retreats, hotel rooms and services for more than two will emerge as people begin to take up multiple relationships or seek connections with various partners Romantic getaways were once based on the ...

In Conversation: Thomas Kochs

The Managing Director of Corinthia London, Thomas Kochs, has confidently evolved – and arguably led – the luxury hospitality scene in London for decades. Hotel Designs joins the man of the moment who ...

Is scent the future of engagement?

Companies are tapping into the benefits of fragrance and its potential to create emotional connections, drive productivity and boost retail sales Sensory marketing in its current form is primarily ...

Future Forecast 2020

Our Foresight researchers have identified 50 consumer trends that will define the coming year in our latest trend report. Uncertainty and division have defined the Tumultuous Teens. With the American ...

17 : 01 : 20 : Weekly Debrief

This week: Championing financial wellness, Toyota's research city, revolutionising click and collect, an intimate speed dating app, and Adidas reimagines women's sport.

Promote sustainable design thinking from the start

The founder of industrial design agency Morrama emphasises the need for greater research and scrutiny to improve future working practices Sustainability. Nowadays it is at the very centre of debate ...

06 : 12 : 19 : Weekly Debrief

This week: The luxury of nature, re-imagining taste, truly inclusive skincare, Facebook's wellbeing surveys and no-nonsense pet food.

Forget mental health, let's discuss emotional fitness

Nick Bennett, CEO of Fika app, asks whether the student mental health crisis is actually an issue of education and skills relating to emotional wellbeing Student mental health is in crisis, or so ...

29 : 11 : 19 : Weekly Debrief

This week: The future of cosmetics, mall playscapes for kids, a piercing revolution, single-dose cannabis tablets and remodelling the running shoe.

What will wellness look like in 2030?

Through the lens of a fictional future scenario, we ask how brands in 2030 will define the future of wellness, negate collective burnout and help us embrace our mortality. It’s the weekend and Jane ...

Emerging Youth: Japan

Young Japanese consumers are more realistic, conservative and risk-averse than their predecessors, and are rethinking what it means to grow up. Japan is a country with a damaging culture of overwork, ...

Nespresso Professional : Workplace Futures

Through technology, the physical boundaries of a workplace aren’t what they once were. Nespresso Professional commissioned The Future Laboratory to identify the trends that will shape the workplace ...

Families have evolved. Why haven't brands caught up?

Brands and advertisers are ignoring modern families. Could one solution lie in switching up the creatives and therefore cultural nous at company-level? Since 2008, government statistics reveal that ...

The Trend Forecaster’s Handbook: Identifying Weak Signals

In his new book, The Future Laboratory co-founder, Martin Raymond identifies the 'weak signal' shifts that suggest a trend is on the rise The weak shall inherit the earth despite what Darwin tells ...

What is the future of dating apps?

Holly Friend from The Future Laboratory shares insight from our Uncoupled Living macrotrend with Dazed Digital At first glance, the world of dating apps feels as boring and trite as say, the ...

Futures Presentations

Our forward-looking foresight presentations are designed to equip you and your team with the insights and strategic thinking required to answer the most compelling issues of tomorrow Instigate ...

Prom night must become a beacon of inclusivity

It’s time to put outdated traditions to rest. Schools across the globe have a responsibility to provide prom night inclusivity that is open to all. Since the 1920s, the prom has served as a high ...

Tech brands must prepare for the newness backlash

Why the gathering momentum of the Right to Repair movement could spell major disruption for the culture of newness perpetuated by tech giants. Cracked screens, badly-performing batteries and broken ...

eSports players need better health protection

While the negative stigma around gaming is gradually fading, eSports is still some way from becoming a recognised competitive activity. Esports enthusiasts are proliferating throughout the world. The ...

Stimulating our senses could reduce food waste

In an age of flat screens and mass produced foods, can heightened sensory experiences fix the disconnect between what we eat and how we eat it? A frozen cocktail served straight into your hand; ...

Why age is the new diversity issue

Ageism is the next frontier for diversity, so its time for brands to get informed of its nuances, writes Sarah Douglas, director of The Liminal Space. When the #MeToo movement gained online traction ...

Retail Futures 2019

Interact with our new Community Commerce online experience

12 : 04 : 19 : Weekly Debrief

This week: The world's first sustainable floating city, Puma's AR shoe, Bianco encourages Millennials to stop overthinking, an Instagram newspaper and a clinic that modernises women's healthcare.

Critical Horizons: Mike Walsh on The True Potential Of Human Intelligence

Welcome to episode two of Critical Horizons, a podcast by The Future Laboratory. This month’s guest is futurist Mike Walsh, CEO of Tomorrow. He advises leaders on how to thrive in the current era of ...

Sustainability has become a luxury privilege

Virgil Abloh’s reusable water bottle for Evian is indicative of luxury’s new mindset – but shouldn’t sustainable products be accessible and desirable to all? Last week, Evian launched its new ...

Critical Horizons: Douglas Rushkoff on Why Tech has Failed Humanity

The Future Laboratory's Critical Horizons podcast is a deep dive into the mind of a world-renowned thinker whose ideas challenge the status quo and shed light upon emerging behaviours that will drive ...

25 : 01 : 19 : Weekly Debrief

This week: pixelated performance-wear, Aavia reminds you to take the pill, a shoppable hotel, Spotify matches music to horoscopes and Junius is reinventing workplace dining.

Is it time to embrace generation Zen?

As Generation Z enter the era of cautious hedonism, is the notion of 'live fast, die young' being laid to rest? ‘Live fast, die young’ was once the mantra for generations of angsty teen rebellion, ...

Can football clubs become the ultimate civic brands?

A rise in incidents of discrimination on the terraces is driving debate around the game’s role in helping to tackle major societal issues. Football has long had an image problem but a recent rise in ...

Need to Know: 2018 Recap

Over Christmas, our LS:N Global sector specialists hand-picked their top campaigns and consumer behaviours that defined 2018. Here's a key trend from each.

30 : 11 : 18 : Weekly Debrief

This week: A new retro-futuristic pharmacy, BMW rethinks car interiors, Libresse encourages female confidence, Coinmine simplifies mining cryptocurrency and Swedish homes form a scattered design ...

Video games are an untapped opportunity for brands

As the physical and digital worlds continue to blur, brands have an opportunity to innovate within the video games sector, says freelance writer Josh Walker. For both gaming brands and the gaming ...

Is certification the answer to fashion’s ethical issues?

The rise of ethical fashion is positive – but are the certificates designed to ratify, support and promote brands' claims really worth it? Olivia Pinnock, founder of The Fashion Debates, takes a ...

The real reason men are better navigators than women

A recent study found that women cannot navigate as well as men but Martin Raymond, editor-in-chief of LS:N Global, says chromosomes have nothing to do with it. Men are better navigators than women. ...

Helsinki fashion week to ban leather as vegan fabrics catch on

Our senior creative researcher, Rachael Stott, discusses the rise of vegan fashion and future of biosynthetic leather for The Guardian. Fashion has been somewhat slow to mastermind viable – and ...

Trend Briefing : Design Hotels

To celebrate 25 years of Design Hotels, we are thrilled to present an exclusive Trend Briefing in Copenhagen. When: October 12, 2018 at 10:00 - 13.00 Where: The Royal Danish Academy of Music, Julius ...

Is Instagram a dating app?

With real-life encounters still considered an unreliable means to instigate romance, Instagram makes sense as a more practical tool for match-making. Is instagram a dating app? ‘With the girl I’m ...

Do smart cities have an accessibility problem?

As investment in so-called ‘smart’ cities gathers pace, is enough attention being paid to the smart cities accessibility needs of all citizens? As a student, the daily walk up London’s Exhibition ...

Algorithmic Beauty: macro trend set to define beauty in 2019

Innovation in the beauty industry is happening at breakneck speed, technology and social media have lowered the barrier to entry, and there has never been more diversity in the wants and needs of ...

What’s wrong with 'toxic masculinity'?

'Masculinity is ‘homosocial’. It is something performed for other men, for them to judge us, police us, and decide if we are doing it right. I’m not much of a fan of ‘toxic masculinity’. It’s a term ...

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Is a child-free lifestyle the new vegan?

"One less child per family saves an average 58.6 tonnes of carbon every year. Going car-free, with its average saving of 2.4 tonnes, is no real comparison." From environmental to financial impacts, ...

New Masculinity: The Film

Nine British men debate the changing face of masculinity in this insightful new film collaboration between IGGYLDN and The Future Laboratory In the wake of all the toxic masculinity headlines and ...

The Future Laboratory at Corinthia Hotel London

Over the next year, The Future Laboratory will be the Futurists-in-Residence at London’s epicentre of luxury, the Corinthia Hotel London. Discover what we’ve got lined up and how you can get ...

The Storefront Salvation Game

Why the internet is a reflection of our humanity

We spoke with Andrés Colmenares, co-founder of Internet Age Media, about what to look forward to at the forthcoming IAM Weekend 18. What is IAM Weekend and how has it changed over the past couple of ...

Why marketers need to take VR more seriously

We spoke with Anita Fontaine and Geoffrey Lillemon, creative directors of Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam’s Department of New Realities, who are blending speculative fiction with virtual reality (VR) and ...

Is feminism fit for the future?

Could brands and business take a more direct role in helping women to define feminism for themselves? Last year, the Merriam Webster dictionary named ‘feminism’ as its word of the year, after ...

Trend Briefing 2018: The Moral Uprising

We are living in a time of upheaval where we question everything from who our moral leaders are to how much we should let technology rule society. At our Trend Briefing 2018, we examined three ...

Branded Cities - Can we avoid an urban dystopia?

The Future of the Workplace

We created a Foresight Report for design and architecture practise MoreySmith, to help them further understand the psychology of the future workforce and emphasise the importance of workplace design. ...

The Trends of the Trends

Using an AI neural network to analyse hundreds of 2018 trends by leading forecasting agencies, The Future Laboratory and Quid have created the definitive guide to the year ahead Last December, we ...