Postcards from the Future: The Futures of Branding Nathan Shedroff and Davis Masten Postcards from the Future is a new book being developed by two brand professionals about the future the industry could take and its possible impacts on our culture. Based on their Brand Futures Scenario Workshops and started within the AIGA’s Center for Brand Experience, Shedroff and Masten have created startling, vivid portraits of new tomorrows in which branding plays key—and often scary—roles. Alan Kay once said that “the best way to predict the future is to invent it.” In this spirit we felt that the branding world needed both a vision of new possibilities and an examination of forces already at work but too difficult to see with standard techniques. The purpose of this book isn’t prediction or prescription but, instead, to illuminate important issues to branding, branders, and consumers be exaggerating their effects on the world. It is only in this way that we can see trends and developments that are, otherwise, too subtle or drowned-out by the noise of the current marketplace. The book’s controversial visuals are realizations of the ideas that came out of each 8 scenarios. Paired with practical and thoughtful information, however, this is no mere fantasy/nightmare book. The purpose of the workshops and research is to help companies prepare for events in the future with advice and options in responding to market, technological, and social forces. For example, when economies become seriously bad and people can’t meet basic needs (as in Luvvirsa, the land representing the scenario “Economic Peril”), how should luxury brands respond in order to survive? Worse still are those brands caught in the middle, not quite luxurious enough to be insulated, but not value-oriented enough to be bargains. The research includes viewpoints from a variety of scientists, designers, brand professionals, and other business people. It is a thought-provoking book that challenges our thinking about branding in the world as various forces ensure that these are “interesting times.” Some of the scenarios in the book include: Economic Peril Demassification Remassification Biotpia Nantopia Latinoworld

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