Macro Forecast

Future Innovations 2024

Discover the 12 areas of innovation that will change the
way we design, consume and connect in 2024, from
synthetic media and speculative protopias, to the rise of
living with intent and a rejection of ʻnormalʼ

Sarah Housley & the WGSN Forecast team

11.08.21 · 28 minutes

Re k Anadol for Bulgari

Executive summary
In this report, we identify 12 need-to-know areas of innovation so you can future-proof
your business and prepare for key changes within culture, design and technology.
Living With Intent: as people reorient their lives to focus on the areas and
connections that count, they will seek more intentional products and experiences.
Home-Making: the concept of home will become about where you want to be, with
a growing focus on shared and local experiences.
Two-Faced Tech: emerging technologies will intersect with diverging global
approaches to tech, making it crucial for brands to balance opportunities with
foresight of negative consequences.
It's All Real: deepfake tech and synthetic creativity will reshape how we perceive
reality and put digital and physical experiences on more equal footing.
Multi-Sp ecies Thinking: a more-than-human design approach that considers the
needs and rights of all of nature – including humans, animals and plants – will gain
traction.
Des igning Protop ias : new tools are empowering people to imagine and create
protopias – futures where tomorrow is realistically better than today.
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Contemp orar y Commons : people-powered innovations will place more
importance on public, shared spaces and systems that are open to all.
Cultural Power: cultural capital and creative heritage will be powerful tools to
foster economic development, create connections across borders, and learn from
ancient wisdom.
No to ʻNor malʼ: as societal norms widen and expand, approaches to labelling and
categorisation will become more inclusive, and a new wave of personalisation will
emerge.
Subtracting Adds Value: less will mean much more as a reductive mindset brings
about design innovations and sustainable evolutions in production methods.
Collective Intelligence: by interconnecting different forms of intelligence and
knowledge – including human, machine and natural intelligence – innovators will be
able to build on past breakthroughs and open up new creative possibilities.
Energis ed!: the rise of ʻmain character energyʼ will propel an 'exploring twenties'
where pleasure, fun and multisensory stimulation will all be active ingredients.
 Future Innovations index
The 12 themes in our Future Innovations
report each map against WGSN’s STEPIC
methodology, which analyses changes
across society, technology, environment,
politics, industry and creativity.

Our global experts use our unique STEPIC

framework to identify the macro forces
impacting society and consumer goods
industries.
From this analysis, WGSN produces its series of
macro flagship reports each year, forecasting
Society Technology Environment two years ahead.

Living With Intent Two-Faced Tech Multi-Species Thinking Future Drivers identifies the six global drivers
Home-Making It's All Real Designing Protopias that will reshape the macroeconomic and
business landscape, each mapped against one
STEPIC pillar.
Future Innovations outlines the 12 need-to-
know areas of innovation that will transform
industries, and their implications for business
and culture. There are two Future Innovation
themes for each STEPIC pillar, and each pair of
Innovations maps back to the corresponding
Future Driver for that pillar.

Politics Industry Creativity

Contemporary Commons No to ‘Normal’ Collective Intelligence
Cultural Power Subtracting Adds Value Energised!
2
Living With Intent
The increasingly popular concept of manifesting – the practice of bringing
aspirational thoughts into being – is driving a new focus on intentionalism:
focusing on the things that count, and reorienting lifestyles to prioritise these.

Consumers are seeking less distraction and more clarity: in an April 2021 survey of US
consumers by HBO Max, 59% said they are more thoughtful about how they spend time
since the pandemic, and 40% said they will be more intentional with streaming content
to make sure they spend time in the best way possible.
Positive digital experiences are emerging to meet this mindset. Mood Blossom is an AI-
powered app by Osk Studio for Danish research and design lab Space10, which
visualises the user's sense of wellbeing in the form of a floral avatar. US-based
company AeBeZe's Digital Nutrition organises content by mood to aid intentional
viewing, while emerging social networks such as group chat app Geneva promote
relationship-building.
Intentionalism will be built directly into physical products: Paris-based designer Tom
Ducarouge's Breathe apparel, developed for McQ, has an embossed texture that can
be stroked to encourage slow breathing.
As people's working patterns shi for the long-term, new ways of working are
growing, from dynamic poly-productivity (mixing multiple freelance and/or permanent
roles), aided by platforms such as FYPM and Polywork, to shorter work weeks that
reject hustle culture and create more time for hobbies, family and rest.
Rest-centred experiences such as bathing and preparing for sleep will be a focus for
product innovation. Canada-based Inoki Bathhouse makes restful bath teas to
transform bathing into a more intentional act of balancing mental and physical energy.
US-based company AeBeZe organises digital content into elemental tables by mood, so that
viewers can search for the mood they want to be in

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Living With Intent: actions and implications
Adjust to re-centred consumer
priorities
As people explore ways of living more
intentionally, assess where your
products can add value, particularly
within the emerging lifestyles created
by new ways of working
4
Support digital nutrition
Design digital experiences to have a
positive impact on mood and wellbeing,
and align with social networks that
share this aim. Explore the idea of
organising products by emotion to make
the message even clearer
Enable rest
Develop products to fit into self-care
rituals or to help create new ones,
supporting customers as they make
rest a higher priority in their lives,
including key areas such as bathing and
sleep
Refocus retail experiences
Design intentionalism into retail
experiences with curated product
offerings, mindful UX and restrained
levels of brand-to-customer
communication
Home-Making
As people increasingly move homes, migrating for a range of reasons – to nd
safer ground, to re-root in a more affordable place, or to be closer to family and
friends – home becomes not where you are from, but where you choose or want to
be.

The world is on the move: up to 216 million people globally could move home due to
climate change by 2050, while in the shorter term, a global survey by Knight Frank
shows that 20% are inclined to move in the next 12 months. In India, around 50% of
those planning to move are moving closer to their family, and this pattern has also
been noted in China. US real estate company Zillow has dubbed this migratory pattern
'the great reshuffle'.
Affordable and socially-built housing will be a major area of innovation. Australia-based
Assemble Futures uses a rent-to-own scheme to give buyers an entry point to save for
property. Italian architecture studio AMDL Circle created Happy Stations, which is a
concept for housing organised around shared spaces called Labs, where communities
can gather and share skills. With people on the move, it will be key to design for
nomadic lifestyles, like Italian-Dutch designer Fleur Chiarito's furniture/storage.
Brands are localising their retail strategy and even becoming landlords: British retailer
John Lewis plans to convert land into 10,000 homes across the UK, with on-site
groceries provided by its Waitrose brand, as part of its aim to generate 40% of its
profits from non-retail by 2030.
Post-pandemic, there is renewed attention on home furnishings – in the US, home
decor is projected to grow 20% between 2019 and 2024. In China, Tmall has launched a
3D shopping platform for home furnishings brands, which enables consumers to
browse 10,000 digital showrooms via their smartphone using the platform's rendering Australia-based Assemble Futures is making thoughtfully-designed, sustainable homes more
so ware. accessible by using a rent-to-own model. It also aims to reduce cost-of-living spend by 20%
through bulk-buying partnerships

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Home-Making: actions and implications
Support consumers' migratory
patterns
Develop products and services that
respond to consumer migrations, and
understand the emotions behind this, as
people move home to feel safer, more
connected, or supported by local
friends and family
6
Develop local experiences
Make brand experiences a helpful part
of the community – for example, by
supporting peer-to-peer skill
exchanges or local resale – and
develop localised retail and product
strategies
Design for community
Explore how architecture, spatial
design and interiors can promote
feelings of community and bring people
together in positive ways, and design
products and platforms that can be
easily shared
Tap into the home furnishings
opportunity
Even for brands that currently operate
outside of the interiors sector, products
that fit into the home will be key areas
to explore as a new generation of home-
makers emerges
Two-Faced Tech
The tech paradox continues to deepen, with new platforms offering both hope for
a more equal future, and continuing to contribute to division and inequality.

As approaches to regulation become increasingly diverse around the world, some

countries will progress to tech-enabled futures quickly. Cambodia's blockchain
payment platform, Bakong, reportedly has almost a third of the country's population
onboard.
NFTs and blockchain are creating a new ownership economy that could democratise
wealth creation, with platforms such as Voice, Mirror and Rally enabling independent
creatives to fund projects in new ways, and projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club
introducing radical new business models as finance becomes gamified.
Within new digital economies, scamming is rife, and innovation will also emerge as
organisations attempt to mitigate harm. The Great LonDini is a group of online
vigilantes with a mission to “expose racists, bullies, scammers and trolls,” while
Platform Abuse offers 'abuseability testing' for online platforms.
The metaverse is forecast to be worth almost $800bn by 2024, according to Bloomberg
Intelligence. As this 'embodied Internet' starts to take shape, US investor Marc
Andreessen believes it could dissolve ʻreality privilegeʼ, placing people on a more
equal footing when in the metaverse, while others believe it ignores the reality of
poverty and a society that is increasingly unequal and dystopian.
Digital-first identities will reshape how we shop (Vogue Talents' digital clothing NFTs
sold out in less than 51 minutes) and how we behave. US TV talent show Alter Ego,
where contestants sing backstage while their digital alter egos perform on-stage, is
already showing how avatars can be used to alter personas.
Creator-focused funding platform Voice mints NFTs for free and accepts credit card payments.
The platform uses proof-of-stake, making it 17,000 times more energy-ef cient than Ethereum

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Two-Faced Tech: actions and implications
Use new tech with nuance
Dive into web3 tech such as blockchain
and NFTs to identify applications for
your brand, but be aware of the risks,
particularly as tech regulation becomes
fragmented globally. Take time to
foresee the potential downsides of
activities
8
Participate in alternative
funding
New crypto platforms are set to shake
up funding and investing, just as
crowdfunding did in the 2010s.
Experiment in this area – for example,
by using customer buy-in to gauge early
interest in unusual products
Enter the Internet of Swag
Digital items can now sell for more than
their physical equivalent, and are key
status symbols for consumers, which is
opening up the Internet of Swag, where
digital assets take priority. Track crypto
phenomenons such as Bored Ape Yacht
Club to understand the emerging
dynamics here
Explore the avatar psyche
While some consumers will retain true-
to-life identities in the metaverse (and
some platforms will mandate this),
others will explore new personalities
and expressions. Design with these
dual approaches in mind
It's All Real
Synthetic media is developing apace, and in tandem with the rise of virtual and
augmented reality, it will cause us to evaluate what we consider to be ‘real’ when
videos, voice, text and data can all be so easily manipulated.

Virtual and physical realities will increasingly be on equal footing, and the line
between the two will blur – tech company Baidu turned the line between virtual and
physical into an actual tug-of-war in the gamified fitness experiences it created for its AI
Summer Games 2021. As the distinction becomes less important, virtual idols will offer
appealing anonymity, with Vtubers (virtual YouTubers) such as Japan's Kizuna AI now
finding global fame.
Deepfake formats are rising fast: there were more than 85,000 deepfake videos
circulating online in 2020, up from 15,000 in 2019, and Avatarify, a DIY deepfake app, had
more than 6m downloads between February and the end of March 2021. Synthetic
media is expanding beyond video to include text, voice and data, and it is finding
applications in enterprise (training videos, dubbed pitches) as well as entertainment.
Individuals can now license their likeness: Romanian deep-tech startup Humans
creates 'encapsulated' digital twins using 'digital DNA'. Podcast hosts can use deepfake
doubles to read adverts, while celebrities can appear in adverts synthetically.
Deepfakes are also being used to resurrect individuals, creating new songs from long-
gone musicians, and recreating loved ones as digitally immortal chatbots.
Synthetic creativity will increasingly be used to create feelings of awe: Motion designer
Shane Fu turns store windows into swirling digital worlds, while MIT Media Lab's Deep
Reality creates an immersive world tailored to the physiological responses of the user.

At Baidu's 2021 Line Friends Summer AI Games, gami ed experiences including a tug-of-war and
weightlifting showed off the Chinese tech giant's facial recognition technology

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It's All Real: actions and implications
Get to know synthetic media
Work with providers such as Synthesia
and Metaphysic to try out both internal
and external applications of synthetic
media. As well as video, explore
emerging use cases across images,
text, voice and synthetic data
10
View digital and physical as
equal
The distinction between digital and
physical is becoming less and less
important to consumers, and for some,
digital feels more real. Explore 'deep
reality' to develop immersive
experiences that activate all the senses
Design for digital awe
View brand spaces as creative
playgrounds, using AR, VR and synthetic
media to create awe-inspiring
experiences for consumers to enjoy and
explore. Create these across physical
spaces as well as in the metaverse
Be aware of the risks
Tech companies are developing
deepfake detection so ware to address
harmful uses of synthetic media, and
brands will need to add deepfake risk
management to their security
considerations
Multi-Species Thinking
Deep ecology and more-than-human design are rising concepts that advocate for
humans to participate as nature, rather than extracting from it.

Governments are starting to adopt this mindset: in the UK, new laws will see animals
formally recognised as sentient; in France, the government is considering ecocide
laws; and countries including India, Canada and the US are giving rights to natural
entities such as rivers, via legal personhood.
Innovators are working to make the Anthropocene into the Planthroposcene – a term
coined by US anthropologist Natasha Myers. Touring exhibition Plant Fever has
published a Manifesto of Phyto-Centred Design, which urges people to design with
plants and restore the ancient alliance with them. At Helsinki Design Week 2021, the
exhibition Designs for a Cooler Planet advocated for “resource wisdom” for a common
future lived as part of nature. Es Devlin's Conference of the Trees installation at
Glasgow's COP26, and Olafur Eliasson's Life installation at Fondation Beyeler in
Switzerland both place humans viscerally in nature to emphasise our coexistence.
Regenerative design is a key way to implement this mindset in product innovation.
British designer Sebastian Cox has launched Native Regenerative – heirloom furniture
made with a “nature-first” approach. Alga Vodka is a project by designer Kit Ondaatje
Rolls with sustainability platform Maison/0 (a partnership between LVMH and Central
Saint Martins), which turns harmful algal blooms into the pigment, packaging and
contents of a bottle of vodka. At a grassroots level, US permaculture gardening
movement Grow Food Not Lawns encourages people to cultivate their gardens into
biodiverse green spaces housing multiple forms of life.

Curated by studio d-o-t-s, the Plant Fever exhibition at CID Grand-Hornu in Belgium includes a
manifesto that outlines the principles of designing for and with plants

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Multi-Species Thinking: actions and implications
Practice resource wisdom
Invest in supporting natural
ecosystems so they can replenish the
resources you use. Source materials
and ingredients locally and ethically,
and collaborate with environmental
groups to gain expertise
12
Commit to a regenerative
purpose
Move from an extractive to a
regenerative mindset by working to
actively improve the environment. As
well as minimising your current impact,
work to erase your brand's historical
imprint to achieve a net-positive impact
Design with nature
Allow some unpredictability within the
design process, allowing natural
elements to guide the final form, colour
or finish of products, and even the size
of a product run
Support multi-species lifestyles
Consumers will continue to adopt more
nature-focused lifestyles that include
DIY circular systems, such as home
composting. Develop products and
services that support these activities
Designing Protopias
The growing need to imagine and build a better future will lead consumers and
brands to explore protopias – a term coined by US tech futurist Kevin Kelly to
describe "a state that is better today than yesterday, although it might only be a
little better”.

More realistic than utopia and more motivating than dystopia, protopias will be used as
toolkits to create a positive future vision, or what environmentalist Bill McKibben calls
a “world worth wanting”.
Examples of initiatives that are promoting participatory futures, which purposefully
involve a greater range of people in foresight and futures thinking, include UNESCO's
Futures Literacy programme; the Foresight Observatory by UK-based Careful
Industries; the Possible Futures Festival hosted by Casa Firjan in Rio de Janeiro; and
Nuremberg's new Future Museum.
“Designing for human survival will become the new necessary field of design,” says
Céline Semaan, co-founder of climate justice organisation Slow Factory Foundation.
Projects such as Climate Designers, Transition Design and Design Emergency are
working to collect toolkits, case studies and resources to equip the creative industries
with the solutions, skills and motivation to participate.
Sci-fi prototyping is a growing methodology: Japanese tech company Sony paired
designers with science-fiction writers to visualise life in 2050. Planet City is a film by
Australian artist Liam Young that provides a futures provocation, imagining a hyper-
dense metropolis for 10 billion people on 0.02% of the planet, leaving nature to rewild
itself.
Space exploration will likely yield innovations to apply to living on a distressed planet,
Planet City by Australian lmmaker and speculative architect Liam Young's is a provocative vision
such as climate-resilient architecture, and spacesuits that inform structural support
of a hyper-dense metropolis populated by zero-waste weavers, drone shepherds and algae divers
for activewear on Earth.

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Designing Protopias: actions and implications
Create a world worth wanting
Develop positive future visions that
offer climate hope to customers.
Publish protopia-centred roadmaps
that lay out your route to a better
future, and take them on the journey
14
Practice creative foresight
Promote foresight and futures thinking
within your company as skills that will
benefit all, and use active learning
formats such as workshops to upskill
cross-disciplinary teams
Design provocations
Sci-fi prototyping and speculative
design are ways to establish long-term
thought leadership and show
imagination. Create speculative brand
futures that can then be usefully
critiqued
Look to space for innovation
As space exploration enters a new
phase, including commercial space
travel, translate emerging innovations
into consumer product applications
Contemporary Commons
As public infrastructure investments become more of a priority, people-powered
innovations will help to de ne new commons – the spaces and systems de ned by
custom and culture, and shared and used by all.

“I argue for operating at the level of community because thatʼs the level of
accountability,” says Dori Tunstall, design anthropologist and Dean of the Faculty of
Design at OCAD University, Toronto. “Who does it benefit and are they the most
vulnerable?” The Garden of Privatised Delights, curated by Unscene Architecture for
Venice Biennale 2021, explores this issue, calling for “new models of privately owned
public spaces in cities” that encourage gathering and provide access to all.
People-powered food systems are connecting communities and expanding access:
Marcellus Foods in Salt Lake City is a new grocery store and regional food processor
aiming to make it easier for everyone to eat well at home. US-based company Goodr
believes that food waste and hunger are logistics issues, and redistributes resources
to people in need.
Community-owned innovation will be a rising focus. In Oaxaca, indigenous cooperative
Telecomunicaciones Indígenas Comunitarias runs community-owned cell phone
networks in nearly 70 indigenous communities. Decentralising Digital works directly
with rural communities in India to apply emerging technologies such as the voice-
enabled internet in ways that can be maintained long-term.
In these commons, maintenance will be as important as innovation: global research
network The Maintainers amplifies the importance of infrastructure, repair and labour
in global systems.

US-based company Goodr diverts food waste from businesses and distributes it to people in
need via nonpro ts. “Hunger is a logistics issue,” says founder Jasmine Crowe

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Contemporary Commons: actions and implications

Create cooperative networks Open up your spaces Ensure access to all Innovate through maintenance

There are opportunities for brands to
create networks that connect
communities to resources, working
cross-industry to divert surplus to
those who need it and can use it
View brand spaces as community areas,
working directly with local groups to
open your presence up and become
part of local infrastructure, adding
value to the area
Commons should be open to all. Bring
in people with diverse perspectives and
experiences to ensure that you are not
excluding people in community
initiatives
Brands will increasingly need to co-
create and co-maintain products in
partnership with communities. Give
people the power to maintain and
repair products themselves

16
Cultural Power
A new wave of cultural guardians, combined with rising feelings of digital kinship,
will put the importance of culture, craft and heritage in the global spotlight as key
tenets of soft power.

Cultural industries contribute annual global revenues of US$2.25tn, provide nearly

30m jobs worldwide and employ more people aged 15−29 than any other sector, per
UNESCO, which has declared that “development without culture is growth without a
soul”. New creative destinations are opening to build cultural capital, including Hayy
Jameel in Jeddah, and ATÖLYE in Dubai and Istanbul.
As shown by the current global fascination with K-pop and Korean cinema, local
culture can resonate well beyond national borders. Filipino P-pop groups such as SB19
and Alamat have gained fan armies worldwide, while the global rise of anime has
helped make Japanese one of the fastest-growing languages learnt on Duolingo in the
US.
Digital platforms are enabling cultural guardians to preserve and promote their
heritage. In Brazil, Cunhaporanga Tatuyo has become a TikTok sensation, with 6.4m
followers, for her videos demonstrating life in the Tatuyo indigenous community. Roots
Studio represents indigenous artists globally, digitising their work and providing IP
education to help culture-makers preserve their rights.
Cra practices will be reappreciated for their history and their sustainable use of
resources. India-based designer Sneha Jajoo's compostable stools are made using a
traditional cob building technique, from clay, sand and spent agricultural fibres. Artist
Fanglu Lin's textiles showcase a tie-dye method used by China's Bai minority group for
more than 1,000 years.
22-year-old Cunhaporanga Tatuyo has gained a following of 6.4m on TikTok for her videos
demonstrating life in the Tatuyo indigenous community in Brazil

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Cultural Power: actions and implications
Align with creative destinations
Support cultural capital by aligning
with new and growing creative
destinations – for example, by
instigating talks and workshops and
facilitating creative conversations and
collaborations
18
Recognise digital kinship
Consider consumer demographics
through the lens of cultural value
systems – such as P-pop or fandom or
anime communities – to understand
consumers more holistically
Work with culture-makers
Partner with indigenous makers and
regional cultural guardians to preserve
and promote heritage. Work with expert
platforms such as Roots Studio to
ensure equity in this process
Respect time-honoured
practices
Cra practices and traditions hold many
lessons, including wise use of
resources and naturally circular
systems. Look to these sources of
wisdom to guide sustainable production
methods
No to ’Normal‘
As people increasingly embrace a fuller spectrum of ways of being – from gender
and sexuality to expectations related to age, ability, lifestyle, diet and beauty
standards – products will follow suit.

Societal boundaries are being progressively challenged by citizens in countries around

the world. In the US, 41% of Gen Z identify as neutral on the spectrum of masculinity
and femininity, and in Japan, Gen Z men spend 20% more on cosmetics per month than
the rest of the population. In LATAM and India, polyamory is increasingly mainstream,
while in China, the popular yet illicit ʻboys' loveʼ fiction genre (featuring romantic
relationships between male characters, created largely for heterosexual women) has
expanded across media to include games and TV shows.
According to research by Unilever, seven in 10 people agree that using the word
“normal” on product packaging and advertising has a negative impact. In response, the
company is removing the word from all its beauty and personal care branding.
The Paralympics has become the second-biggest sporting event in the world, and the
organisers of Paris 2024 plan for it to be the biggest yet. They have proposed a set of
Paralympics emojis to make this universal language more inclusive in its
representation.
As societies move away from ʻnormalʼ, new approaches to personalisation will grow,
tailored to individual sizing and nutritional and health needs. In food and drink,
labelling systems are moving beyond one-size-fits-all solutions: Brazil's Nova score
and France's Siga label evaluate foods for how processed they are, challenging the
norms of classic food pyramids. In health and fitness, training apps such as Wild.ai
account for menstrual cycle and nutritional intake to provide more specific insight.
The Paris 2024 committee has put forward a set of Paralympics sporting emojis in order to achieve
fairer representation of diversity in sport in the world's universal visual language

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No to ‘Normal’: actions and implications
Honour the lived experiences of
your consumers
Follow the principle of “nothing about
us without us”: people with
underserved needs know what they
need and how they want it sold to them.
Use co-design processes to bring end
users in to consult on products
20
Modernise your language
Challenge your use of language
internally as well as externally,
educating teams on words that make
people feel ʻotheredʼ. Use glossaries to
set standards, and bring experts in
regularly to keep your perspective up-
to-date
Rethink categories and labelling
Assess product packaging, advertising
and imagery to ensure it reflects a
spectrum of identities, experiences and
values. Redevelop sizing, labels and
guides to equip the customer to choose
the right option for them
Invest in next-gen
personalisation
Use emerging advances in AI and data
analysis to create tools that give people
personalised insights into their
physiology, particularly for health and
wellness applications such as nutrition
or exercise
Subtracting Adds Value
In the face of the climate emergency and over-production, a reductive approach
is gaining traction. As writer Kim Bellard puts it: “To add is expected, to subtract is
to design.”

Humans are naturally inclined to add rather than to take away. Through a series of
problem-solving experiments, a 2021 Nature study found that “people are more likely
to consider solutions that add features than solutions that remove them, even when
removing is more efficient.” New innovations will challenge this mindset.
In product design, less can still offer much more. British auto brand Mini collaborated
with fashion designer Paul Smith on the Mini Strip, an exercise in reduction that
features a paint-free metal exterior, a reduced number of physical controls and only
basic interior materials, including a steering wheel wrapped in bicycle tape.
In interiors, ʻright-sizingʼ is an idea that is gaining momentum among consumers and
businesses, as people reduce the size of their home or office spaces to suit changing
needs. Hyundai's new mall in Seoul spans 89,100 square metres of operating space,
but it allocated 11,240 square metres for indoor gardens rather than valuable retail
space, to enhance the experience.
In fashion, digital sampling and on-demand manufacture offer more sustainable
production methods, and both are seeing rising uptake. British fashion e-tailer Farfetch
shot the campaign for its new Pre-Order styles by digitally dressing models, instead of
shipping samples. Hong Kong brand Unspun reduces waste by making jeans from
regenerated denim, which is stitched into custom fits using a 3D smartphone scan
submitted by the customer.

British fashion designer Paul Smith worked with Mini to create the Mini Strip concept car, which
uses unpainted metal and natural and recycled interior materials, including dark cork

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Subtracting Adds Value: actions and implications
Subtract from your systems
Evaluate your existing design and
production systems to locate
opportunities to reduce and redesign
ways of working. Explore more
sustainable methods of production and
promotion, such as digital sampling
22
Exercise reduction in design
Look to natural colours, uncoated
materials and low-impact finishes to
reduce the environmental impact of
your products, and help them to fit
more easily into circular economies by
designing for disassembly
Use custom services to reduce
waste
On-demand and pre-order production
methods will have growing appeal, as
consumers look to reduce their
environmental impact and buy less but
better
Right-size your spaces
Reconsider the space needed for retail
or office locations, taking a more
flexible approach. For residential
spatial design, it will be key to create
multifunctional spaces that can be
adjusted on demand
Collective Intelligence
The importance of Conscious Networks will grow and evolve as we reconsider
what is deemed to be ‘intelligence’ and start to work more collectively to
interconnect knowledge.

In 2024, intelligence will be increasingly interconnected. To celebrate 150 years of the

scientific journal Nature, the team created an interactive tool to show how its papers
have been cited and shared across disciplines, with discoveries in one leading to
breakthroughs in another.
AI and machine intelligence will be used to augment human intelligence. Switzerland-
based designer Maxwell Ashford created the RUEI-01 shoe so that robots could
disassemble it easily, digitally embedding instructions, material specs, colour codes
and factory sources into the design so that robots can identify materials for
disassembly. Japanese tech brand Sony's AI division collaborated with Korea University
to create FlavorGraph, which predicts the pairing fit of two ingredients by matching
information from 1,561 flavour molecules to archives of one million recipes.
The global AI market is forecast to be worth $554.3bn by 2024, and products will
increasingly be designed directly by AI. Tech YouTuber Harrison Kinsley created GAN
The Auto, a neural network that has generated its own versions of landscapes in the
video game Grand The Auto.
Natural intelligence will be an equally compelling collaborator. UK design studio
Auroboros recently designed a 'living' dress for Ai-Da, a humanoid robot artist, which
will crystallise and grow over time.

Created to celebrate 150 years of the scienti c journal Nature, this interactive map depicts each
paper as a sphere, with links between papers that cite and connect to each other's work

23
1 234
Collective Intelligence: actions and implications
Connect and share your
knowledge
Open-source your innovation,
partnering with research institutions
and independent creatives to build on
successes and enable faster progress.
Seek cross-industry experts to
interconnect knowledge
24
Build on past breakthroughs
Explore existing solutions to identify
where an idea could be built on,
particularly as emerging technologies
open up fresh capabilities. Cross-
pollinate successful ideas from one
part of your brand into other areas
Combine different forms of
intelligence
Consider human, artificial and natural
intelligence as complementary, and pair
them together to create new
possibilities. Combine tech with natural
intelligence to amplify it, and look to
natural systems for knowledge
Embed information into
products
Embed digital information into products
so that they can be disassembled easily
and reused, whether by machines or
humans. This mindset of 'extended
responsibility' will increasingly be
expected from brands
Energised!
Post-pandemic, an outburst of accumulated energy will see the 2020s emulate
the roaring 1920s, but with a more inclusive focus. Creative stimulation and
energy will move up the hierarchy, and pursuits related to this will be deemed just
as important as any other.

Consumers are harnessing ʻmain character energyʼ – a TikTok hashtag with 6bn+ views
that advocates for people to see themselves as the main character in a show or book,
or a person that they believe in and are rooting for. People with main character energy
are super-attractors, pulling in others with their charisma.
Brand experiences will go beyond product to active experiences driven by pleasure
and curiosity, such as Bottega Veneta's faux fur green maze at the Grand Hyatt Seoul.
Synth Riders, a freestyle VR dance game with a 1980s look, provides a taste of the
digital joy people will be seeking, while One Bite Design Studio's Hong Kong roo op
sports ground offers multigenerational play with universal appeal.
Products will be literally and figuratively nourishing, embedded with vitamins and
antioxidants to promote health and boost moods, such as US brand Moodify's oatmeal
pots. Food waste will further enhance the raw materials market, as seen in
Copenhagen-based Leap's apple leather, made from le over cider apples.
Products will be designed with heightened attention to the senses. At Milan Design
Week 2021, Iranian designer Ariane Shirvani's Sweet Yellow broke down the chemical
compounds of Tagetes flowers into colour and scent to create a “hypothetical flower
field”. Multisensorial ASMR will extend to consumer products: British brand Be3's
Body Shape Mania lotion functions like popping candy on the skin.

One Bite Design Studio repurposed a Hong Kong rooftop into a brightly patterned
multigenerational sports ground that aims to bring energy and positivity to the neighbourhood

25
1 234
Energised!: actions and implications
Design for play
As people look to prioritise stimulation
and fun, offer active experiences that
are discovery-based and gamified. For
retail and marketing, explore ideas such
as AR treasure hunts or playful rewards
systems
26
Aim for multigenerational appeal
Design products and experiences to
energise consumers, regardless of age
or ability. Steer away from novelty
launches in favour of play-based
approaches that stimulate the mind and
body, offering cross-demographic
appeal
Use energising ingredients
Explore mood-boosting materials and
ingredients to infuse products with
energy-enhancing qualities. Look to
nourish customers, both literally and
figuratively, by embedding health
benefits into products
Recharge wellness narratives
Diversify wellness products beyond
soothing approaches, making self-care
ranges more fun and upli ing. Look for
ways to elevate moods, engage the
senses and inject some surprise into
product experiences, such as ASMR
The bookshelf
Media recommendations to further your research

Care: The Radical Art of Taking Time by Brooke McAlary

Consumed by Aja Barber
Move: The Forces Uprooting Us by Parag Khanna
Empathy Revisited: Designs for More Than One by Mariana Pestana, Sumitra Upham,
Billie Muraben
Things We Could Design For More Than Human-Centered Worlds by Ron Wakkary
The Mushroom magazine
Reactivating Elements, edited by Dimitris Papadopoulos, María Puig de la Bellacasa
and Natasha Myers
Deem: Issue 2, Pedagogy for a New World
The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Healthy, Happy Self
by Michael Easter
Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less by Leidy Klotz
The Innovation Delusion by Andrew L. Russell and Lee Vinsel
Power to the Public: The Promise of Public Interest Technology by Tara Dawson
McGuinness and Hana Schank
Meaningful Stuff: Design That Lasts by Jonathan Chapman
Gal-Dem
Hooked by Michael Moss
The New Breed: What Our History With Animals Reveals About Our Future with
Robots by Kate Darling
Gal-Dem 5: The Roaring Twenties issue

27
Future Innovations is created by WGSN's team of global experts
Future Innovations lead team:
Sarah Housley, Head of Consumer Tech
Lisa White, Creative Director of WGSN and Director of
Interiors
Amer icas
Andrea Bell, Director, Insight
Quentin Humphrey, Youth Culture Strategist
Cassandra Napoli, Senior Strategist, Insight
Kara Nielsen, Director, Food and Drink
Ligia Barros, Mindset Director, LATAM
APAC
Athena Chen, Senior Strategist, Insight
Europ e
Yvonne Kostiak, Senior Strategist, Active, Fashion
Sara Maggioni, Head of Womenswear, Fashion
Joe McDonnell, Head of Insight
Helen Palmer, Director, Materials, Textiles and
Knitwear
Boris Planer, Head of Consumer and Market Insight
Clare Varga, Head of Beauty
Contr ibutors
Amer icas
Raquel Dommarco, Localisation Team Lead
Sofia Martellini, Strategist, Youth and Womenswear
Sidney Morgan-Petro, Head of Retail and Buying
APAC
Yianni Giovanoglou, Trend Specialist, Australia and New
Zealand
Alison Ho, Consumer Researcher

Afr ica
Raeesa Brey, Researcher

28
The WGSN trend matrix 2024
Connecting the dots between our STEPIC foundational research, the six Future Drivers
and 12 Future Innovations that will shape the world in 2024

29
The WGSN forecast timeline 2024
The timeline for WGSN's suite of 2024 trend reports, moving from business strategy to
consumer and product strategy

30
The WGSN methodology

31