“Nick is the uninhibited master of design as a means for translation and clarity. He finds the soft underbelly of ideas, listens at the door of culture, clears away the tangle of hyperbole - and reveals those few notes that matter.”
/ CHARLIE SUTTON - HEAD OF DESIGN - FACEBOOK/META /
Focusing on flexibility
There’s a trend within the design community to discuss and debate the minutiae of design processes, but when producing future-facing work, a dogmatic adherence to process can be self-defeating. In exploratory work there are countless unknowns, dead ends, misalignments and open questions, which need to be met with an equally flexible approach to design.
Over the last two decades Nick has developed a broad suite of adaptable approaches to account for the natural variances of any project, including physical prototyping, storyboarding, film, print, motion, industrial and interaction design. In leading design work he seeks out a willingness to experiment with techniques and tools, combined with a strong understanding of real human needs and the ability to generate relatable, understandable and actionable proposals.
Leading a crit with the Design team at X
Leading emerging practices
For over a decade Nick was a partner at The Near Future Laboratory, a seminal futures collective which developed the exploratory practice of Design Fiction. He remains an active member of speculative and critical design communities, both in academia and through his advisory roles.
Nick is well known for the approach he developed through The Future Mundane which has introduced new ways of engaging with the future, and encourages the warm embrace of the inevitable practicalities and pragmatic questions of any future product, service or system. By continually pushing the relationship between design, emerging technology and the ways in which futures may be explored, Nick has become a leading figure in academia and design discourse.
‘Domingo’s Nightstand’ - exploratory Design Fiction scene for a futures investigation at X.
Embracing post-disciplinarity
As the discipline of design evolves, approaches merge and definitions become somewhat meaningless. At Google X Nick eradicated disciplinary design silos and introduced a single, unified design team. Within the team were world class experts in their chosen fields, but all team members were encouraged to approach design in its broadest terms, using whatever tools were most appropriate, and encouraging new explorations at every opportunity.
In parallel to these changes, Nick has found considerable success in translating design approaches for non-design partners. Much of his work centers on finding language and techniques which can bring product and user focus into relevancy for scientists, engineers, business strategists, entrepreneurs and developers, helping to embed design literacy and advocacy into large, multifaceted organizations.
Improvised studio setup for an exploratory film project
Learning through sharing
The process of creating long-form written content, or presenting to a large group helps bring sprawling collections of thoughts together into a coherent whole. As such, Nick continues to develop his thinking through writing, a short selection of which is here. In 2022, he co-authored The Manual of Design Fiction and is currently working on his first full length book project.
Nick regularly steps into teaching roles, not only to share his approaches and insight through structured lectures or tutorials, but as a means to stay abreast of emerging techniques, tools and subject matter. He has taught at many of the world’s most highly respected design schools including the Royal College of Art, Goldsmiths University, California College of the Arts, Art Center College of Design and Tongji University in Shanghai.
Drunk on 3D Printing - essay in The Alpine Review