Practicing Futures Without Permission: A Futurist's Guide

What does it mean to “do” futures work without the title of futurist? In this roundtable-style conversation, three design leaders—Kevin Bethune [author of Reimagining Design], Paul Ferraiolo [BMW Designworks], and Amirya Perkins — gather to explore the many pathways into futures practice.Drawing from experiences across industrial design, brand strategy, and innovation, they reflect on how futures thinking often lives between the lines: embedded in intuition, method, or mindset. Together, they interrogate how futures frameworks can be integrated into industry work without formal permission—and how design can make space for non-linear paths, emergent thinking, and unorthodox foresight.This conversation invites practitioners at all levels to reframe what “counts” as futuring, and to recognize the quiet, radical ways the future is already being shaped.In conversation with Kevin Bethune, Paul Ferraiolo, and Amiyra Perkins[We Have Seen The Future][DEEM Journal]