The future, as both imagined space and intentional construction, has held our collective fascination and propelled us across all modes of cultural production. As part of the Fall 2021 Intra-Disciplinary Seminar series, Forest Young will give a lecture that recognizes diverse sources — combining theoretical texts with cultural artifacts, images, and film. The focus is to engage an expansive, global view of intentional futures, speculative missteps, and world-making.

This talk is open to Cooper students, faculty, and staff. 

Forest Young is a global design leader, educator, and speaker. Today, he leads brand design at Rivian. He was the first Chief Creative Officer at Wolff Olins — which was recently named Fast Company’s Most Innovative Company for Design. He is a founding advisor for MillerKnoll's Diversity in Design collaborative, and recently served on the National Board of Directors for the AIGA. Forest was invited to join Fast Company's inaugural Impact Council and his work has been exhibited at MoMA, the Royal College of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, and at international biennials.He has received the industry's highest design accolades including the Gold Design Lion at Cannes and the Art Directors Club Black Cube. His passion lies at the intersection of storytelling, universal design and futurism. He was invited by the California College of the Arts to envision and teach the inaugural MFA course in Future Design. Forest holds a BS in Human Development from Cornell University and MFA in Graphic Design from the Yale School of Art.

The IDS public lecture series is part of the Robert Lehman Visiting Artist Program at The Cooper Union. We are grateful for major funding from the Robert Lehman Foundation. The IDS public lecture series is also made possible by generous support from the Open Society Foundations.