Because we note and explore the friction points we see around us today, we strive to harness and represent them in ways that challenge the underlying status quo. In doing so, we approach these frictions–political, social, cultural, technological, or legal–from a perspective that is indeed critical, yet resolutely optimistic.

Inspired by these frictions, we prototype ideas designed to be original and often provocative, aiming to fuel public debate. These ‘provotypes’–or provocative prototypes–linger over the sociocultural and sociopolitical applications and implications of what are variously referred to as transitions, technological revolutions, or disruptive innovations.

By choosing to investigate issues that are steeped in controversy and ambiguity, through Design Fiction and Speculative Design, we set out to cover the blind spots that traditional foresight studies tend to overlook. We seek out grey areas, taboos, and omissions and build upon those gaps. In our perpetual quest for friction, we push our design practice in an agonistic direction. Thus, our work aims both to reveal the systemic dependencies and unspoken assumptions behind our societies’ transformations and to confront the sometimes overbearing, often limited logic of ‘user-centered problem-solving’ at the core of modern design.

We are convinced that the friction points of today and tomorrow are indispensable assets for recognising – and prompting recognition of – the flawed nature of our possible futures. In these frictions, we see a rare and valuable opportunity to imagine scenarios that embrace contradiction, divergence, and even absurdism; those very ingredients that define the essence of our upcoming present.

Through our practice, we embody and materialise visions of possible worlds that challenge the notion of a ‘desirable future’ and gracefully diverge from what is anticipated for tomorrow. These visions, brought to life through design (fiction, speculative, critical), serve as a barely distorted–but deliberately extrapolated–mirror of our current realities.

Through speculative scenarios that showcase fictional objects, services, and spaces–and, by extension, the new imaginaries that inhabit them–we provide a starting point for discussions on our expectations for the evolution of our societies and their systems.

These ‘in-between’ futures, fluctuating in shades of grey between utopia and dystopia, unfold on the scale of the everyday. We narrate what our daily lives could become through design fiction scenarios, making the questions accessible and engaging. Our strategy: we subvert the codes of the infraordinary–all those things that form our everyday life in a more or less visible way, ranging from pop culture to consumer society, passing through administrative language–to present narratives grounded in everydayness, with perspectives designed to be ‘reachable’.

Our diverse mediums of storytelling and prototyping, as experimental as they are experiential, are crafted to engage a broader audience beyond those already convinced and involved. They enable us to assist those who are distant–whether intentionally or not–from futures to project themselves and interact with our speculative scenarios. Additionally, our modes of representing new horizons facilitate a holistic approach through a polyphony of visions that intertwine different perspectives around a single future, all embedded within our fictions.

Finally, by integrating critical inquiries into our fictional prototypes, we strive to develop alternative worlds that scrutinise our ambivalent interactions between cultures, politics, and technologies; addressing them as both diffuse architectures of control and opportunities for emancipation.

The very act of speculating and provoking should not be an end in itself. Just as in any design process, we feel the need to aggregate both reasoned feedback and spontaneous reactions elicited by our productions, in order to understand what they generate.

That is why we endeavour to monitor the discussions triggered by our (design) fictions. We incorporate tools and methods into our approaches to document and map the key arguments and concrete pathways that emerge from the debates raised by projection. These insights complement the initial speculations, acting as raw materials to be shaped for making decisions today.

This documentation of the debates also aims to support the evolution of the topics discussed over time. The recorded reactions should help refine previous narratives through iterations and introduce new speculations, continuously stimulating and enriching exchanges between stakeholders as the core of the controversy becomes more defined – while remaining free from distracting current events.

We do not believe in a one-size-fits-all formula when it comes to defining–let alone practising–Design Fiction. Every context is always more complex than it first appears, demanding its own process, one that is inevitably more adaptive than initially conceived. That being said, we experiment and document new, in-house processes and methodologies, making them as open to reuse and critique as possible.

More specifically, we aspire to strengthen and democratise the use of Design Fiction and Speculative Design approaches by developing toolkits and sharing knowledge. This open-access pool of resources is designed to encourage future thinking around topics that shape public debate, while also allowing for the exploration of curiosities that escape hegemonic imaginaries.

In the same vein, we seek to open the sources of our work, whether in terms of our exploratory processes or their outcomes. We affirm it is not only desirable but necessary to enable everyone to construct their own vision of tomorrow by providing them with the means to build upon our scenarios and tools. In other words, we are responsible for making available whatever is needed to create alternative futures to our alternative visions.

We hold that multidisciplinary approaches that enrich our practice of Design Fiction serve as a crucial safeguard against ungrounded speculation. They provide a rigorous foundation for narratives that explore tomorrow without losing sight of today’s realities.

Whether in a future-driven exploration or the development of a speculactive tool, we seek to engage with plurality of opinions, expertise, and experiences–voices that must shake our own methodological beliefs and test our worldviews.

We stand by the idea that these ‘epistemological’ frictions become even more fascinating when they are further augmented by the intersection of different cultures. This is why we integrate tailor-made design-ethnography tools into our approach, carefully adapting them to each subject and context, ensuring that our speculative practice remains rooted in the lived realities of communities and organisations.

Beyond ongoing collaborations with subject-matter experts, Design Friction is also defined by its commitment to fostering contributions from a broad spectrum of stakeholders–with particular attention given to those too often rendered invisible or marginalised. Indeed, we assert that Design Fiction, Speculative Design, and Critical Design can be vectors of mediation and inclusion, broadening participation in debates that concern us all, as they shape our collective future.

Ultimately, Design Friction’s journey can be understood as a reflective diary. We share our thoughts on design practice–fictional, but not only–within the realms of innovation and transformation, spanning both the public sphere and the private sector, all through a critical lens.

We uphold the principle that Design Fiction and Speculative Design are not merely methodologies; they are stances that invite us to interrogate the beliefs, imaginaries and ideologies shaping societal choices, whether in an economic or sociological sense. In a certain mise en abyme, it only makes sense to apply these critical principles to ourselves.

Thus, we take a reflective critical look at Design Fiction itself–its possibilities, limitations, and ambiguities. Given its intrinsic frictions, we pay particular attention to the responsibilities and ethical questions that fall upon designers addressing complex or contentious themes–especially when using speculative methods and positions that are, per se, fallible.

As we seek balance between necessary distance and actionable insights, we oblige ourselves to compile experience-based feedback on both our methodological hypotheses and concrete projects. This (self-)critical documentation emphasises the difficulties and disputes we have tackled–both internally and in collaboration with our clients and partners–throughout our experiments and services.

We hold that only by acknowledging its flaws, contradictions, and challenges can Design Fiction and Speculative Design truly move towards fulfilling their promises.

— Design Friction, written in Octobre 2014, clarified in January 2025.