Visual Futuring
The future is only real once you’ve seen it.
Jonathan helps leaders make sense of and build alignment around the future using visual tools. Their emotional impact can shortcut thousands of hours of conversations, data analysis and reports. Jonathan has built visualizations to convince individual investors, leadership teams and millions of individuals of the need to change. Over the years, he has worked with:
Industry leaders to build an industry vision
R&D leaders to envision the future
C–Suites, boards and Governments to prioritize and communicate policy goals
Hollywood directors to creating the worlds behind iconic films
Over the years, this work has ranged from helping the US government make sense of the global food system, to helping companies invent new product categories to helping Hollywood envision the future.
“Jonathan Brill isn't Nostradamus but, for the world's top business and government leaders, he's the next best thing.”
— Bronwyn Syiek, Independent board director, Oxford University Press, International Personal Finance, Plc.
Futurist in Residence — Territory Studio
What if science fiction were more science than fiction?
When Hollywood directors like Ridley Scott, Denis Villeneuve and Spielberg need to envision the future, they call Territory Studio. Jonathan works with creative director David Sheldon-Hicks to create realistic ideas of what the future might look like. While they love making super tech for super villains, they also build real tech for real life heros, including products for Cadillac and Intel.
Tech for Super Heroes
Tech for Real Heroes
US World’s Fair Pavilion — Expo Milano 2015
How will we double the amount of food we produce on the planet?
Jonathan led a team of over 100 executives and researchers across the United States government, the food and agriculture industry to identify US food policy priorities and opportunities for innovation in this $14 trillion industry. This year long research project became a 45,000 square foot, $16 million exhibit at the 2015 worlds fair. Brill managed the research, content and exhibit design from concept through permitting.
The Internet of Life — O’Reilly
What happens when biology meets the IoT?
O'Reilly's Solid conference wanted to know about the collision of Biotech with the Internet of Things. How would it shape the world in 2030?
Jonathan assembled 25 of the brightest minds in technology and biology to explore the Biological Internet of Things.
The output was a 75 page report filled with ideas and scenarios about how the Internet of Life will form. Click below to read the report.
Sony Wonder Technology Lab
In 2001, Jonathan worked with 27 VPs from around Sony to envision a the future of technology, from cloud computing to mobile internet to digital music to user generated content.
The result was a 12,000 square foot exhibit that rolled out over a decade in the form of exhibits that accurately forecast applications and experiences for emerging technology.
Food 2030 — MIT Media Lab
Jonathan interviewed twenty executives from all areas of the food industry, ranging from farming to restaurants to robotics, to understand and visualize the emerging opportunities over the next decade. This project, done in collaboration with the Culinary Institute of America and the MIT Media Lab has resulted in a number of startups, both in the United States and China.