The What If Project

What if an AI-led totalitarian regime banned analogue technology? What if we were forced to live underwater due to climate catastrophes? And, what if our emotions were no longer private but visible to everyone?

Academic year

2024/2025

Speculative design is the discipline that thrives on questions like these—bold, unsettling, and thought-provoking—and envisions alternative futures, blending creativity with research to explore the possible, the improbable, and everything in between. It moves beyond aesthetics and function, transforming design into a tool for critical reflection.

At IED Firenze, the master's students in Graphic Design brought this approach to life in the Research and Trend Forecasting course through a dedicated project curated by professor and coordinator Isabella Ahmadzadeh. They stepped into the role of future thinkers, crafting their own “what if” scenarios based on emerging trends. Each developed a unique premise—some dystopian, others deeply rooted in contemporary concerns—as the foundation for a 32-page visual essay.

These essays became a playground for experimentation, where personal artwork, collage, typographic compositions, and AI-generated imagery came together to visualize speculative futures, narrating how technology, society, and culture might evolve. The project was as much about research as it was about creativity, allowing students to analyze trends and critically question where they might lead.

More than just a showcase of design skills, this collection of visual essays challenges us to reconsider the futures we’re heading toward. It’s a call to reflect on the forces that shape our world—and the power of design to imagine what comes next.