John Thackara | Speaker

For more than thirty years John Thackara has travelled the world in his search for stories about the practical steps taken by communities to realise a sustainable future. Born in the UK, he now lives in southwest France. John studied philosophy and trained as a journalist before working for ten years as a book and magazine editor.

He was the first director (1993—1999) of the Netherlands Design Institute in Amsterdam; he was program director of Designs of The Time (Dott07), the social innovation biennial in England; he was commissioner in 2008 of France’s main design biennial, Cité du Design. He is a Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art in London, a Fellow of Musashino Art University in Japan and a member of the UK Parliament’s Standing Commission on Design.

John has also edited the magazine Design for five years and was later Modern Culture Editor of Harpers & Queen and design correspondent of The Guardian. He then started a conference and exhibition company, with offices in London and Tokyo, which created and organised events at the Pompidou Centre, Victoria & Albert Museum, Axis Gallery in Tokyo, and other venues.

From 1989 to 1992, John was Director of Research at the Royal College of Art. Among John’s 12 books are Design After Modernism: Beyond the Object (1987) and Lost in Space: A Traveller’s Tale (1995). His best-selling book, In the Bubble: Designing In A Complex World, was published by MIT Press in May 2005 and has since been published in nine other languages. His most recent book, How To Thrive In The Next Economy, was published in 2015.

In addition to his big-picture keynote talks for cities, companies, and institutions, he also chairs events and is known for his lively Q&A interviews. He has curated two national biennials and serves on a number of international professional juries.

Fast Company described John Thackara as “a business provocateur….” For the Wall Street Journal, he “has established a global reputation as a cutting-edge design expert”. Wired called him “a design luminary”. The San Francisco Chronicle described him as a “wired era visionary”. The Economic Times of India noted his “brilliant insights into the internet and sustainability”.