FAILURE / NOT FAILURE

21st Century creative practice is characterized by two competing impulses: Disruption and Risk Aversion.

The world of tech has embraced the idea of “Fail Fast” as an iterative way to develop new products and services. On the other hand, more established design disciplines (architecture, brand design) have needed to become more risk-averse in their work and develop a new lexicon of “performance indicators” to “prove” their impact on culture and society.

In this context, Hunter Tura, Founder and CEO of SYNDICATE X, will discuss how designers can begin to think about a third way, and to establish the framework of a new kind of creative practice that aims to produce work that is instead more efficient in its production, of a higher quality and ultimately more sustainable.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Hunter Tura is the Founder & CEO of SYNDICATE X, a global strategic brand consultancy where he is responsible for the firm’s overall creative direction, design excellence and global business development. Additionally, he serves as a Senior Advisor to Bruce Mau Design (BMD) with offices in London, New York and Toronto, where he was President & CEO from 2010 to 2019.

Over the course of the past two decades, he has worked with business, culture and design leaders from leading organizations such as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, Lucid Motors, Changi Airport Group, the Victoria & Albert Museum as well as companies including Netflix, Audi, Asics, Lululemon, Allstate, Samsung, GE, Unilever, and Sonos on a range of brand strategy & design initiatives.  

From 2005-2010, Tura was Managing Director at 2x4, Inc., responsible for leading operational and strategic business efforts in the U.S. and China as well as overseeing key client relationships for companies including Prada, Nike, P&G, Chanel and Tiffany & Co.  Previously he worked at Rockwell Group and in the office of AMO/Rem Koolhaas in New York and Rotterdam.

Tura was the curator of the Canada Pavilion during the 2018 London Design Biennale, a member of the Presidential Design Awards Jury in Singapore in 2017, and is a juror for the 2019 Florence Design Biennale. He has served on the design faculty of Designskolen Kolding (Denmark), the University of California and Columbia University, and has lectured at Universities and conferences worldwide. 

He received his Master of Architecture degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design where he completed his thesis under the direction of Rem Koolhaas and has a BA from Haverford College in the Growth and Structure of Cities. Tura serves on the Design Council for IE School of Architecture and Design in Madrid, is the Secretary of the Board of Trustees at the Van Alen Institute in New York, and is an Advisor to the Pennoni Honors College at Drexel University in Philadelphia.