This month’s issue of the design magazine I.D. has an article by Tom Vanderbilt on futurists and includes wonderful insights from Peter Bishop who heads the soon-to-be-resusitated Studies of the Future program at UH/Clear Lake.

The Houston Company of Friends was started by Kaye Patterson and one of Peter’s students, Christian Crews, whose career as a futurist is profiled.

Link: I.D Magazine.

The future may be anyone’s guess, but corporations still want a heads-up. That’s why you can find people like Christian Crews now serving as the director of "futures strategy" within Pitney-Bowes, the company best known for postal technology. "Snail mail" may not seem as if it has much of a future, but that’s precisely why a futurist can be so vital for the company.