Who’s behind all this?
Epic Decade
Studio
Epic Decade is a design studio committed to cultural transformation. Our story begins 10 years ago in a garage on the island of Jamestown, Rhode Island. From this garage, we envisioned a different kind of company. One that utilized the magic of remarkable experiences to compel communities of leaders to ask bigger questions about the possibilities of our shared world. What began as a bespoke studio of creative strategists leveraging design thinking to catalyze cultural change, has grown into a convener of more than 3,000 leaders in forums called IDEAS Salons. Attended by executives from companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, GE, Disney, Oprah Winfrey Network, Harvard University, Kaiser Permanente, and more as a blend between a artistic theater and think tank for business and social innovation.
We have led this work through a signature methodology we call Radical Curiosity. A new kind of inquiry practice that challenges commonly held beliefs to imagine better futures.
Meet Seth,
the School’s Founder
Seth is an audacious entrepreneur and thought leader working at the intersection of design, business, and culture. Before launching Epic Decade he was the VP of Bruce Mau Design Studio and the Executive Director of Massive Change. Prior to leading BMD, he was the Founder and Curator of the civic engagement program for the 2008 Obama Democratic National Convention called “Dialog: City” and the Deputy Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, and has worked at the Rhode Island School of Design as the Director of the Center for Public Engagement. His work has been celebrated in the NY Times, Wired Magazine, Fast Company Magazine, and The Huffington Post.
In Fall 2021, Seth is publishing a book with Penguin Random House documenting Radical Curiosity as a philosophy and innovation practice.
Seth Goldenberg
Founder & CEO
School for Radical Futures
Through Epic Decade, we have engaged a diverse global community of challengers asking the essential questions of our time.
We have been honored to host, convene, and collaborate with more than 3,000 guests in our signature forums across all aspects of business and cultural life. Through these remarkable experiences guests have become colleagues, collaborators, and life-long friends. Our community has grown into an unprecedented network of nutritious people who have come to support one another and launch ventures that embody the values of Radical Curiosity. It is in this way that we blend the typical boundaries of employment and work, trading it for an open network of expertise that can assemble and engage projects that promise to change the world.
Superheroes in our orbit, past and present, include:
DENISE YOUNG
Previously SVP
of Human Resources at Apple, Executive in Residence at Cornell Tech + Chair of the Board of SF Jazz
San Francisco, CA
ALEX JADAD
Physician, Philosopher +
Founder of the Centre for Global eHealth, University of Toronto,
Toronto + Columbia
IVY ROSS
Google SVP of Design
Mountain View, CA
DAWN DANBY
Co-founder of Spherical Studio + Fast Company 100 Most Creative People
Oakland, CA
TRUNG LE
Founding Partner at 180 Studio + contributor to The Third Teacher
Chicago, IL
BRUCE MAU
Chief Creative Office at Freeman, Founder of Bruce Mau Studio Author of Massive Change + MC24
Chicago, IL
BETH COMSTOCK
Author of Imagine it Forward + formerly GE Chief Innovation Officer
New York, NY
ANDREW YANG
Former presidential candidate + creator of Yang Speaks
New York, NY
MORGWN RIMEL
Founder of Superculture +
formerly The School of Life Executive Director
London, UK
AYESAH KHANNA
Co-founder + CEO OF ADDO AI, an artificial intelligence incubator
Singapore
KURT GRAVES
CEO of Intarcia Therapeutics,
a biotech treating type 2 diabetes
Boston, MA
MEHMOOD KHAN
CEO of LifeBiosciences +
formerly PepsiCo's Chief Science Officer
Pakistan
AMANDA ROCK
Director of Cultural Development
at Epic Decade + co-founder of Station
East Greenwich, RI
SANYU DILLON
EVP, Director of Marketing Strategy
and Consumer Engagement
at Penguin Random House
New York, NY
BRUCE VAUGHN
Former Chief Creative Officer
at Walt Disney Imagineering
Los Angeles, CA
TAMARA GRUSIN
Senior Graphic Designer at Epic Decade + formerly with Bruce Mau Design
Evanston, IL
LESLIE ZIEGLER-SCHROCK
Author of Bumpin + formerly on the founding team of Rock Health
San Francisco, CA
RAVI SUNNAK
EVP of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at Porter Novelli
New York, NY
RAJNI ANEJA
Global Head of Digital Strategy/Transformation at Sanofi +
MIT Science Fellow
Boston, MA
DARIA NIKOLAEVA
Designer at Epic Decade + founder of Niko Design
Moscow, Russia
MATTHEW WEATHERLY-WHITE
Co-Founder, Managing Director at The Caprock Group
Boise, ID
MICHELE DIX
Founder of MMD Media + formerly SVP of Programming and Development,
The Oprah Winfrey Network
West Hollywood, CA
GLENN FORD
CEO of Praxis Marketplace +
InCity Farms
Minneapolis, MN
GEORGIA FRANCES KING
Literary Agent for Aevitas,
formerly Ideas Editor for Quartz +
founding Editor for Kinfolk Magazine
New York, NY
STEPHEN CANNON
CEO of AMB Group +
formerly President + CEO of
Mercedes Benz USA
Atlanta, GA
DOUG POWELL
Vice President of Design for IBM +
Interim Vice President of Design for
IBM Watson Health
Austin, TX
ROSHELLE RITZENTHALER
Director of Research at Epic Decade + Fellow at the University of WI Center for Design + Material Culture
Madison, WI
RICARDO PITTS-WILEY
Director, playwright, composer +
co-founder of Mixed Magic Theatre
Pawtucket, RI
ODESSA PIPER
James Beard Best Chef of Midwest, founding mother of the farm-to-table + Director of Taliesin's Food Artisans
Boston, MA
LEE GUNN
Director of the American Security Project + formerly Vice Admiral United States Navy, Inspector General of the Navy
Washington, DC
We’ve spent the last decade staging audacious projects.
Including:
Apple Retail
How can we design a culture of innovation for a global community, at scale?
Epic Decade has worked with Apple Retail over the span of 4 years on a range of projects that examine the employee experience and look at their people-centric culture from a systems design perspective. The first engagement was devoted to deepening the design of the people-centric experience, particularly after the loss of the organization’s figurehead, Steve Jobs. Epic Decade convened a cross departmental “Innovation Council” of more than 25 participants to engage in an executive program that applied design thinking to challenges and opportunities in the culture of Apple Retail. The result was a human “operating system” with nearly 50 “apps” to be integrated into the business to catalyze innovation, sharpen efficiencies, and align the organization around a compelling shared narrative. More recently Epic Decade has been working with cross departmental teams within Apple Retail to re-examine the employee experience and people-centered culture as the company experiences massive expansion into new markets globally.
How do you bring together over 1,000 stakeholders navigating a $1Trillion challenge?
The Wood Buffalo Region in Northern Alberta is at the epicenter of the single largest industrial project in the history of mankind. The extraction of petroleum resource in the region creates an epic and endlessly complex challenge. Epic Decade launched the initiative of Nexus North as a catalyst to re-imagine the future of sustainability, by making the region into a global model of transformation. The highly contentious nature of the issue had created wide divides between diverse groups of stakeholders. As an outsider party, Epic Decade was able to bring these perspectives, often at odds, together at shared tables and forums for deep discourse. Design methodologies were leveraged as a means of stitching together a fragmented community by rebuilding trust and understanding. Together, the community developed frameworks for building a sustainable future.
Nexus North
MIY: Make-it-Yours
How might we engage a community dialogue around place and empower residents to be advocates for their home state?
After the failed rollout of the “Cooler, Warmer” Rhode Island tourism brand, Epic Decade was engaged by the state to create a cultural campaign to engage residents. MIY was a play on the “do-it-yourself” (DIY) culture and started off with a temporary pop-up storefront forum and gallery in Providence, called the MIY Story Studio and continued with other experiential activations across the state. There was also an accompanying social media campaign asking people to share their RI story. These forums and digital experiences gave Rhode Islanders a voice and a platform to tell their stories and be advocates for their state. This campaign was followed by a digital ad campaign that utilized the social media postings from MIY posted by RI residents and visitors.
How do we engage a community in transforming the future of education?
Catalyzed by the arrival of a new Head of School, GFS was asking new questions about its future. These questions range in themes from pedagogical and financial to physical campus and communication. Epic Decade partnered with GFS for 2 years to develop a strategic vision that honors the past but prepares for a dynamic future. This initiative was a kind of “Cultural Campaign”, designed as a participatory set of interconnected activities that engaged leadership and the school community to embody a new future narrative. This was done as a series of micro-social movements rolled out in stages, layered with leaders and ambassadors to naturally “positively infect” the community with a sense of possibility.
