The days of flying just to move from point A to point B are over. Delta has just officially declared that were entering the era of the lifestyle airline.
Nowadays, selecting a flight no longer means simply choosing an airline to fly with. It’s a multistep process that involves navigating a sea of ancillary fees, wading through seating charts, and selecting add-ons like extra legroom. Cutting through that noise requires brands to go to extra lengths to draw in customers. For Delta, that means repositioning itself as not just a form of transport, but also a luxury, personalized experience.
The brand just refreshed its core identity for the first time since 2008 to embody that shift. In collaboration with the design firm DixonBaxi, Delta is rolling out a refresh that includes new brand colors, motion elements, and typography to appear as more than just an airline, according to Libby Tsoi, design director at DixonBaxi.
[Image: courtesy DixonBaxi/Delta]
Air travel gets a chaotic rebrand
The landscape of air travel has been in a major state of flux over the past several years, as the top airline brands in the U.S. chase bigger bottom lines through an increasingly complex fee system. According to a Senate report released late last year, between 2018 and 2023, the airlines American, Delta, United, Spirit, and Frontier collectively raked in $12.4 billion in revenue from ancillary fees like advanced seat assignments and carry-on bags.
In 2024 alone, Spirit Airlines moved further from its origins as a low-budget carrier by implementing a new seat class with extra add-ons, while Southwest abandoned its iconic bags fly free and open seating policies altogether in favor of a tiered pricing system. This July, Delta announced that it has begun using AI to institute dynamic pricing based on factors like seat availability, current news, weather conditions, and even fluctuating oil prices.
As brands continue to ratchet up their extra add-ons, theyre starting to look more and more similar. That means the pressure to offer the next best perk or experience is mounting across the board.
[Image: courtesy DixonBaxi/Delta]
So far, Deltas answer to this conundrum has been to start branding its travel as a premium experience, rather than just a form of transportation. The brand is currently in the process of redesigning all of its planes’ interiors for a more luxe feel, including by installing new seat fabrics, mood lighting, and a swanky color palette. For its most high-paying ticket holders, it’s also begun rolling out a series of ultra-opulent airport lounges.
In 2024, premium ticket offerings accounted for $5.2 billion out of Deltas total $15.6 billion revenue. Delta CEO Ed Bastian noted in the companys full-year earnings report that he expected consumers to increasingly seek the premium products and experiences that Delta provides. One way the company is supporting that goal is by adopting a more premium brand identity.
[Image: courtesy DixonBaxi/Delta]
Is this the beginning of the ‘lifestyle airline’ era?
Deltas vision with this brand refresh was bold, Tsoi says. The brands end goal was to stand shoulder to shoulder with the worlds most iconic lifestyle brands.
Lifestyle branding describes a kind of branding that expands a consumers brand association beyond an actual product to a way of living, based on that brands core values. Its become something of a buzzword across categories in recent months, with names like Tesla, Erewhon, and Sweetgreen all striving for lifestyle status in some capacity.
[Image: courtesy DixonBaxi/Delta]
Even our earliest creative campfires werent filled with aircraft, but with lifestyle imagerypeople, moments, stories, Tsoi says. This shift in mindset shaped everything: the tone, the aesthetic, the system. We brought an editorial sensibility to the visual language, framing Delta not just as a carrier of people, but as a curator of experience.
To that end, Deltas updated look has a significantly less corporate feel. The lifestyle photography has been pulled out of the airport or plane altogether, showing Delta passengers in bustling cities and mountain vistas. The brands logo and wordmark remain physically unchanged, but DixonBaxi reimagined the classic Delta symbol as a 3D object, setting guidelines around how it can be used to bring motion into Deltas visual identity.
Alongside the type foundry Pangram Pangram, DixonBaxi also developed two new bespoke typefaces: Delta Sans and Delta Serif. Delta Serif, which features sculpted terminals drawn directly from the angled geometry of the Delta icon, can be used in a thin weight that will eventually lend an artsier feel to Deltas website, boarding passes, and ad campaigns.
And, while red and blue will remain core Delta colors, the full palette has been expanded to include more emotive accent hues like sky blue, mint green, and neon pink.
The new look began rolling out on Deltas social channels over the past few weeks, and will eventually evolve to encompass lounges, in-flight design, and out-of-home ad campaigns. Tsoi emphasizes that the effort to reimagine Deltas branding has only just gotten underway, and fans can expect further updates in the coming months.
[Image: courtesy DixonBaxi/Delta]
Given Deltas status as a leading player in the industry, it wouldnt be a surprise if its move to become a lifestyle airline sets a new tone for how other airlines begin brand their own flight experiences.
Matthew Williams has slept very little since he learned about Sacha Stone’s plan to build a sovereign micronation on 60 acres of land near his home in rural Tennessee. What began as a quick Google search in April quickly became hours of research and then days, then weeks. It was between working on this and then stressing about working on this, he says. Within a month, between me and my wife, we watched over 30 hours of his videos.
With his long hair and often bare chest, intense patter, and hundreds of thousands of online followers, the 59-year-old British “peace activist” looks like the archetype of a globetrotting, spiritual guru. In late June, Stone arrived in Surgoinsville, a sleepy hamlet 90 minutes northeast of Knoxville, to lead dozens of supporters in a “consecration” ceremony at the site, dedicating what he calls the NewEarth Tanasi Micronation as a template for the emergent Rainbow Warrior Tribe.
But beyond the peace and rainbows, Williams had seen something much darker in Stones “sovereign” movement: a mix of extreme far-right ideas, an alliance of influential fringe figures like Michael Flynn and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and a revenge-minded rhetorical war against a parade of bogeymen, from governments to globalists.
In June, Stone and dozens of supporters gathered at the NewEarth nation site in Surgoinsville, Tenn. [Photo: Matthew Williams]
The battles have also become a brisk business, with speaking tours, retreats, health products and memberships, which Stone promotes to his hundreds of thousands of followers. For a “donation” of $10,000, Stone has said, members of the NewEarth micronation will be able to exist tax-free in a futuristic-looking residential enclave, with access to an on-site healing center specializing in advanced microbiology” and cures.
A devoted Christian and libertarian, Williams, 31, believes in religious freedom and a hands-off approach by the government. (Both political parties would hate me, he says.) But for months, hes been pressing Hawkins County, where hes lived for two decades to do something, meeting with officials, hosting community meetings, posting signs and Facebook updates, and enlisting dozens of neighbors in building a local groundswell against NewEarth.
If they were a hippie cult and they wanted to do stuff out in the middle of the woods, I couldnt care less, Williams says. But a lot of Sacha Stones theories kind of fall in line with that QAnon theory, and people here who associate themselves with QAnon tend to be extremist, right-wing, violent individuals.
Stone and his deputies have been pushing back against Williams and the local opposition, insisting that his movement is peacefulthat it isnt a cultand decrying defamatory actions and false claims in local forums. Online, Stone has used more aggressive rhetoric, alluded to NewEarth members strapped with guns, and alleged that Williams and other critics are part of a Satanic conspiracy. Stone did not respond to questions from Fast Company.
Local officials are uneasy too, but say the NewEarth group has broken no laws. It obviously is not something that most people in the community are looking forward to having in Hawkins County, Mayor Mark DeWitt told NBC affiliate WCYB in May. But we have to realize that right now, theres nothing that theyre doing that can stop them from being here at this point.
Recently, Williams and two dozen neighbors began meeting near the site simply to pray together. Practically everyone weve talked to, theyre afraid, and theyre worried about what is coming, he says.
Hes been carrying pepper spray too, just in case someone tries to do anything stupid.”
This has Waco, Texas, written all over it
“The world’s gone mad,” Sacha Stone told the audience, and he was mad too. It was August 2023 at the Las Vegas stop of the ReAwaken America Tour, a MAGA-themed religious roadshow, and hundreds of ticketholders had just watched MyPillow founder Mike Lindell deliver his evidence of election fraud; Donald Trump Jr. was that nights headliner. With pendants swaying across his bare torso, Stone gripped the microphone, and, temper flaring, raised his voice to offer his central message: “Do not comply, do not do anything, anything that moves against the spirit, that moves against your soul!”
His British accent and aging rocker persona easily stood out at the ultraconservative confab, a Christian nationalist revival meeting-meets-QAnon expo cofounded by former Trump national security adviser and QAnon icon Michael Flynn in the wake of January 6. But his speech recited many familiar claims. “They are planning to asphyxiate your children and your parents from God-given oxygen, and inject mRNA, genetic therapy, into every single child in this blessed country, he told the audience. The government gives you two things: mind control and trafficking. Thats it baby! Thats it!
Sacha Stone at the Arise USA tour in Milton, Florida, in May 2021 [Photo: ZimmComm/Flickr]
For more than a decade, Stones “sovereignty” movement has pit him against an array of existential threats: 5G, COVID-19 vaccinations, Bill Gates, the World Health Organization, the deep tate, pedophiles, the United Nations, Jesuits, the Vatican, globalists and cabals suppressing advanced, alien technologies and violating “natural law.” One project, the International Tribunal of Natural Justice (ITNJ), has held hearings that purport to show corporations hiding as government engaged in human trafficking and child sex abuse.
At times, Stone has argued that satanic government policies warrant violent resistance. At some point, you have to drag these people into the market square we have to hang them by the neck until dead, if they continue to stick HIV/AIDS into our babies, he said in 2021.
Years after the pandemic, messages like Stones are flourishing online. With a two-time president who’s built a political career out of spreading falsehoods and promoting conspiracy theorists, even hiring them to top cabinet posts, Trumps second term has given new permission to wild, inflammatory ideas and the profiteers who push them. Social media companies have loosened their rules around false content, too, just as the Trump administration has slashed funding for misinformation research, and gutted the Homeland Security office responsible for helping localities counter domestic extremism. All of this is particularly concerning now, since the evidence suggests that conspiracy thinking is fueling historically high levels of polarization and political violence, from the attack on the Capitol to a wave of attacks and assassinations.
Of course, the country has been mired in dangerous conspiracy theories since long before Trump leapt onto Fox News with questions about President Barack Obamas birthplace (or onto Jeffrey Epsteins jet, for that matter). Since the early 2010s, Stone has cultivated a kind of spiritual conspiracismembraced for decades by both the countercultural left and the Christian rightand leveraged a motley alliance of very online freedom fighters, from anti-vax advocates and cosmic starseeds to tax protesters, pedophile-fighting patriots and white supremacists. But his right-wing ideology of sovereignty, with its illiberal, authoritarian leanings, also descends from a tradition that dates back hundreds of years.
One of Stone’s recurring fixations are the Sabbateans, a 17th-century Messianic Jewish movement that has become a focus of contemporary antisemitic conspiracy theories. Stone has managed to evade direct controversy for years by avoiding explicitly antisemitic language, and cloaking his theories in lengthy monologues with seemingly harmless, esoteric ideas about geoportals or the mechanics of ascension. In a 2017 talk in Dartington, England, posted on YouTube, he invites his audience to question whether Hitler was misrepresented in historical accounts. Adolf Hitler, the big bad scary guy, well thats a very compelling spellbinding [sic], he said, adding that ninety percent of the facts that we spout about the Second World War were introduced in 1952.
Stones fortunes changed during the pandemic, when his anti-vaccine rants led YouTube and then Facebook to temporarily remove his accounts, costing him tens of thousands of followers. But as public trust sank and social media algorithms fed a fevered search for answers, the pandemic and America’s political chaos also opened new avenues for Stone’s repertoire of spiritualism, anti-government conspiracies, and commercial hustles. He drew support from networks of conspiracy superspreaders, like the “World Doctors Alliance,” a transatlantic group of vaccine skeptic health practitioners that reached millions during the pandemic.
Neighbors posted protest signs around Stanley Valley ahead of Stone’s arrival. [Photo: Matthew Williams]
New Age, esoteric strains of conspiracy thinking, like those that animate Stones movement, arent inherently far-right, says Marc Tuters, an assistant professor in media studies at the University of Amsterdam who examines political subcultures. But, he says, esoteric ideas have historically been popular in fascist movements, and notions that everything is connected and nothing is as it seems can easily slide into conspiracy thinking.
When that happens, Tuters warns, it becomes dangerous, because it undermines the trust that holds society together. Amid legitimate concerns about failing political elites, the internet has provided the perfect environment for that kind of thinking to thrive, a place where anyone can become a kind of channel and broadcaster, says Tuters.
A cursory web search only begins to hint at Stones reach, which now extends to more than 450 thousand followers across Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, Rumble and Telegram. By June 2024, his videos had racked up over 25 million views, not including the videos that have been taken down, like his 2019 documentary 5G Apocalypse. The hour-long filmin which he alleges the phone networks are weapons that cause dementia, diabetes and mental illnessreached more than 1 million views
Football in America is still growing, says Roger Bennett, co-founder of Men in Blazers, which has grown from a single podcast in 2010 into a network of U.S.-focused soccer content. So when brands come in, they are remembered.
Last year, Men in Blazers content attracted more than 2 billion impressions, but it also works directly with brands to reach soccer fans, including Coca-Cola, Verizon, Michelob Ultra, Marriott, and Visa. With the World Cup being hosted across the U.S. in just 10 months, brands are turning to Men in Blazers to form their own winning game plans.
He shared some intel with me, and in this piece premium subscribers will learn:
The two key questions you should be asking when shaping a World Cup strategy
A counterintuitive approach to marketing that will help your brand stand out
What you need to know about Verizon and AB InBev’s early World Cup work
[Photo: courtesy Men In Blazers]
You’re late, but not too late
The most significant challenge in planning for an event like the World Cup is time. Not simply the time it takes to create a strategy and execute it, but also trying to predict the best approach to tap into culture this many months in advance.
Major global soccer sponsors have had their World Cup planning in motion for more than a year. Verizons vice-president of partnerships says the brands planning began in September 2024. Anheuser Buschs vice-president of media and entertainment Matt Davis says the company has been fine tuning its soccer strategy for several years through various sponsorships in the sport, including Major League Soccer, and the Mexican National team.
Bennett says that many brands hes spoken to feel like theyre late on their World Cup planning. But theres a big difference between being late and being too late. Bennett says at this point brands can still find the right approach to connect with soccer fans.
My advice is to get in now, but get in in a way that you want to, he says. Do you want to speak to a women’s audience? A Hispanic audience. Do you want to target a specific region of Texas? Are you looking for high net worth fans? We found that 29% of our audience says that they fly over at least once a year to England to watch the Premier League team that they obsess about.
Soccer attracts a diverse audience that likes to spend money on its passion, and the brands that support it. Stok Cold Brew has been a long-time sponsor of the Men in Blazers’ flagship podcast, and reported brand awareness up 186%, brand consideration up 17%, and brand favorability up 19%.
[Photo: courtesy Men In Blazers]
Soccer is every audience
Starting with the audience is always key for any marketer, but whats unique about the World Cup, and soccer in general, is that it attracts just about any and every type of audience. Men in Blazers recently conducted a study of more than 9,000 U.S. fans, and found that 60% were aged between 18-24, but also that 37% of American adults over 18 now consider themselves soccer fans.
The joy of football [soccer] is that you can unlock whatever audience you want to speak to, its diversity is its strength, says Bennett.
Once you know the audience, there is the small matter of what you want to say to them, and how youre going to say it. With massive sporting events, particularly global multi-week extravaganzas like the World Cup and Olympics, its easy for some brands to become just logos in the background, lost in the crowd. Or what McDonalds global CMO Morgan Flatley once called cultural wallpaper.
For major World Cup sponsors like Coca-Cola and Visa, the wallpaper is just table stakes. And since a global World Cup sponsorship costs a reported $100 million, there needs to be a much deeper connection with fans beyond that awareness.
Know your message, and then find your messenger, says Bennett. Football luckily contains infinite human stories that transcend the everyday, make you feel alive and make you feel inspired.
Verizons vice-president of partnerships Justin Toman says the scale of this World Cup brings huge opportunities, but its also a fiercely competitive moment for brands. One of the biggest challenges is that this is the biggest World Cup in history, and is hosted in 16 markets across three countries, Toman says. Soccer fandom is different across the U.S. based on generational and regional differences. To cut through the clutter, we need to be focused, understanding where and when to connect with our customers.
Toman sees Men in Blazers as a unique platform that helps the brand better connect with core groups of soccer fans. They thread non-football culture and lifestyle into each of their platforms in a way that amplifies the impact and resonates with more casual fans, he says.
Keegan Michael Key and Roger Bennett [Photo: courtesy Men In Blazers]
Fan culture is the key
The best way to avoid becoming (incredibly expensive) wallpaper is to look beyond the soccer pitch, outside the stadium, and invest in the culture around the game. This is a strategy that resonates globally, but as Bennett pointed out earlier, it is particularly impactful in the U.S. These fans remember the brands who are telling their stories.
The culture of the game is always bigger than the game itself, says Bennett. The smartest brands that we work with are finding ways to tell those stories. Football is human decision-making played out live without a safety net, with the world watching and the conditions of historic pressure.
Men in Blazers recently worked with Coca-Cola and talked to comedian Keegan Michael Key about why hes a fan of the Belgium national team.
@meninblazers CONFIDENCE. SHOCK. ELATION. Keegan-Michael Keys emotional roller coaster ride during Belgiums 2018 World Cup Knockout Round original sound – Men in Blazers
Bennett has also been working with AB Inbev for yearsmost recently with Michelob Ultra. Anheuser Buschs Davis says this tournament represents unique situations: international fanbases, live games across multiple time zones and countries, and unpredictable outcomes on the pitch. Our strategy has been to focus on the fans, and this is the largest moment for fans globally to come together, he says. To be able to position our brands at the center of that fandom, on U.S. soil, will be an unparalleled opportunity.
"Pulisic wanted to go to his prom. I didn't know what a prom was. I had to ask the guys, is it OK if the kid goes to a high-school dance? I asked my wife what I should do, and she said, 'You've got to let him go.'"Jürgen Klinsmann on coaching the USMNT as a German pic.twitter.com/cuZ7f7NMed— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) July 11, 2025
Verizons Toman identifies two key questions any brand should be asking itself: What is the authentic role my brand can play in enhancing the World Cup fandom and experience for our customers? says Toman. And what is our strategy to remain visible and deliver value to soccer fans once the World Cup is over?
For Bennett, as brands are thinking about their options, ultimately it should be about finding the life truths that are trapped in football.
Since Men in Blazers launched 15 years ago, the podcast has had an inside joke about soccer being Americas sport of the future since 1972. But in 2026, there is a very real chance that gag will become a reality.
That future is very much now. And the joy for brands is that they can not just market themselves to an audience in this moment, but they can help build this final stage that has been so long dreamed of, says Bennett. We’re just about to enter the Promised Land, and brands who partner now in a serious, thoughtful, meaningful fashion will always be remembered.
Diversity and inclusion (D&I) have been a core priority for businesses in recent years. But unfortunately, were now at a crossroads where politics and progress are increasingly at odds. Recent executive orders have eliminated D&I roles and slashed equity-related grants. In addition, private companies, nonprofits, and educational institutions are feeling the pressure to scale back their inclusion efforts.
As a European founder watching these developments unfold, Im deeply concerned. The ripple effects are real, and they risk undermining global progress. At the same time, the rise of AI in hiring has also introduced new risks and can potentially reinforce bias in the workforce.
Were seeing a quiet erosion of the progress weve made so far. And its up to us, as leaders, to make sure that we dont lose the fight for fairness. We cannot live in a world where equal treatment and opportunities are negotiable.
Ive faced my share of systemic bias as a woman in tech. It chips away at your confidence and makes you question your credibility. But having challenged norms, risen to senior leadership, and cofounded my own company, Im determined to ensure the next generation doesnt experience the same thing.
Here are the key ways Ive worked to overcome bias and ensure discrimination has no place in my business.
1. Normalize salary transparency
If youre unaware that youre underpaid, youre less likely to ask for more. Studies show that the gender pay gap ison average18% smaller in companies with high pay transparency.
Many companies have long viewed salary secrecy as a strategic business advantage. However, its also a barrier to equality and fairness. Its on businesses to put progress ahead of profits and break the culture of silence.
During my time at a leading fintech company, for instance, we created internal communities where individuals could openly discuss salaries, promotions, and evaluations. These communities were safe spaces where everyone felt comfortable. This doesnt just promote fairness, but also benefits team cohesion, morale, and employee turnover. It pays to be transparent.
2. Challenge bias in every instance
Bias is prevalent and persistent in business. It doesnt subside with age, experience, or seniority.
Despite my role as chief scientist, people still often default to addressing my male cofounders. Fortunately, my cofounders actively challenge such bias by redirecting questions that are related to my area of responsibility and expertise to me.
I get that it can feel easier to stay silent for the sake of preserving relationships. However, this only reinforces bias and contributes to another generation of talented individuals enduring the same unfair treatment due to their gender, color, or background. That doesnt mean every meeting has to descend into an argument, but nothing will change if you leave discrimination unchecked.
The key is making bias interruption feel natural and constructive. Simple phrases like That builds on the point Irina made earlier can redirect without creating confrontation. When challenging bias becomes part of your teams DNA, it stops feeling awkward and starts feeling like good leadership.
3. Carefully consider every candidate
As a founder, Ive seen how few of those who identify as women apply for forward-looking, deeply technical roles. And those who do often downplay their abilities and achievements. One study found that 84% of women feel uncomfortable discussing their professional achievements, and 69% actively downplay their accomplishments. Likewise, job interviews can be a considerable source of stress for neurodivergent candidates, which impacts their ability to present themselves effectively.
But here’s what many leaders miss: the best talent is already making decisions about you before they even apply. When potential candidates look at your team, leadership, and board and don’t see people who look like them or share their experiences, they’re ruling you out. They don’t see your organization as a place where they can thrive, advance, or belong. This means you’re not just missing out on individual candidates, you’re systematically excluding entire talent pools from even considering your opportunities.
Factor this into your recruitment process. Make sure you evaluate every candidate thoughtfully, especially those who are likely to be impacted by bias. Its also equally important to ensure (and showcase) that diverse talent can succeed at every level in your organization. When underrepresented groups see themselves reflected in your leadership and decision-making roles, youre signaling that they have a future in your company.
4. Use inclusive language consistently
In job advertising, using specific pronouns in job listings is strictly forbidden. However, research shows that even gender-coded words, whether that be competitive for men or supportive for women, can significantly reduce the appeal of a role and continue to promote gender inequality in the workforce.
As business leaders, its our responsibility to make gender-neutral language the default, not just in hiring but in how we speak about users, customers, and colleagues.
Remember that inclusive language goes beyond avoiding gendered terms. You need to be intentional about accessibility, using plain language that doesn’t exclude people based on educational background, avoiding unnecessarily complex jargon, and being mindful of cultural references that might not resonate globally. For neurodivergent candidates, this might mean being specific about expectations rather than using vague terms like “fast-paced environment” or “wearing many hats.
This simple change sends a powerful message: Everyone is welcome, included, and valued, regardless of gender. In industries where most applicants identify as male, our choice of language can either widen or narrow the door.
5. Foster a unstructured environment
Shaped by years in the workforce and taught to think and act in a certain way, hiring managers are often unaware of their biases. As a result of such unconscious bias, microaggressions occur, like disregarding certain voices and making assumptions about seniority. These habits are deeply ingrained and difficult to recognize, and can be especially hard to unlearn.
And reprimanding wont overcome it. You need to rewire how your team thinks, which takes time and understanding. When we launched Gradient Labs, we didnt jump on Zoom and get to work. We spent two weeks living and working under the same roof, which was crucial to creating a basis for a culture built on mutual respect.
Moving in together might not be practical for every team, but finding time and space for in-person interaction, especially across levels of seniority or cultural lines, has helped us with combating unconscious bias in the workplace. This doesn’t require grand gestures. Regular coffee chats, cross-functional lunch groups, or even starting meetings with brief personal check-ins can create those human connections. The goal is to move beyond transactional relationships to genuine understanding, because it’s much harder to dismiss or underestimate someone when you truly know them as a person.
Inclusion starts with you
The erosion of D&I progress isn’t inevitable; it’s a choice. Every time you redirect a question to the overlooked expert, rewrite a job posting with inclusive language, or create space for genuine human connection, you’re slowly building a different future. The five strategies outlined here represent real, actionable paths forward that any leader can take starting today. Companies that embrace everyone don’t just do the right thingthey unlock innovation, creativity, and performance.
Concert barriers are built to be baked in the hot sun, transported through busy venues, battered by excited concert-goers, and, ultimately, disposed of. A company in Paris is giving them a second life.
Maximum, a French furniture designer that specializes in turning industrial and municipal waste into luxe home goods, has now transformed defunct concert barriers into customizable, office-ready bench seating as part of its latest project called Bultan.
The firm works by first identifying industrial surplus that, because of overproduction, imperfections, or wear and tear, can no longer serve its original purpose. Then, they find a way to extend the lifetime of that material by fashioning it into something entirely new. Past projects include a line of chairs made from discarded ground plastics, a stool fashioned from imperfect banknotes, and a chic lamp built out of used fluorescent tubes.
[Photo: courtesy Maximum]
Yesterday’s concert barriers become today’s found material
While concert barriers may be built to withstand force, theyre surprisingly susceptible to fatal flaws, according to Maximum.
Their legs are their Achilles’ heel, the Bultans product description reads. Often crushed, they condemn the entire frame to the dumpster, even when it remains intact. A few bends are enough to transform a Vauban barrier into a structure for Bultan.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Maximum (@maximum_officiel)
Maximum is rescuing these out-of-commission frames to serve as the structure of its Bultan benches, offering them in either a colorful powder coated option or a sleek galvanized steel. And the company isn’t stopping thereevery other element of the Bultan seat is also fashioned from a recycled material.
[Photo: courtesy Maximum]
Repurposing unappealing wood and plastic scraps into works of art
To structurally support the benches seating and back rest, Maximum sourced wood from local workshops that was discarded due to the presence of wood knots, which caused them to be deemed aesthetically unusable. Because these slats are hidden under the Bultans cushions, theyre perfectly suitable for the task. For the cushions themselves, Maximum turned to La Maison de la Mousse et du Caoutchouc, a rubber goods supplier.
[Photo: courtesy Maximum]
Below a certain size, the production waste from La Maison de la Mousse et du Caoutchouc is deemed unusable, the product page reads. As thin and elongated as they are, the Bultan cushions fit between the bars and exploit this waste, which results in the scrapping of several cubic meters of high-quality foam every day.
[Photo: courtesy Maximum]
As a finishing touch, the company pulled rejected fabrics from the automotive interiors company Tesca to serve as the chairs dark-toned upholstery.
The result is a chair that visually evokes its origins as a concert barrier, but also appears perfectly suited for a professional or commercial setting. Its a compelling case for reimagining how we might use industrial waste to more sustainably furnish our offices, waiting rooms, and public spaces.
In late July, the Trump administration released its long-awaited AI Action Plan, which includes steps to cut environmental requirements and streamline permitting policies to make it easier to build data centers and power infrastructure.
But even with massive deregulation, the fact remains: we have no idea where well find all the energy, water, and grid capacity to meet the enormous speed and scale of the emerging AI revolution.
Recently, experts from the International Energy Agency estimated that electricity use from data centers could more than double in the next five years. By 2030, these facilities could use nearly 9% of all electricity in the United States. Without major investments, this growth will strain our power grid and lead to higher energy bills for everyone.
And its not just energy. Globally, by 2027, water consumption from AI alone is estimated to reach the equivalent of more than half the annual water usage of the U.K. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, estimate that a ChatGPT user session that involves a series of between 5 and 50 prompts or questions can consume up to 500 milliliters of water (about the amount in a 16-ounce bottle). Google used a fifth more water in 2022 compared to 2021 as it ramped up its artificial intelligence work. Microsofts water usage increased by 34% over the same period. On top of all this, many communities are protesting or rejecting data center construction due to factors like noise disturbances and limited job-creation benefits.
Its easy to feel overwhelmed by the scale of the task before us as a nation, especially considering that winning the AI race with China requires overcoming all these constraints, quickly. But the answer isnt despair, or even just deregulation. We need to innovate. Lets imagine and build data centers that stack as many functions as possible for sustainability, efficiency, and even social good.
While the most obvious sustainability move for data centers is clean energy, permitting wait times and baseload requirements mean many new constructions are developing behind-the-meter power plants with natural gas. Even these systems can transform their environmental impact. Imagine if data centers could capture waste heat and CO and put it to the best possible usefor example, fueling nearby industrial-scale greenhouses that grow fresh, high-quality food. The CO emissions, when introduced into greenhouses, could accelerate photosynthesis, significantly boosting crop yields. Heat captured from servers can also keep greenhouses warm year-round. In other words, you could grow local tomatoes, lettuce, and herbs in the middle of a Northeast or Midwest winter by harnessing data center emissions. Because data centers often choose less populated areas for affordable land and available space, these projects could provide fresh produce to rural food deserts, addressing nutritional gaps and stimulating local economies.
In summer months, when greenhouses require less CO, innovative data centers could convert excess emissions into clean hydrogen fuel. Emerging carbon-capture and electrolysis technologies can transform emissions into hydrogen, which could power backup systems, fuel cells, or even local transit. Likewise, organic waste from the greenhouses could be composted or converted into biochar onsite, enriching soils, sequestering carbon, and further contributing to local agriculture. Multiple sustainability functions can be creatively stacked, maximizing environmental benefits and turning traditional liabilities into assets.
Data centers also offer major untapped potential for sustainable water solutions. Their expansive, flat roofsoften exceeding 100,000 square feetare ideal for rainwater harvesting. Just one inch of rain on a 50,000-square-foot roof can yield over 31,000 gallons of water, significantly offsetting cooling demands and reducing dependence on local municipal sources. This harvested rainwater can directly irrigate adjacent greenhouses, creating further efficiencies. Tech giants like Google and Microsoft are already starting to demonstrate the value of this straightforward yet promising approach.
Traditionally, data centers are criticized for providing few long-term jobs. Construction might employ up to 1,500 people temporarily, but ongoing operations usually support only about 50 permanent workers. By integrating greenhouse agriculture and carbon capture, data centers can significantly expand employment opportunities. These integrated campuses could provide apprenticeships, educational programs, and hands-on training in data operations, energy management, sustainable agriculture, and related fields. This approach would promote diverse, long-term job creation and deeper community integration, ensuring more meaningful local benefits.
Right now, were embarking on the biggest infrastructure development project in multiple generations. We need to think seriously about the choices were making regarding emissions, water, and local economies. Weve done this kind of big thinking before.When America needed cheap power in the 1930s, we built the TennesseeValleyAuthority and strung wires to virtually every farmhouse through the Rural ElectrificationAct.When commerce demanded speed, we carved the ErieCanal and later laced the continent with the Interstate Highway System.When the ColdWar caled for a moonshot, we answered with Apolloturning slide-rule sketches into a lunar landing in less than a decade and achieving scores of technological innovations along the way.Each project looked audacious at the outset. Each rewrote what was possible.
AI infrastructure now demands a leap of similar scale.If we pair data center capacity with on-site microgrids, rain-harvesting roofs, carbon-fed greenhouses, hydrogen production, workforce academies, and other innovations, we can meet the demands of AI without undermining communities or nature.
President Trumps new AI Action Plan includes some sensible and important steps, including expediting permitting for some data centers and semiconductor fabs as well as new initiatives to boost needed occupations like electricians and HVAC technicians. Yet any comprehensive plan to address the AI challenge needs much more serious attention to questions like energy and water sustainability as well as community resilience. The AI infrastructure race can be a positive opportunity for society, but we need to get creative
We need help. We really, really need your help.
Steve Jobs walked to the podium, threw his jacket on the floor, and implored a group of designers to help shape the coming revolution. Addressing the 1983 International Design Conference in Aspen, he simply explained his vision for the personal computer era he saw coming. He then turned to the challenge: We have a shot at putting a great object there, or if we dont, were going to put one more piece of junk object there this stuff can either be great or it can be lousy. And we need help. We really, really need your help.
One more piece of junk?
What Jobs recognized was that major technological inflections are not just about accelerating what went before, but moments of profound redesign, and that takes more than just technical leaps. How we shape technical revolutions determines who participates, who benefits, what is gained and what is lost.
Artificial intelligence, the latest technical revolution, arrives amidst a wholesale rejection of broken systems: only 36% of people believe the next generation will be better off, two thirds think society is on the wrong track, and populism is on the rise.
So how this revolution is shaped is of profound importance. Will it lead to a further concentration of wealth, power and dissatisfaction, or an abundanceof science, education, energy, optimism, and opportunity?
Design is how we apply intention to deliberately shape life, systems, and the future.
The scary news is: we have to redesign everything.
The exciting news is: we get to redesign everything.
How can we redesign?
Technical revolutions create windows of time when new social norms are created, where institutions and infrastructure is rethought. This window of time will influence daily life in myriad ways, from how people find dates, to whether kids write essays, to which jobs require applications, to how people move through cities and get health diagnoses.
Each of these are design decisions, not natural outcomes. Who gets to make these decisions? Every company, organization and community that is considering ifand howto adopt AI. Which almost certainly includes you. Congratulations, youre now part of designing a revolution.
Whether we do this design well, or poorly, is up to us. In our work at ENSO, a future design company that helps organizations design the future they aspire to, we have seen that getting big transformations right requires clarity, bravery, and the creativity to bring people along.
Find clarity: Asking big questions
In ordinary times, ordinary questions can suffice. Questions like, “how can we add to our market share?,” “how can we operate more efficiently?,” or “can we refine that process?” These kinds of “small minded questions” are premised on the assumption that next year will look very much like last year, so incremental improvement is a fine goal.
But these questions can hold back the potential for radical progress. As the Harvard professor Clayton Christensen once said, too often, we overlook an obvious fact: finding the right answer is impossible unless we have asked the right question.
In extraordinary times, extraordinary questions are more productive. In ENSOs future design process, we like to start with big questions like: “what is ultimate success?,” “what are people yearning for?,” and more recently, “how could AI reinvent this category and company?” Its often remarkable how differently leaders think about the same business: seeing current performance in a different light, disagreeing on whats hindering progress, or holding divergent visions of the future. Getting to clarity is critical to avoiding organizational malaise.
Clayton Christensen described the importance of getting clear on “the job to be done” for customers: are they looking for a coffee or an experience? Do they want a diagnosis, or a compassionate conversation? Do we need to sell features, or alleviate fear? Finding clarity on what success looks like (for all stakeholders, not just customers) is the first step to any redesign. Success today may not be what we thought it was yesterday.
Many business leaders and advisors have developed a strong muscle memory in getting to answers fast, based on best practices from the industrybut by definition, this is perpetuating old ideas. Eras of reinvention require more questions and more listening, to inform brave new paths.
Foster bravery: exploring rather than forecasting
To say there is little certainty about how the AI revolution will unfold is an understatement. Some of the best attempts at expressing what may occur, like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodeis Machines of Loving Grace, paint the broad outlines of whats possible.
But even Amodei says, everything Im saying could very easily be wrong, and he proposes more concerted efforts of exploration: it is critical to have a genuinely inspiring vision of the future, and not just a plan to fight fires there has to be something were fighting for, some positive-sum outcome Fear is one kind of motivator, but its not enough: we need hope as well.
Like it or not, we are so early in the AI era that the only reasonable option is to summon the bravery to explore multiple futures rather than assume one.
But businesses love forecasts. They give everyone a sense of confidence and control in the future. They feel diligent. They also assume the future is very much like the past, just a bit better. They make no account for transformed user behavior, old marketing channels being upended, or most damaging of all, the opportunity cost of not considering the adjacent possible: the options available to a company at any time.
While uninspired companies seek comfort in forecasts, inspired companies are relentlessly exploring beyond the established formula, particularly now AI has led to an explosion of adjacent possibles.
As the economist Tim Harford has said on forecasts, the problem is not that theyre insufficiently precise, but that they allow us to short-circuit any further thought on the matter. Thinking seriously abut the future can be a worthwhile exercise, not because the future is knowable, but because the process is likely to make us wiser.
At ENSO, we find that creating future scenarios is remarkably productive: freed from the pressure of creating an accurate forecast, we can explore beyond the expected. One scenario may be a more logical extension of the current reality, while others may be much more optimistic, or serve people in different ways, or assume the world changes significantly.
Each scenario paints a picture of the future: what the company is saying and doing, how others receive it and respond. The scenarios can then be debated, dissected, remixed and improved upon. This process of future exploration has a lightness, joy, and curiosity about it that is so often missing from annual planning processes, which assume a singular path and become battles over budget and control.
Connect emotionally: bringing people along
Traditional business culture loves rational thought, but humans are emotional creatures making emotional decisions. Employees feel uncertain and are disengaging, while customers are frustrated and losing trust. Google found that psychological safety is the leading determinant of their highest performing teams, but the typical C-suite proving grounds of economics, engineering and finance do not naturally equip leaders to connect emotionally.
Starbucks recently realized it had “over rotated” on technology replacing the humanity of service, which left both baristas and customers unhappy. At this moment, the excitement around AI could lead many leaders to optimize for productivity enhancing technology adoption, rather than adopting technology in service of an inspiring vision.
How can you connect emotionally? Marketers know how. Artists know how. Designers know how. Too often, those voices have been heard long after critical decisions have been made: finance-driven forecasts and engineering-led products that leave only small decisions for those emotionally equipped to bring people along. Instead, those voices need to be (re)introduced to company strategy, product management and the boardroom.
The intersection of technology, design, and understanding people and the world
Every leader, even those steeped in logic-based disciplines can find their way to more emotionally-atuned ways of leading, but only if they are freed from executing business as usual. As Rick Rubin says, everyone is a creator, and the best work is the work you are excited about. If youre not excited yet, go back to asking bigger questions, listening and exploring; then, you can bring people into the excitement.
Recently, Mark Zuckerberg raised eyebrows with $100 million signing bonuses for AI engineers. But even these look small compared to the $6.5Bn OpenAI paid to enlist Jony Ives help. Why would Sam Altman pay so much for a designer? He said at the announcement, AI is an incredible technology, but great tools require work at the intersection of technology, design, and understanding people and the world.
Thats why, at the dawn of a previous revolution, Steve Jobs implored designers to help. At this moment, when we need to redesign everything, and we can redesign everything, its important that intersection is deeply baked into business principles and practice.
Having been on both sides of the tableas employee and managerI can confidently say that no one looks forward to annual performance reviews.
As an employee, you might find yourself bracing for critiques and rehearsing defenses. Maybe youre asked to rate your own performance and feel unsure whether to play it humble or confident. And thats before you even start combing through an entire years worth of highs and lows.
Employers are likewise tasked with the time-consuming exercise of digging through months of work for each employee.
But the real issue isnt just that annual reviews are stressfulit’s that theyre often ineffective. They can leave employees feeling frustrated and disengaged. Meanwhile, organizations continue to waste time on systems that do little to meaningfully improve performance or support career growth. Some even rank employees, pitting them against each other in a race that completely undermines the spirit of collaboration. I know that kind of atmosphere would not work for my company.
Todays employees want something different: timely, ongoing feedback that helps them improve in the moment. Its not just a more psychologically gentler approachit also delivers results. In fact, the percentage of U.S. companies using annual reviews dropped from 82% in 2016 to just 49% in 2023, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. Its no doubt due to the benefits of real-time feedback. Heres a closer look at some of those advantages.
Real-time feedback accelerates improvement
Imagine youre a line cook in a restaurant. Youve been preparing a dish from the spring/summer menu the same way for months. Then, in September, your sous chef informs you that youve been leaving out a key ingredient all along. The feedback comes too late to matteryoure already moving on to the fall menu.
Delayed feedback, in short, is unhelpful.
Annual reviews are too infrequent for the cycle of work today in most enterprises, says James N. Baron, a professor at Yale School of Management. Goals negotiated at the beginning of the year have often become obsolete and irrelevant by the end-of-year review. Thats why more and more organizations are shifting away from annual reviews.
Timely feedback allows employees to adjust quickly. Baron advocates for real-time coaching, in which managers work directly alongside their team members. When leaders stay close to the work, their feedback is immediate and actionable. But when theyre removed from day-to-day operationswhen theyre too far from the trenchesthey cant possibly understand where employees need to improve.
At AstraZeneca, managers adopted a more hands-on coaching approach. Four years later, the company saw a 12% increase in core coaching capabilities and a 70% boost in managers confidence in leading meaningful coaching conversations. Ongoing feedback makes the coaching process more effective and manageable for managers as well.
Frequent feedback boosts motivation and morale
As my companys workforce increasingly includes millennial and Gen Z employees, Ive seen a steady rise in the desire for continual feedback. While younger workers are sometimes unfairly labeled as overly sensitive, in my experience, they welcome constructive criticism, especially when it helps them grow and move closer to their career goals. Companies that want to attract and retain top talent are taking note.
Regular, informal check-ins offer another advantage: They turn feedback into a dialogue rather than a one-sided annual monologue. This helps employers better understand their employees career goals and collaborate on aligning those goals with the companys broader objectives. These conversations shift from sources of dread to wellsprings of motivation.
Simply put, ongoing feedback helps keep people on track, ideally in a direction that serves both their personal development and the companys success.
More feedback, less fear: Shifting the tone of evaluation
In the annual review process, theres often a performative element in which leaders feel compelled to balance praise with critique, regardless of whats warranted by the actual employees performance. Whether its delivered as a compliment sandwich or a straight-up list of pros and cons, the experience can leave employees feeling dissatisfied and deflated. The mere word feedback from a manager can trigger an employees threat response, flooding the brain with adrenaline and making it harder to process and act on whats being said.
In contrast, when feedback is given regularly, it tends to be received more positively. Employees view it as less threatening and more helpful. Over time, frequent reinforcement and recognition lead to greater engagement and performance.
As CEO of my company for nearly two decades, I can attest: It feels good to give positive feedback. Over time, it creates a virtuous cycle: You start looking for moments to commend employee performance just as much as you look for ways to help them improve.
Ive spent over two decades on stages around the world as a charity auctioneer. Even in the earliest years of my career, my job exposed me to titans of industry and people at the highest levels of business. But even as I became more experienced in my career, I always had the same thought: What am I doing here? Everyone here knows so much more than I do.
Any comments or thoughts I planned to share remained exactly thatthoughtsbecause when I opened my mouth, I worried everyone would remember I wasnt supposed to be at the table in the first place. What started as a feeling that stopped me from speaking followed me in my career. That feeling stopped me from putting my hand up for a promotion, a raise, or for anything at all. It made me feel like I wasnt supposed to be sitting in the boardroomor anywhere near the building, for that matter.
Talk to any woman who has been in the working world or in a leadership position in the past two decades, and she can tell you all about imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is a feeling that stops many of us, particularly women, in our tracks. It keeps many of us from getting into the room where we would have the chance to fail.
As you ascend the corporate ladder, no matter how deserving you are of a new title, a raise, or a new position, you may never truly believe you deserve any of it. When you look around a room of your peers, theres a little voice inside telling you that youre lucky to be in that room. Sound familiar?
Its time to surmount the syndrome. Start with this simple three-step process so you can focus on the thing that matters most: you.
1. STOP THE SPIRAL
Tell me if this sounds familiar. Youre having a conversation with someone in your lifea friend, someone senior in your office, or someone whose opinion you care deeply about. They mention they are so glad that they get to see you now that your children are getting older and you can be in the office more. The comment stops you cold. Now youre spiraling, your mind filling in a narrative. Ive been out of the game for years. Everyone here thinks I dont work hard enough, that Im not here enough, that I dont do a good job. I need to show them I do care. Ill start working on the weekends, do extra work . . . On and on you go with a spiral of self-doubt and insecurity about everything that you have ever felt about your job performance.
What did this person actually say? Its great to see you in the office more now that your children are getting older. Period.
Your answer? Thanks!
End scene.
2. CONTROL THE NARRATIVE
Believe in yourself enough to believe that other people are thinking the best of you, not the worst. To really slam that imposter syndrome, rewrite your own story.
Lets go back and rewrite that scene, shall we?
What did that person say? Its great to see you in the office more now that your children are getting older.
Heres what I want you to hear: You are such a valuable member of this team, its really great to have your positive energy in this office. You must be an incredible multitasker to be raising kids at home and crushing it at work, too. What a role model for the people around you. We are lucky to have you.
End scene. Cue applause.
3. ACCEPT THERE ARE NO GOLD STARS IN LIFE
Never forget there are no gold stars given out when you are an adult. No one gives you a gold star for showing up to work, just like no one gives you a gold star for making your bed when you get up in the morning. You are responsible for everything that happens in your life and your response to it. Once you stop looking for affirmation from those around you and seek it from yourself, you can realize you have had the power all along.
I still wake up at 7:15 a.m. Not because I have a meeting. Or a commute. Or a list of deliverables thats longer than a CVS receipt. Im up early because something about lying in bed while my corporate counterparts clock in makes me feel like Im behind, even if theres no race Im actively running.
The day kicks off with the usual: matcha, oatmeal, a spin on the Peloton, and a shower. But then? Stillness. No Slack pings. No check-ins. No one asking for a quick sync to circle back so we can get our ducks in a row. Just me, refreshing LinkedIn, wondering if today is the day a recruiter cannonballs into my DMs like Ron Burgundy.
I launched this column five years ago as a mid-level marketing manager in Seattlecorporates middle child, navigating microaggressions, vague feedback, and vibes that often felt . . . off. I wrote about working through a pandemic, watching my well-meaning white colleagues bumble through a so-called racial reckoning, and climbing org chart rungs while staying woke to the wonkiness of upper management.
Back then, I wrote as The Only Black Guy in the Office. Now? Im still him, but theres no office at allunless you count the one in my spare bedroom.
For the first time in a long time, Im unemployed. There, I said it.
I used to pray for times like this, imagining being unshackled from the chains of recurring standups, performance reviews, and a 27-tab document named Final_FINAL_V3_(1). Id see myself rewatching The Boondocks episodes on a random Tuesday afternoon, hitting up local museums during off-peak hours, day drinking with a pinky pointed toward the clouds.
But since those first couple of weeks post-layoff, the fun in funemployment has hopped on a paper plane and gone MIA. Im over the midday mimosas and matinees, especially now that Im fresh out of severance dollars to spend and Severance episodes to binge. My savings and sense of purpose are each trending downward, dawg, without a namaste in sight.
Theres an odd grief that hits the moment your work account passwords go inactive. Its the coldest closure, like an ex changing the locks while youre still packing your things. Except here, your belongings are stored in a shared Google Drive and a Slack archive youll never access again. I once thought I couldnt feel any more like an outsider. I was wrong. But that wasnt the only wake-up call.
Things done changed for this era of job hunters. Im learning the futility of cold applying, the scams targeting desperate job seekers, the absurdity of stuffing resumes with keywords to appease the bots. Even when I make it past the algorithm bouncers and land in front of an actual human, I wonder if the HBCU degree I worked so hard for is a reveal that invites bias before Ive said a word.
The hardest part of this all? Its not my obsessive clocking of banking apps and job boards, nor the dystopian friend-or-foe role of artificial intelligence in the application process. Its the identity shift with which Ive only recently come to terms.
When youve spent your entire career outworking self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and perfectionism, being unemployed feels like failure, even when its not. Doesnt matter if its due to a layoff, a budget cut, or a strategic realignment.
For years, my job was more than a source of income and fodder for my therapist. It was where I could be a rockstar in one conference room and a firefighter in the next. A place I could lift up others who looked like me and, when necessary, check those who didnt.
If Im keeping it a bean, it was validation.
Now, with no decks to compile or KPIs to hit, Ive had to sit in that stillness. Ive had to create the structure in my days that I once dreaded. Ive had to convince myself that the youre too talented to be in the market for long! sentiments shared by friends and peers are sincere.
This column has always been a pressure release valvea space to process what it means to be Black and corporate and exhausted. I didnt realize how much Id need that outlet again. Maybe even more now than before.
So Im brushing off the cobwebs and writing again. To make sense of this moment. To connect with folks who are navigating the same in-between. And to remind myself, and maybe you too, that being without a job doesnt mean being without value.
The matchas iced, but the tea is still hot. Sip slow.
