Julian Bleecker is a creative leader with the range of a generalist. He is at his best when he is working with organizations translating the “now” into the “next”. He is an engineer with multiple degrees, so he knows what it means to execute on ideas. He has a PhD in technology and culture, giving him unique perspectives and insights into the meaning of new ideas and how they will fit within marketplaces.

Listen to the latest episode of Julian’s podcast, ‘The Near Future Laboratory Podcast’

Julian is a senior creative leader who has organized creative retreats, facilitated workshop, and energized creative teams and communities all around the world.

He thinks like a product designer from the future, having built his own physical product company that successfully and demonstrably challenged norms and expectations against all odds. He understands luxury in the technology world, having collaborated with Paul Smith and Pernod. As a thought-leader, product innovator, and futures designer he has been summoned to run design and innovation workshops with high-functioning creative, strategy, and design teams at IKEA, Apple, Google, and Facebook, amongst many others. Throughout his career he has had experiences as a start-up founder (with a successful exit), futures strategist, professor at USC’s famed School of Cinematic Arts, design and technology mentor, author.

His unique skill is to look at the world a bit sideways, and see opportunities to create products and experiences that are unanticipated, unexpected, and beautiful alternatives to the status quo.

“Julian is one of those uniquely curious futuristic design-technology guys who is somehow able to see through the ruckus and be insightful about what’s coming down the road. He’s the rare sort who can imagine what’s next, and also design and engineer the things he imagines.”

— Dennis Crowley, Co-Founder / Co-Chair, Foursquare

“Julian has an enviable skill to spark creativity in those around him, and an uncanny ability to cut through noise to find moments of inspiration. His curiosity, combined with his razor sharp intellect and wit, make him a fantastic partner in any creative endeavor. It's been a privilege to know him and partner with him over the last 15 years, and I owe much of my success to the confidence he gave me.”

— Nick Foster, Head of Design at X (Formerly Google X)

“Julian is a great creative mentor and friend. When I was 17 and looking at USC film school he convinced me not to go to college — and he was a professor at USC’s film school! I’ll be forever grateful for that nudge to follow my own creative path.”

— Kyle Ng, Founder & Creative Director, Brain Dead

Julian’s work is defined by the range of his expertise, experiences, and his curiosity about near future possibilities for design and technology products. His goal is to be a part of teams making exciting, unanticipated new products that will make the world a more habitable place. He sits amongst Strategists, Designers, Engineers, and Technologists, comfortable practicing within and across these domains. With his range-y nature, he often takes on the role of translator across multiple teams.

Julian obtained his BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, and a MS Eng. in Human Computer Interaction from the University of Washington, Seattle where he worked as a research assistant at the Human Interface Technology Lab which was the center of R&D for Virtual Reality 1.0.

He received a PhD from the History of Consciousness Program at UC Santa Cruz where he had the unique opportunity to study the dimensions of technology beyond its instrumental utility. He was fortunate to study under the supervision of Professors Donna J. Haraway and Angela Y. Davis. His dissertation, “The Reality Effect of Technoscience”, is an investigation of the way visualization technologies change what we are able to see, but also change how we sense and make meaning of the world. The telescope, virtual reality, special effects in film, and video games were his main objects of study.