FOUND AI SALONE
FOUND SALONE is an exclusive forum for leaders across the creative industry to explore how artificial intelligence will shape the design practices of today and the future.
Each SALONE brings together a different mix of voices — from design, architecture, technology, and education — so no two conversations are ever the same. The aim is an open, evolving exchange: an intellectual space where industry leaders collaborate on how AI can drive innovation through openness, rather than be dominated by it.
To join a future SALONE, get in touch: inquire@thefounddesign.com
AI INFORMED DESIGN
Artificial intelligence is a core part of FOUND's design process and research. By generating themes and imagery that don't yet exist in the world, AI propels us to envision progressive, innovative aesthetics and solutions our industry hasn't seen before.
We treat AI as a collaborator, not a replacement. Every project brief runs along two tracks — conceptual and visual — and on each, traditional design thinking works in dialogue with AI engines: strategy and narrative developed against AI on the conceptual side, benchmarking and sketching against AI on the visual side. The two tracks converge into a single, resolved design concept — one grounded in human judgment and expanded by machine intelligence.
FEATURED: Crafting Human™
Episode 12 — "Feel Your Way"
The use of signs is disappearing. Cars already drive themselves, and navigation may soon be something we stop looking at altogether. FOUND founder Will Ayers joined Crafting Human™ to talk about designing for a world where the visual infrastructure of cities falls away — and how touch, the oldest interface we have, could become the most human technology left.
The conversation moves through:
Why every glass tower in every city is starting to look the same — and what craft can do about it
The case for intentional imperfection in an era of algorithmic sameness
Using AI as a creative collaborator without handing over judgment
Why the difference between precision and perfection matters more than ever
What design education must teach to keep the next generation adaptable
The quiet radicalism of technology that helps people feel more oriented, not less
FEATURED: The Hulugan Quarterly
"A.I. Wayfinding" by Will Ayers · Perkins&Will · 2018
FOUND founder Will Ayers was invited to contribute a feature on the future of AI and wayfinding to The Hulugan Quarterly, a publication produced by Perkins&Will and CBRE exploring the future of the workplace. His article, "A.I. Wayfinding," examines how artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, and augmented reality are reshaping how people navigate — and why human-centered design must remain paramount as the built and digital worlds converge.
ADVISORY: ASU Interdisciplinary Design Program
FOUND founder Will Ayers served on the formal advisory council for the new Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Design (XDN) at The Design School, part of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. Alongside professors and fellow industry advisors, Will contributed curriculum input, industry perspective, and program design to help shape the degree from the ground up.
XDN represents an ambitious rethinking of design education for the 21st century — a comprehensive new degree built from scratch rather than adapted from existing tracks. Rather than training students in a single specialty, the program synthesizes graphics, interiors, products, digital media, and experience design into one interdisciplinary practice, organized around four context areas: technology and tools, user experience, social impact, and sustainability.
The framework integrates emerging fields — artificial intelligence, extended reality, and physical computing — with hands-on studios that partner students directly with real clients and communities. The result is a rigorous, forward-looking model designed to prepare the next generation of designers for challenges that don't yet have established disciplines — a mission that reflects FOUND's own belief in design as a practice built for what's next.
WHERE IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE NAVIGATING HUMANITY?
Will Ayers · 2019
How will people navigate in five years? In ten? Written well before AI entered the mainstream conversation, this piece examines how artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, augmented reality, and brain-machine interfaces are reshaping how people find their way — and argues that human-centered thinking has to stay paramount as the built environment and digital space merge.
PANEL: Innovation Unleashed — AI, AR & VR's Role in Shaping Next-Gen Creatives
ASU California Center, Downtown Los Angeles · March 2024
FOUND founder Will Ayers joined a cross-disciplinary panel at ASU's California Center to discuss how AI, augmented reality, and virtual reality are reshaping the creative industries. Moderated by Julie Pilat, the conversation brought together Will in design, Nonny de la Peña in film and immersive media, and Miguel Barragan in fashion — exploring how emerging technology is redefining the creative process, the ethical questions it raises, and the skills the next generation of creatives will need to thrive.
Will's talk framed AI as a creative ally rather than a threat — a tool that opens alternative worlds and pushes design into places it has never been. He shared real FOUND design briefs powered by AI exploration: integrating a modern LED billboard within Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, developing a language of organic midcentury-modern sculptural forms, and blending Seoul street culture, the American country fair, and Texas into a single environment. His closing note set the tone for the whole conversation: let's be inspired by AI, not fearful of it.
