Anab is a designer, futurist, filmmaker and educator. As Co-founder and Director of Superflux, she catalyses our Studio’s mission to leave a meaningful legacy for our planet and its future custodians.

Anab grew up in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India within the entangled postcolonial landscapes of a fast-growing nation. After studying filmmaking at the National Institute of Design she moved to London to gain her Masters at the Royal College of Art, and went on to work on machine intelligence at Microsoft Research, Cambridge. 

In 2009, Anab, with Jon Ardern, co-founded Superflux, a design, research and futures practice. Superflux work with businesses, cultural institutions, academic partners and government bodies to adapt and innovate through periods of uncertainty and change, and build more just futures. In our 15th year, Superflux has received the Design Studio of the Year Award in recognition of our “contribution to the fields of speculative and futures design with a committed social mission.” 

Anab is a globally recognised thought leader renowned for her pioneering work on design-led foresight, emerging technologies, more-than human and ecological thinking. She has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the Arts, London, with the citation “A philosopher for our age, her concepts of ‘design for the new normal’ and ‘more-than-human centered design’ are expanding the public’s imagination, and making possible futures tangible.”

Over the years, Anab has is responsible for presenting key ideas to the world, such as Design for the New Normal (2012), More-than-Human-Centred Design (2018) and Ancillary Design (2022)

In 2022, Anab was awarded the prestigious ‘Royal Designers for Industry’ (RDI) Award, by UK’s Royal Society of Arts, in speculative design.  The title ‘Royal Designer for Industry’ (RDI) is the highest accolade for designers in the UK. Only 200 designers, who have achieved “sustained design excellence, work of aesthetic value and significant benefit to society” can hold the title.

Anab is also the recipient of the Award of Excellence ICSID, UNESCO Digital Arts Award, and Grand Prix Geneva Human Rights Festival, as well as awards from Apple and the UK Government’s Innovation Department. Her work has been exhibited at MoMA New York, V&A Museum, Science Gallery Dublin, National Museum of China, Vitra Design Museum, and Tate Modern.

Anab has delivered talks and keynotes at several conferences including TED, Skoll World Forum, Human Rights Watch, MIT Media Lab, NEXT, LIFT, Global Design Forum, and FuturEverything. Recent talks include Why We Need to Imagine Different Futures, More Than-Human Centered Design, Design for the New Normal, Valley of the Meatpuppets and How Will We Live. 

In addition, Anab serves as Professor of Design Investigations at the dieAngewandte, University of Applied Arts in Vienna since 2016. Her hope is to instil a culture of radical enquiry in her students, so they can become active designers-translators-catalysts for a complex and uncertain world.

Recent Interviews:  

BBC Radio 4 | Is ‘feeling’ the future the solution to climate change inaction?

NPR | TED Radio Hour | Can a glimpse of tomorrow change our decisions today

Financial Times | Superflux: the duo inspiring change through hypothetical worlds

Spearheading a new position for design | Damn Magazine

8 Women in STEM who are changing the game

Start the Week, BBC Radio 4

Evening Standard

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Jon is a designer, artist and technologist. As Co-Founder and Director of Superflux he develops long term vision and strategy for the Studio alongside constant, and deliberate, prototyping and material investigation. 

Born and educated in the UK, Jon holds an MA in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art, gaining a distinction for his dissertation on ‘Emergence’ and its role in Design. He leads the Studio’s conceptual and technical research projects, bringing expertise in new technologies, tools and materials, and some fierce problem-solving skills. Armed with a soldering iron and a screwdriver, he is always ready to get his hands dirty, tinkering with new bits of kit and figuring out how they connect with our broader interests. 

Over the last 14 years Jon has developed pioneering design, technology and foresight projects, projects, and exhibitions receiving critical acclaim, awards, and press internationally. His work has been exhibited at the MoMA New York and V&A London on numerous occasions, and has won prizes from UNESCO and New York’s Social Design Network. He has lectured at the Architectural Association London, MAD Faculty Genk, Belgium, and Kitchen Budapest Hungary. 

Jon also has a deep interest in the idea of sustainability, which he continues to explore through his work and creative practice.

In 2022,  Jon was awarded the prestigious ‘Royal Designers for Industry’ (RDI) Award, by UK’s Royal Society of Arts, in speculative design.  The title ‘Royal Designer for Industry’ (RDI) is awarded annually by the RSA to designers of all disciplines who have achieved “sustained design excellence, work of aesthetic value and significant benefit to society”. The RDI is the highest accolade for designers in the UK. Only 200 designers can hold the title. In addition, Non-UK designers may become honorary Royal Designers.

Please get in touch for bio, profile photo and CV requests.

Carmen is the Studio & Operations Manager at Superflux.

She works closely with the Directors to help lead our Studio’s operations and broader creative practice into the next phase of growth. Carmen has expertise in change management, operational strategy and business management with a particular focus on scalability. Previously, Carmen has extensive experience within the creative industries, heading operations for an international interior design studio. Her passion for natural, locally sourced materials and the innovation of lived-in spaces led to a transformative and operational shift for the organisation.

Born and raised in Romania, Carmen fell in love with storytelling in all its forms, and pursued a degree in Hispanic Studies and Comparative Literature at Queen Mary, University of London and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Her professional journey started with film and music festivals in Romania and the UK. Here she discovered her passion for systemology and building teams while delivering complex public and industry programmes.

Carmen’s interests are at the intersection of analogue and emerging technologies: relief printmaking and no-code automations, mechanics and AI, houseplant survival and space exploration. Carmen reads the interwoven contrast between the old and the new as a recipe for well-designed, lasting change.

Léa is the Studio Coordinator and Executive Assistant at Superflux.

With both hands and feet in every facet of the studio, Léa supports the day-to-day operations and resources to ensure smooth workflow processes. She puts her logistics proficiency to use juggling the Directors schedules, project timelines and acting as the initial touchpoint for external collaborators. She is an avid multi-tasker and is also proudly managing exhibition and installation requests from contracts to shipping and press.

After a decade working in the film industry as part of the production team and with an MA in Visual Anthropology in hand, Léa brings finely tuned coordination experience and a passion for multi-disciplinary methods to the team. She loves being able to apply her organisational skills to declutter the creative team’s minds from the procedural, to help make magic happen.

Julia is a writer and researcher at Superflux. 

Together with Anab and Jon, she is weaving theory into the studio’s practice by conducting qualitative research around sensory ecology, memetics, and weatherlore. She has worked on projects around AI, developing insights from participatory sessions in deep listening and social dreaming. Julia also assists on communications, articulating Superflux’s work to a plurality of audiences through thought pieces, creative copy, press interviews, research essays, and the studio’s newsletter. 

With an MA in Writing from the Royal College of Art and an MSt in English literature from the University of Oxford, she has an interdisciplinary approach to storytelling and cultural inquiry. Her words have appeared in various print and digital publications, and in art galleries across Singapore, Bath, Penang, and London. She is particularly interested in meaning-making, archives, and ritual theory.

Matthew is a senior designer and filmmaker at Superflux.

Bringing skills spanning directing, editing, cinematography and visual design, Matthew is involved extensively in bringing the studio’s many film and media projects to life. He also brings his expertise to the studio’s installations and immersive experiences, crafting the audiovisual elements. During his time at Superflux, Matt has worked on a wide array of client and commissioned projects including Our Friends Electric, The Future Starts Here, Refuge For Resurgence and the Intersection.

The result of a life saturated by visual culture, Matt’s practice interrogates modes of visual communication. A particular fascination of his lies in the processes of image production and how these images are subsequently consumed. Previously, Matt has exhibited work at the London Festival of Architecture 2017 and holds a BA in Design from Goldsmiths University, returning to the same course shortly afterwards as a visiting tutor.

Ed is a senior designer and researcher at Superflux.

In the studio, Ed’s passion for object making, prototyping, drawing and research involve him extensively in the studio’s material innovation and speculative design projects. During his three years at Superflux, Ed has worked on a variety of client and commissioned projects such as Refuge for Resurgence, Invocation for Hope, the Intersection, Assembling Our Future: An Exhibition for IKEA, and the studio’s first solo exhibition: SUBJECT TO CHANGE at Droog Gallery. Ed has also led select client projects as project manager, allowing his technical and organisational skills to shine.

Ed’s personal practice starts through the lens of contemporary sense-making and traditional shamanic practice through the medium of craft and digital technologies. Ed holds a BA (Hons.) in 3D Design from Northumbria University and has started Masters research in Social Design at the Design Academy Eindhoven.

Mon is a designer and researcher at Superflux.

Through digital environments, immersive installations, and exhibition design projects, he explores the cultural significance of material ecologies and emerging technologies. His work encompasses client projects, museum commissions, and internal research. By experimenting with material prototyping methodologies and critically engaging with innovative digital tools, he crafts radical spatial interventions that examine how infrastructures and industrial processes reshape our landscapes.

Beyond the studio, Mon’s personal practice spans independent projects and various collective collaborations, including La Cuarta Piel, which he co-founded in Spain. His work has been exhibited internationally, crafting speculative experiences of post-natural futures. With a background in architecture and a strong interest in teaching, he has led workshops and lectures at various universities, continuously exploring how design can challenge dominant narratives of the future.