Design Futures in practice: four graduates share their stories

Anqi Liu (Design Futures MDes, 2024) product manager, Zeekr, China

Before studying at the RCA, Anqi Liu studied product and industry design at Central Saint Martins with an Industry Diploma in Professional Studies. At the RCA the Design Futures programme equipped her with the skills to move across scales, sectors and systems – something she applies in her role as product manager at Chinese luxury electric car brand Zeekr.

In this role, Anqi defines and delivers next-generation products and user experiences inside cars. This fast-paced, high-pressure environment brings together forward-looking insights, unreleased prototypes, product strategy and the challenge of designing for experiences that eventually move into everyday public life.

Her training on the Design Futures programme enables her to frame the future not as a distant fantasy, but as a medium that can be actively designed. Through systemic foresight, speculative thinking and product delivery, Anqi shows how futures thinking can help transform visionary concepts into meaningful, lived mobility experiences.

“Design Futures taught me to envision alternative futures”, she explained. “Now, as a product manager, I guide visionary concepts through to final delivery. Seeing people experience my in-car products on the road is everything.”

The most valuable part of Anqi’s experience at the RCA was the people she met. “Compared to my undergraduate experience, tutors at the RCA worked with much smaller groups of students, which meant I had much more one-to-one time with them," she explained. “Our conversations went far beyond individual projects – we talked about career development, future opportunities, and even broader personal goals. They weren’t just tutors; they became experienced mentors who offered honest advice and long-term guidance.”

“Another highlight was the RCA alumni network” she added. “Even after graduation, alumni are incredibly supportive and genuinely willing to help each other. In fact, both of my full-time jobs came through referrals from RCA alumni. That really showed me that the RCA isn’t just a place to study – it’s a community that continues to support you throughout your career.”

Ciara Harris (Design Futures MDes, 2025) design assistant and advisor, Neptune, UK

Reflecting on her time at the RCA, Ciara Harris explained: “I loved being surrounded by such a diverse mix of cultures, disciplines and perspectives, and I made some great friends and professional connections that I really value. Learning from people with completely different backgrounds gave me insights I never would have gained otherwise. I've left with a really unique set of skills and experiences, and it's served me very well so far.”

As a design assistant and advisor at British interiors company Neptune, Ciara Harris now supports the delivery of kitchen design projects through technical drawings, client presentations, project co-ordination and design advice. In this role she often draws on skills and experiences from the RCA: “Design Futures helps me look beyond immediate solutions, considering wider systems, behaviours and long-term impacts while approaching interiors through sustainability, adaptability, customer experience and future-focused design thinking in practice today.”

Before joining the Design Futures programme at the RCA Ciara studied BA (Hons) Textile Design at Nottingham Trent University. “I was really interested in how I could take the skills and knowledge I'd developed in textiles and apply them to broader contexts such as science, particularly biology, and environmental issues, which are both areas I'm passionate about”, Ciara explained. “I've always felt that textiles skills can create impact from a more strategic angle, and Design Futures really offered me that opportunity. It allowed me to think beyond products and explore systems, behaviours and longer-term challenges.”

At the RCA Ciara was impressed with the quality of teaching and her learning experience. “The programme definitely exceeded my expectations. I expected to be given a lot of freedom and largely be left to get on with things, but it was incredibly well taught, comprehensive and in-depth. I was introduced to methods and ways of thinking that I don't believe I would have encountered otherwise, and I came away with a much broader set of design skills that I now feel confident applying across different disciplines.”

Mehek Khanna (Design Futures MDes, 2024) innovation designer, Centrica, UK

Before coming to the RCA Mehek Khanna worked as a UX/UI design consultant. She shared what motivated her to return to studying. “I realised that design is not digital, it’s human. I decided to study Design Futures because it actually integrated strategy, sustainability, systems thinking and deep research all into one. Design Futures was all about understanding human and ecological challenges, looking at them from divergent and different perspectives and challenging the status quo. It was an ambitious course that was designed to build innovators and thinkers who actually care about the world and the future. And then build those desirable futures!”

“What attracted me most to the course was the multi-disciplinarity and the different types of modules that were offered” Mehek added. “They really focused on making clarity from ambiguous briefs, zooming out and in and looking at the bigger picture while always asking ‘why’. It was a course that was mentally stimulating and made me un-learn and re-learn a lot of things!”

Mehek is currently an innovation designer at Centrica, where she explores emerging technologies and develops interventions that support customers to move towards more sustainable energy futures. This work spans strategic planning, rapid experimentation, stakeholder collaboration and real-world testing, often bringing together developers, internal teams and wider stakeholders to address complex business and customer challenges. Alongside this role at Centrica, Mehek also researches wicked problems at Imperial Business School.

Design Futures continues to shape Mehek’s professional practice, as she explained: “Design Futures helps me turn ambiguity into structured innovation, using systems thinking, stakeholder mapping, futures roadmapping and scenario planning to anticipate consequences and make emerging possibilities tangible and actionable today.”

Enfu Wu (Design Futures MDes, 2024), visual designer, Tencent, China

Enfu Wu graduated from the Design Futures programme in 2024 and now works as a Brand Visual Designer in the MXD Design Department at Tencent in Shenzhen, China. In this role, Enfu develops visual identity systems, campaign assets and brand guidelines for digital content across the Tencent Video platform.

Working within a fast-paced company, Enfu’s practice combines creativity, digital tools and emerging AI workflows to craft visual experiences that are clear, memorable and adaptable for real-world use.

Design Futures continues to shape how Enfu approaches design today, bringing a more systemic and future-facing perspective to brand research, visual strategy and creative development. From imagining possible future scenarios to identifying distinctive visual directions, Enfu’s work shows how futures thinking can inform contemporary brand communication. As he explained: “Design Futures helps me approach brand design systemically, using research, future scenarios and forward-looking thinking to develop visual directions that feel distinctive, adaptable and relevant to contemporary digital culture today.”