The dream society

I’m currently reading a book by Rolf Jensen, called “Dream Society”. In this book Rolf Jensen tries to define the future society of the western world. In the past we’ve been hunters and collectors, we’ve been through the agriculture and industrial societies. Many would agree that we at the moment are living in the information society. Rolf Jensen though, is stating that we are entering the “Dream Society” or the experience economy as it is also called.

Rolf is definitely into something here - and why shouldn’t he be - he’s one of the leading futurologists. In my opinion the dream society is not only in the beginning state. We are living it.

You can define the dream society as a society, where we’re not only buying products, we are buying stories and dreams. We want a good story to accomplish the product we’re buying. That can either be the wine where you “know” who the farmer is, a product styled by yourself or any other story attached to a product. For the same reason individualism is becoming more and more relevant in product design. Many of the “old” brands is learning this the hard way. People are no longer satisfied with a pair of jeans or shoes that everybody else is wearing. They want a story attached to it. Nike, Burton and other companies has taken this into consideration and made it possible for their consumers to style their own products and thereby attaching a story to the shoes they are wearing or the snowboard they are riding.

So why am I writing this. I’m doing it to open your eyes for the new possibilities and to get on the train before it’s left the station. I would also like to recommend this book to everybody who’s interested in design and branding.