The Work Department partnered with Lear to design and facilitate a series of interactive experiences that engaged hundreds of employees, stakeholders, and the broader Detroit design community in imagining what the next century of mobility could look like.

We crafted three large-scale, participant-driven engagements that invited Lear’s network to contribute ideas, prioritize key themes, and explore new possibilities for mobility. 

At Lear’s 100th Anniversary Celebration, we designed a hands-on voting activity for employees, their families, and friends to share their perspectives on the future of mobility. 

Over 450 participants used color-coded geometric shapes to vote for connections, energy, or data as the most important factor. They placed their selections onto large display boards, creating a collective visual representation of priorities.

Nearly 70 participants contributed additional ideas through writing and drawings, expanding on the themes. The activity was designed to be clear and accessible, ensuring people of all ages could participate. The final results provided insight into how participants viewed the future of mobility.

At the 2017 Detroit Design Summit, we engaged over 80 design professionals and creatives in a discussion about the future of mobility. The Detroit Design Summit is a gathering focused on shaping Detroit’s design landscape, making it an ideal setting to explore mobility through a design and innovation lens.

The interactive design for this engagement built upon the visual, hands-on format used at Lear’s 100th Anniversary Celebration but was adapted to fit the space, incorporating glass windows and indoor rooms for display. 

The majority of participants prioritized connections, followed by energy, and data, reflecting an emphasis on integrated, human-centered mobility solutions. The engagement encouraged creative input and critical thinking, capturing ideas that ranged from public transit improvements to speculative future technologies. 

For the Lear Innovation Center Exhibit Opening, we built on the insights gathered from the anniversary celebration and design summit to create a more structured and intimate experience for Lear employees, clients, and industry stakeholders. We created interactive stations that provided participants with the opportunity to reflect on and discuss both the practical aspects and long-term possibilities for mobility. We also designed a decal for the street facing windows to call attention to the new innovation center and invite neighbors to ponder the future of mobility. This engagement was designed to help Lear’s leadership gain a better understanding of emerging trends and areas for innovation from experts.

Across all three events, we produced immersive experiences that blended physical interaction, visual storytelling, and strategic conversation prompts. These experiences resulted in a rich dataset of qualitative and quantitative insights, helping Lear build a case for future innovation initiatives.