Design + Futurism — Communication of the Future
Format: Digital, Physical book, Mockups
Genre: Communication and Story Ideation
Winter 2024

For this partner project I did with Emily Zhang and Martina Lasku, we had the task of imagining the future of communication, more specifically 50 years into the future, in 2074. Our story follows the city of Marquette, MI, and its subsequent booming economy due to flourishing industries, contrasting sharply to what we imagine in the coming decades as a politically and economically divided USA. These images below include examples of the language in use, as well as the dynamics behind it.




City Inspiration

My teammates and I imagined our city as a green metropolis full of opportunities. We wanted it to be led by scientists, engineers, historians, and other intellectuals in their respective fields, leading to technological advancements not seen in much of the country in this time. After choosing Marquette, MI due to its abundance of nearby natural resources, we decided to rename this city as a sort of fresh start towards the future. Since Marquette was originally built on native lands, primarily of the Ojibwe tribe, we came up with the name ‘Agomodena’. This name roughly translates from the Ojibwe language as “city on the water” due to its coastal location.


City Conceptualization

Agomodena exists in a future where the US is divided into several different opposing regions. These regions compete for resources and power, whilst the territory our city is in remains self sufficient due to its resources and industries. Vertical farming and other agricultural advancements thrive in Agomodea’s temperate environment, while the metallurgy industry causes the region’s exports to skyrocket. Being a green city, Agomodena uses several types of clean rail to connect people from all over, including both national and international rail, as well as freight lines.



Language Ideation Process

As these industries cause the city to grow over the coming decades, we begin to see many jobs being created, causing an influx of immigrants from across the globe all flocking to Agomodena. Due to the amalgamation of languages and a diverse population, we see the English language begin to transform over several decades into something that vaguely resembles the alphabet we know today. This new language, inspired mainly by Esperanto due to its similarities between many Latin and Germanic based languages, combines several different letterforms from  many languages like Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and more.





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