A practice rooted in inquiry
For more than three decades, DesignIntelligence has been a research, advisory, and media institution serving the leaders of the built environment. The work begins with questions — the real ones being wrestled with inside firms, classrooms, boardrooms, and city halls — and takes the form of published inquiry, peer convening, original research, advisory engagement, and leadership development.
We are a single institution with two interconnected arms: a public community and a firm-facing practice. The community asks the questions out loud. The practice helps individual firms answer them.
Our History
DesignIntelligence was founded in 1994 by James P. Cramer, following sixteen years as CEO of the American Institute of Architects. Jim believed the AEC industry was on the edge of significant disruption, and that the leaders coming out of the next generation of architecture and engineering schools would be the ones to anticipate and shape it. He launched DesignIntelligence as a publishing company alongside a management consultancy built around that conviction — that practitioners and educators, working together, could see further and act sooner.
The same year, Jim co-founded the Design Futures Council with Dr. Jonas Salk. The two had met at a Kennedy Center awards presentation, where Salk spoke about design, architecture, and the mission of the Salk Institute. They quickly recognized a shared belief: that design could improve the human condition, and that the leaders responsible for shaping the built environment needed a setting where they could think together honestly about the future.
The first DFC think tank was held at the Salk Institute. Founding institutional partners included the Salk Institute, Steelcase, the University of Nebraska, Autodesk, and Construction Market Data. Jonas Salk's belief that the Council would matter for many years to come has proven out.
Every institution that endures past its founding chapter requires a second one — someone who sees what was built, takes responsibility for it, and carries it forward into a different moment. For DesignIntelligence, that person was Dave Gilmore.
Dave acquired DesignIntelligence and the Design Futures Council in 2015 and led the institution as CEO for more than a decade. Under his leadership, DI's advisory practice deepened into the trusted counsel that AE firm leaders relied on through some of the industry's most consequential years — the rise of integrated practice, the digitization of design, the arrival of AI. The Design Futures Council grew into the peer community Dave believed it was always meant to be: a place where senior leaders could speak honestly with each other about the work, the questions, and the responsibilities of leading a firm.
The institution's published voice — the editorial discipline, the long-form essays, the willingness to ask harder questions than the industry was used to hearing — is in significant part Dave's. He insisted that DesignIntelligence treat the practice of leadership as a serious subject, worthy of philosophical depth and moral seriousness, and the body of work produced under his stewardship reflects that conviction.
Dave's chapter shaped the institution we are today. The work continues from that foundation.
Our ecosystem
DesignIntelligence operates through two interconnected arms, each with distinct audiences and distinct work, sharing one institutional mission.
| Design Futures Council | DesignIntelligence Practice | |
|---|---|---|
| Audience | Leaders across the built environment | Architecture and engineering firm leadership |
| Posture | Public community and media | Confidential firm engagement |
| Convening | Summits, Think Tanks, peer gatherings | Board, executive, and emerging-leader sessions |
| Content | Foresight: articles, podcasts, films | — |
| Research | Industry-wide reports and benchmarks | Firm-specific studies and assessments |
| Engagement | Membership, fellowship, contribution | Advisory, research, and learning |
The two arms share a founding lineage and a single institutional purpose. The community's collective inquiry shapes the questions our advisory work answers. The advisory work, in turn, sharpens the community's understanding of where the practice is actually moving.
The Design Futures Council
The Design Futures Council is the public face of our work — a peer community of CEOs, firm principals, chief innovation officers, university presidents, researchers, investors, and other leaders shaping the future of the built environment.
DFC convenes its members through Leadership Summits, Think Tanks, and peer gatherings designed for candor — off-the-record settings where competitors collaborate and leaders wrestle with complexity rather than escape it. Between gatherings, the community's thinking is published as Foresight: long-form essays, research briefs, podcasts, and films that extend the inquiry beyond the room. DFC also produces industry-wide research on the structural questions facing the built environment — leadership transitions, AI readiness, business model evolution, the future of practice.
DesignIntelligence Advisory, Research, and Learning
The DesignIntelligence practice works directly with architecture and engineering firm leadership on the questions that don't get answered in convenings or articles.
Advisory is one-on-one strategic counsel for firm leadership — confidential, situational, and focused on the realities of running an AE practice now: succession, strategy, organizational design, AI readiness, market positioning.
Research, at the firm level, is original work commissioned to understand a single firm's situation: leadership audits, brand perception studies, business development effectiveness reviews, AI readiness assessments. It runs in parallel to DFC's industry-wide research and often draws on the same expertise.
Learning delivers structured leadership and professional development programs for firm executives and emerging leaders. Programs are designed around firm realities and led by instructors who have made the decisions they teach.
What we believe
A few principles run through everything we do.
The future is not built by consensus within echo chambers. Real progress requires leaders willing to sit with questions that don't resolve cleanly, in rooms where honesty is possible.
Design leadership happens at intersections. Our roots are in the built environment, but the questions we engage draw from economics, education, environmental science, technology, behavioral psychology, and beyond.
Influence without integrity is hollow. We curate carefully — for the community we convene, the research we publish, and the firms we advise. Caliber matters more than reach.
Inquiry over performance. Our convenings, our editorial work, and our advisory engagements all share the same posture: better questions over tidy answers, candor over comfort, long-arc thinking over short-term theater.
A timeline of the work
1994 — DesignIntelligence founded by James P. Cramer following sixteen years as CEO of the American Institute of Architects. Design Futures Council co-founded the same year by Jim Cramer and Dr. Jonas Salk. First DFC think tank held at the Salk Institute. Founding institutional partners include the Salk Institute, Steelcase, the University of Nebraska, Autodesk, and Construction Market Data.
Late 1990s — DFC convenes its first Summit on Sustainability with sponsorship from Steelcase and Interface Carpets — among the earliest industry gatherings to treat sustainability as central to design practice rather than peripheral.
2000s — DesignIntelligence emerges as the leading voice on the business of design, with original research, books, and publications shaping how AE firms think about strategy, leadership, and practice.
2010s — Dave Gilmore acquires DesignIntelligence and assumes leadership, expanding the advisory practice and deepening DFC's role as a peer community for senior firm leaders. The institution's body of published work grows to thousands of articles, essays, podcasts, and research briefs.
2024 — DFC marks thirty years of continuous operation as a peer community for design industry leadership.
2026 — A new chapter. DesignIntelligence and the Design Futures Council are repositioned for the next decade of the built environment, with renewed editorial focus, expanded research, and a digital platform built for the depth of inquiry the work demands.
Frequently asked
What is DesignIntelligence?
DesignIntelligence is a research, advisory, and media institution serving the leaders of the built environment. Founded in 1994 by James P. Cramer, DesignIntelligence operates through two interconnected arms: the Design Futures Council, a public peer community and media platform; and DesignIntelligence Advisory, Research, and Learning, which work directly with architecture and engineering firms.
What is the Design Futures Council?
The Design Futures Council is the public peer community of DesignIntelligence — a network of CEOs, firm principals, university presidents, investors, researchers, and other leaders shaping the future of the built environment. Co-founded in 1994 by Jim Cramer and Dr. Jonas Salk, DFC convenes its members through Leadership Summits, Think Tanks, and peer gatherings, and publishes the community's ongoing inquiry as Foresight — articles, podcasts, films, and research.
How are DesignIntelligence and the Design Futures Council related?
DesignIntelligence is the parent institution. The Design Futures Council is its public community and media arm. DesignIntelligence also operates an Advisory, Research, and Learning practice that works directly with individual architecture and engineering firms. The community asks the questions; the practice helps firms answer them.
Who founded DesignIntelligence and the Design Futures Council?
James P. Cramer founded DesignIntelligence in 1994 after serving sixteen years as CEO of the American Institute of Architects. The Design Futures Council was co-founded the same year by Jim Cramer and Dr. Jonas Salk, creator of the polio vaccine and a believer in design's capacity to improve the human condition. Their first think tank was held at the Salk Institute.
Who does DesignIntelligence work with?
The Design Futures Council convenes senior leaders across the design ecosystem — firm CEOs and principals, chief innovation officers, university presidents and deans, investors, policymakers, and researchers. DesignIntelligence Advisory works primarily with architecture and engineering firm leadership on confidential strategic engagements: CEOs, boards, executive committees, and emerging leaders being prepared for senior roles.
Where is DesignIntelligence based?
DesignIntelligence is a U.S.-based institution with a global community. DFC convenes members across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Three ways to engage
Join the community — The Design Futures Council convenes leaders shaping the future of the built environment. Participation is curated and aligned to firms, institutions, and individuals operating at the level the community demands.
Work with us — DesignIntelligence Advisory engages directly with architecture and engineering firms on leadership, succession, strategy, AI readiness, and the questions that define the next chapter of practice.
Explore Foresight — The conversations, research, and ideas that come out of our community are published openly. Read, listen, watch — and bring what you find back to the people you lead.
