Duo Behind Future Perfect X, the Design Strategy Consultancy Known for Intrepid Ideas That Catapult Businesses and Brands to Success, Joins Perkins&Will

Their secret sauce—the reason executives keep coming back to them for more—is a proprietary blend of what Hillier calls “multidimensional intelligence”: human insight, business understanding, foresight, and design. They draw heavily on digital anthropology—understanding people and culture across physical and digital worlds—and immersive ethnographic research.

“To understand a problem, we look at it from multiple angles,” she says. “We try to get inside people’s mindsets and behaviors, so we’re not just asking people what they think; we’re observing them in their modern-day habitats, both physical and digital.”

As the Future Perfect Studio of Perkins&Will, Higgins and Hillier will continue their highly specialized consulting with corporate and institutional clients, the likes of which include major hotel brands and operators, retailers, financial services firms, commercial developers, and life sciences and pharmaceutical companies. Many of their clients are also Perkins&Will’s clients.

The Future Perfect Studio will ultimately help Perkins&Will clients visualize “what’s next” for their organizations, according to Kate Thatcher, managing director of Perkins&Will New York, Future Perfect’s home base:

“Bart and Katie work extremely closely with some of the world’s most visionary C-suite leaders, empowering them with the insights and tools they need to boldly do things they’ve never done before,” Thatcher says. “I’m very energized about them joining our New York studio, where they will undoubtedly expand our practice and help deliver our clients the most transformational design ideas of our time.”

Phil Harrison, Perkins&Will’s CEO, says today’s dynamic market means clients have new and more audacious expectations that are pushing architects and designers to think and do differently. It’s a moment that presents a clear growth trajectory for the firm’s New York practice, as well as an opportunity for even greater innovation enterprise wide.

“More and more, our clients are wondering what to do in the future, how to address uncertainty, and how to manage major capital decisions. Bart and Katie are great at answering those questions in ways few others can,” Harrison says. “Plus, their hyper-imaginative use of AI—they call it a ‘co-intelligence partner’—has supercharged their workflow and project outcomes. We stand to learn a lot from them.”

The Future Perfect Studio of Perkins&Will opened for business September 14, offering independent consultative services to clients in New York and globally.

“A lot of what we do is get under the hood with people to understand how they live, what’s missing, what they aspire to,” Higgins says. “Like, what keeps you up at night? What does joy look like in your world? We’re really far away from, ‘when you walk into a room, should you go left or right?’”