The Concept Service - a strategic foresigh tool.
Concept services are speculative, trend-driven service concepts that translate emerging cultural behaviors, values, and aesthetics into near-future brand experiences. Rather than immediate market solutions, they act as strategic tools for exploring what a company could become next. By transforming cultural signals into tangible touchpoints, tone-of-voice, and experience journeys, these concepts help organizations imagine new forms of value creation beyond traditional product thinking.
What makes the format effective is its ability to spark strategic conversation and shift perspective within organizations. Through visual narratives and speculative “what if” scenarios, concept services create shared understanding between teams and stakeholders while challenging existing assumptions. They function as investigative prototypes and change agents, helping companies identify culturally relevant opportunities before the market fully arrives there. Developed as part of my PhD (2021).
A circular concept service for adidas Futures Team (2018)
adidas REMIX. REDESIGN & RESELL.
Developed in collaboration with adidas Futures Team, REMIX is a concept service designed around sustainable fashion, urban street culture, and the rise of the creative consumer. The project explored how a brand could shift focus from material production to identity creation by enabling users to remake, customize, and resell pre-owned products within a community-driven ecosystem.
Rooted in cultural movements such as DIY maker culture, brand hacking, and fluid self-expression, REMIX reimagined circularity as a desirable lifestyle rather than a responsibility. The service combined editorial storytelling, upcycling tutorials, city-specific urban sports guides, and collaborative touchpoints that encouraged users to actively shape both the brand and their own identity.
The experience came to life through culturally informed touchpoints including fanzines, in-store maker spaces, repair and customization stations, and equipment rentals. Designed to encourage people to “follow their own rules,” REMIX explored how circular services can become emotionally engaging, culturally relevant, and deeply embedded in contemporary youth culture.
Graphic design: Daniel B. Nerheim (2018).
A circular concept service (2015).
PREFALL. FASHION REUSE.
Prefall is a conceptual fashion re-use service to explore how secondhand consumption could become more aspirational, emotionally engaging, and culturally desirable. At a time when sustainable fashion was often framed as either overly “green” or outdated, the project reimagined fashion re-use through a more elevated, style-driven experience.
The concept translated growing social awareness into a high-end service narrative, positioning sustainability as a form of cultural and personal value rather than compromise. Through carefully designed touchpoints; including cinematic fashion films, editorial storytelling, and immersive brand experiences Prefall connected aspirational aesthetics with new patterns of consumption and re-use.
To test how these meanings resonated in practice, the concept was brought to life through physical pop-up experiences that allowed real-time observation of customer reactions and emotional engagement.
Photo: Renate Torseth
Graphic Design: Bielke + Yang
