Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Warnick.
Mark, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My story really started at the intersection of creativity and technology. I spent the last 15 years in advanced research and innovation at a Fortune 80 company. In advanced research, we were tasked with looking 3 to 10 years ahead to help the organization explore and anticipate emerging trends and how these technologies could improve its members’ lives. Over the years, I led our team in generating over 130 new invention submissions. I was part of 80+ patent applications and have been awarded 29 US patents to date.
Most recently, I spent the last year and a half developing an internal foresight practice within USAA. I created foresight workshops designed to guide architects, strategists, and senior leaders through exercises that help them envision their preferred futures and then build roadmaps and culture shifts to support them. I also led a team of foresight practitioners in developing new horizon-scanning capabilities, publishing quarterly reports on the top signals of emerging change, and creating programs to nurture a long-term culture of innovation.
In 2015, while working my corporate job, I launched 3vies, initially as an indie print magazine focused on art, foresight, and intentional living. Over the past decade, that dual path—corporate innovation and creative foresight—has evolved into my work as a futurist and foresight advisor. Today, I help organizations and individuals anticipate change, design for possibility, and build cultures of innovation rooted in a future perspective.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Of course not. The only smooth roads are those that lead to stagnation or an underdeveloped life. It takes conflict and struggle to realize the life you want to live. It’s part of how life helps you reveal, even if it’s just to yourself, what you want to do. I’ve spent the last decade struggling to reach this point, where much of my work is beginning to align with my role as a futurist. For much of the previous decade, I felt I was living three separate lives: the corporate life, the artist life, and father life. The thread that connects them together is curiosity and a desire to explore possibilities.
The first struggle was waking up and realizing I had been taught to live a stranger’s life, as I explained in my keynote on “How To Create A Life You Love.” I grew up with my parents teaching me the list of things they thought would make a person happy. And it came from a good place, but it was from a “I’ve lived longer so I know more than you” kind of place. All well-intentioned, I know, but people of every age need space to explore their own desires so they can discover what life they want to create for themselves.
Much of my growth since then has been about unlearning. Years of deconstructing old beliefs, evaluating the “mental scaffolding” built over a lifetime, and deciding which walls to keep and which to tear down. It’s not a linear process. As I wrote in 3vies Volume 36, “Success happens internally years before it ever happens externally.” Learning how to be myself, by myself, for myself—that became the foundation for everything that followed.
And that’s just one of many struggles. Another was navigating divorce, which I wrote about in Volume 35 as part of my journey toward “becoming fully me.” I’ve also faced the ongoing challenges of balancing family life, creative work, and career; aligning passion with profession; co-parenting collaboratively; and, yes, even figuring out dating after 30.
But I’ve come to believe that struggle is where life gets good. It’s the forge of transformation. Don’t shrink away from it. Leaving your comfort zone is vital for growth, and the struggle itself, however messy, is where learning truly begins.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about 3vies?
3vies started as an indie print magazine, but it has evolved over the years to become a pseudonym for my art and foresight consulting. I am a futurist and foresight advisor helping organizations and individuals anticipate change, imagine possibilities, and build cultures of innovation that are deeply human-centered.
My work combines strategic foresight, futures thinking, and design to help clients identify their preferred futures and develop the habits/processes to achieve them. This often takes the form of keynotes about future tech and culture, custom workshops such as Visioning & Backcasting, Rapid Concept Frameworks, and Building Innovative Cultures, or serving as a foresight advisor for executives and creatives.
The name 3vies is French for three lives. The concept being that if we live our lives intentionally, we can live three lives in one lifetime. It highlights that the future is not something that just happens to us, but rather something we can influence and shape. The decisions we make today will shape the opportunities of the next decade.
What sets 3vies apart is the blend of expansive imagination and practical strategy mixed with long-term thinking. I approach everything differently. While others focus on success, my objective is on impact. Truth is, it’s easy to be successful; it’s hard to make a lasting impact. It’s about slowing down to think deeply about the longevity of our decisions. It’s designing futures that are both visionary and have a positive effect on subsequent generations.
I see my work as an act of meaning-making. I bring together the sensibilities of an artist and the systems thinking of a researcher to help people reconnect with why they create, not just what they create.
Brand-wise, I’m most proud that 3vies has always prioritized timelessness over trends. My focus has always been on creating designs and concepts that would feel just as relevant 50 or even 100 years ago as they do today. In doing so, I believe it gives the work a chance to remain meaningful 100 years from now.
I’ve always been drawn to Dieter Rams’ “less, but better” philosophy. That principle runs through everything I make. From the simplicity of a magazine layout to the clarity of a foresight framework. Good design is not about minimalism for its own sake; it’s about removing the noise so that what remains continues to speak across time.
That’s what I’ve tried to build with 3vies: a brand that feels both modern and enduring. Whether it’s a print magazine, a workshop, or a keynote, each is designed to stand on its own as an artifact of intention. Something that feels grounded in the present yet capable of living well into the future.
If readers take one thing away about 3vies, I hope it’s this: the future isn’t something that happens to us, it’s something we actively create. My role is simply to help people draw their own lines.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Yes! I love this question. Here are some resources I have gathered over the years.
Books
– The Alchemist – Amazing story of self-discovery and learning how to speak the language of your heart. I re-read this once a year.
– The War of Art – This was foundational for me in creating new vocabulary around my role as an artist. It took me 20 years to accept the title of artist, and we all do art in our own way. Some use paints, some use businesses, but we all use art to build a brighter future. Art is the center of the human experience.
– Rework – This is amazing at breaking down traditional business thinking. Helps you break it down and realize that you can create the process you need to be successful, even if they don’t work for others. Make a system tailor-made for you. I read this yearly as well.
– Things a Little Bird Told Me – An incredible story of how Twitter was started. Teaches that you can make your own luck.
– Creativity, Inc. – The Story Behind Pixar and How It Took 20 Years to Make Toy Story. They then discuss how to build sustainable creativity within a company.
– Unfu*k Yourself – Another one I find myself coming back to over and over. It helped me immensely as I delved deeper into my own mind, understanding how I work and learning to live life intentionally.
– Big Magic – Great for realizing how to hear and act on inspiration. I highly recommend it as well, specifically for those of us trying to amplify our own energy to reach our highest selves.
– Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life – Learning how to live in the moment. Helped me realize how our moments build into our future.
Podcasts
– I’ve Got Questions with Sinead Bovell – A fellow futurist interviews top talent in tech, who are making our tomorrow. Very, very good content for hearing about what is coming.
– How I Built This by Guy Raz
– Smartless
Youtubers
Huge If True – Cleo Abram
Peter McKinnon
Blogs
3vies.com/writing – I write about the future of culture/tech, and intentional living. Specifically check out “the future of value exchange”
Contact Info:
- Website: 3vies.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/3vies
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-warnick/
- Twitter: https://www.threads.com/@3vies
Image Credits
Paxman Warnick Mark Warnick
