Steven M. Johnson
Cartoonist-inventor Johnson discovered a latent talent for creating unusual whimsical products in 1974 when, as a freelance editorial cartoonist for Sierra magazine, he was assigned to create 16 future recreation vehicles and came up with 100 ideas. Thus began a sideline venture into a laterally-imagined “line” of alternative products and systems that have appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Txchnologist, Esquire, Fast Company, GOOD, Design Mind, Road & Track, Utne Reader, Whole Earth Review, Sierra, The Futurist, as well as in Box and Brutus (Japanese magazines). He is author of What The World Needs Now (Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, 1984, 2001) and Public Therapy Buses (St Martin’s Press, New York, 1991). His work includes such concepts as the Smoking Helmet, the Pedal Train, Automobile Trampoline, Landfill Trash store, and Hide-A-Shower Couch.
