About Anticipation Design

Anticipation Design is a field guide to the emotional before.

Most experiences do not begin when they officially begin.

A dinner starts before the first course.
A trip starts before the flight.
A film starts before the opening frame.
A party starts before anyone arrives.
A campaign starts before anyone enters.

The experience begins when someone starts imagining what could happen next.

This publication explores the design of that moment: the before, the maybe, the waiting, the wondering, the invitation, the countdown, the reveal, the possibility.

I call this Anticipation Design.

It is the intentional shaping of the emotional experience before something happens.

Here, I write about how anticipation shapes desire, memory, participation, belonging, status, and belief. I’m interested in why certain experiences feel magnetic before they happen, why some campaigns become stories people want to follow, and why possibility can be more powerful than certainty.

This publication is for people who create experiences: founders, artists, restaurants, hotels, cultural spaces, theaters, retreats, brands, and anyone interested in designing moments people want to enter, follow, talk about, and remember.

Anticipation is not hype.

Hype is noise.

Anticipation is emotional architecture.

It gives people something to look forward to. It lets them imagine themselves inside a future. It makes the before feel meaningful.

This publication is written by Bri Olson, founder of The Maybe Company, a creative studio that helps restaurants, hotels, cultural spaces, and brands design anticipation-driven campaigns.

The Maybe Company builds the work.

Anticipation Design names the philosophy behind it.

Welcome to the before.

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