the origins.

when we started this company, it was because we saw a world in which gen z voices were not being heard. we saw a world in which the most important people for the future of our world were screaming from the rooftops, and nobody was listening.

that same purpose has gotten us to where we are today. to a place where we have created a living, breathing entity, built by a vision and supported by you, to create the world where we bring gen z voices to the table.

and that will not, and will never change. it is who we are and why we started. we are a generation making strides to make brands purposeful. to create authentic relationships with consumers that add not just product, but true meaning and value to our lives. our focus will continue to be shaping that relationship, creating a future built by listening to the voices of a generation in order to shape the ones to come.

yet as culture and our society change, we see within our generation higher rates of suicide, depression, loneliness, and anxiety than ever before. and we need to stop looking at others for the solution. we have a responsibility to ourselves, to our peers, and to the generations to come to make the future human. to make the future a place that listens, that is built on the voices of the people living in it. at this company, we exist to make the future human.

so what does this have to do with dcdx?

making the future human is built around understanding the push and pull of culture.

Isaac Newton is famously cited for his third law of motion; to any action, there is always an equal and opposite reaction. and we know this relationship is not limited to the confines of the scientific world. it applies to culture too.

culture is a two-way street. as culture changes, so do we. and as we change, so does culture. the rate of this change, and the elements that impact that rate is what makes studying this generation so fascinating.

and it’s why our methodologies move with culture. without this, we risk losing cultural observation points as the last surveyable generation (Millennials) is surpassed by Gen Z and beyond.

Newton is also the inventor of calculus. He understood and formalized, before anyone, the mathematical relationship between variables in the world around us. when x changes, so does y. and this he measured through derivatives; the rate of change of y with respect to x.

this idea is commonly expressed today through the notation dy/dx.

dcdx is a commitment to understanding the push and pull of culture. a commitment to understanding not only the cultural rate of change, but the variables and the people that impact it, and how it impacts our future.

dcdx.

dcdx is a Gen Z research and strategy firm. we exist to make the future human.

dcdx means the rate of cultural change.

dcdx is a function, dependent on the variables and elements that make up this world.

and more than ever, today, one of the strongest components of those elements is Gen Z.

dcdx began as a project to bring the voices of Gen Z to the world amidst what felt like the beginning of the end in March of 2020. And today as we move into 2024 and the years to come, we know with dcdx that it was never the beginning of the end; it was the beginning of the future.

a human future.

our future.