Steven Maxwell Johnson (born May 12, 1938) is an American cartoonist,

futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futures studies or futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities ...

, and inventor.

Early life and education

Steven Maxwell Johnson was born in 1938. He grew up in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

. He attended

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

for two years, then earned his BA from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. His family were book publishers. His father, Paul C. Johnson, edited the Western Garden Book for

Sunset Books Sunset Books is a book publishing company that operates as a part of Southern Progress Corporation's Oxmoor House book publishing division. The Sunset Books division was created in 1946 when ''Sunset Magazine'' created a separate book division ...

. Steve Johnson’s maternal grandfather was Herbert E. Bolton, chairman of History at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of its

Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library is the primary special-collections library of the University of California, Berkeley. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retain the name Bancroft Library in perpetuity. ...

. Bolton either began, or fell for, the hoax that the “ plate of brass” found in 1933 was left by Sir

Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English Exploration, explorer and privateer best known for making the Francis Drake's circumnavigation, second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580 (bein ...

in 1579. The plate was later exposed to be a prank of

E Clampus Vitus The Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus (ECV) is a fraternal organization dedicated to the preservation of the heritage of the Western United States, especially the history of the Mother Lode#California Mother Lode, Mother Lode and gold ...

, including scholars who knew Bolton well.

Career

Johnson was a

city planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, tow ...

in the 1960s and 1970s. Johnson helped plan suburbs. In 1973, the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...

Bulletin hired him to be their editorial cartoonist. The next year he was assigned to create 16 future RVs in cartoons. He created 109 RV designs. This was the start of his artistic career and created his interest in inventing.arieff.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/searching-for-value-in-ludicrous-ideas/ The ''

Sacramento Bee ''The Sacramento Bee'' is a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Since its foundation in 1857, ''The Bee'' has become the largest newspaper in Sacramento, the fifth largest newspaper in California, and the 2 ...

'' hired him as an artist in 1978. He anticipated factory-torn clothes in 1975, the

Roomba A Roomba is an autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner made by the company iRobot, and was first introduced in September 2002. Roombas have a set of sensors which help them navigate the floor area of a home. These sensors can detect the presence ...

and video camera helmets in 1991,

Google Glass Google Glass, or simply Glass, is a discontinued brand of smart glasses developed by Google's X Development (formerly Google X), with a mission of producing a ubiquitous computer. Google Glass displays information to the wearer using a head-u ...

in 1992, and hands-free telephones. His inventions were often given names using

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

s. The art had deadpan captions. Unlike some of his inventions, factory-scratched cars, shoes with headlights and turn-signals, and quickie add-a-rooms for houses have not yet been made real. Sierra and ''Sacramento Bee'' illustrations filled Johnson’s first two books, ''What the World Needs Now'' and ''Public Therapy Buses''. Impressed by those,

Honda Motor Co. commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer sin ...

hired him in 1994 to analyze future trends. He retired in 2005. Johnson published anthologies of cartoon inventions almost every year in the 2010s to sell at Maker Faires, and art, cartoon, and regional events.

Personal life

He lives in

Carmichael, California Carmichael is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County, California, United States. It is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated suburb in the Sacramento metropolitan area, Greater Sacramento metropolitan ...

, with his wife and son.

References

External links

*
Steven M. Johnson's TEDx talk "Inventing Without a Purpose."
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Steven M. 1938 births American editorial cartoonists Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area University of California, Berkeley alumni American urban planners 20th-century American male artists 21st-century American male artists 20th-century American inventors 21st-century American inventors Sierra Club people Honda people American futurologists People from Carmichael, California Living people