Featured Projects

  • For Samsung’s User Experience Lab California (UXCA), MD used generative algorithms to indicate the human imperative behind the firm’s R&D. [+]

  • Volume 29, Issue 2 of the Camerawork Journal examines the seduction and repulsion of the photographic image. [+]Featuring the work of visual artist Daniel Martinez, the publication design incorporates French-fold pages that require the reader to violate the body of the journal just as Martinez appears to violate his own body in the production of his images.[+]

  • The Liberator Cycle is a re-interpretation of The Liberator 3D printable handgun. [+]The stereo-lithography (STL) files for The Liberator gun were re-mapped according to global handgun homicide rates – a process that distorted the original object according to its projected human cost.[+]

  • The Narcissus installation positions the viewer in the role of Narcissus – an isolated figure gazing into a pool, mesmerized by his own reflection. [+]

    The reflection is produced using a generative algorithm linked to a pulse oximetry sensor. The viewer’s biometric data is processed in real time and displayed as a text-based animation unique to each visitor. The resulting animation is projected into a reflecting pool containing 12 gallons of spent petroleum.

  • 100 Years From Now was a city-wide public art intervention in Rome.[+] One thousand signs displaying five open-ended phrases challenged citizens to consider the future we are each making. The project used calculated ambiguity to compel each of us to confront, or to deny, the larger signs that point to our collective future.[+]

  • A series of posters for the American Institute of Architects. More like painting and less like graphic design, the compositions evolved through a process of intuition, material investigation, and the belief that abstract form can transmit poetic meaning. [+]

    Poster 1: Process/Product (Design Awards 08)
    Dimensions: 32 x 23.5 inches

    Poster 2: Data/Space (Design Awards 09)
    Dimensions: 26 x 18.25 inches

    Poster 3: Lateral/Vertical (Monterey Design Conference)
    Dimensions: 35 x 25 inches

  • An ongoing series of posters announcing different public programs for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. For each poster MendeDesign developed a unique visual language and composition to telegraph the curatorial vision behind each program. [+]

  • The campaign for the 32nd installment of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF) uses alliterative English-Yiddish phrases to underscore the spirit of humor, inclusiveness, and multiculturalism that defines the festival. [+]

    The visual language contrasts these linguistic non sequiturs with a deadpan graphic Modernism, making the phrases that much more ironic. The video spots translate this minimal aesthetic into off-speed visual gags with deliberately flat audio effects, further animating the knowing humor.

  • For UCSF’s new hospital building MendeDesign was commissioned to picture the metaphysical ‘weight’ of humanity. [+]Big data from global public health studies – birth information, physiological measurements, population density – was processed according to a proprietary algorithm that transformed the raw data into representational images. The resulting visuals – a horizon, vacationers on the beach, a cloudscape – query our world’s values, direction, and sense of cohesion as a global community. [+]

  • A flag should be more than an abstract representation of a place; it should express what is essential about that place and the people who call it home. San Francisco Magazine asked MD to develop a new city flag based on Roman Mars’ criticisms laid down in his TED talk about the poor design of municipal flags. [+]