ABOUT
M-A-D (aka MADxs) founded by Erik Adigard and Patricia McShane, is an interdisciplinary design studio that addresses contemporary concerns through environmental and media design. Each project is approached as an invitation to explore our environments while rethinking how design can best operate between responsible engagement and poetics. The studio’s three main perspectives range from technology to corporate culture and then social engagement:
- A first opportunity to deeply focus on the technological modalities in image, linguistics and interfaces came with visual essays and internet concepts for Wired Ventures. Past design processes were shifting toward digital mediums that are today further reframed by artificial intelligence generative design.
- The conception of the IBM software visual identity was a challenge to resolve an ecosophical approach where design could relate technology, business, and ecology from a humanistic perspective.
- Conceiving of the living world as the highest priority to be served by design was exemplified by StreeTALK, in Palo Alto, a participatory design event engaging a broad demographics. This initiative revealed how city dwellers share a concern for nature, in how we must imagine urbanity as well as design in its many forms.
Other notable works include the book Architecture Must Burn, on emerging design paradigms, the documentary Webdreamer, on the false promises of the internet, Sense Factory, as a multidisciplinary installation for the Bauhaus Centennial, Sensory Orders, an exhibit for the Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art exploring emerging sensory mechanisms, and Dissuasion Engine, for Driving the Human in Berlin, taking on the vast implications of overconsumption. Other topical installations were commissioned for the Venice, Paris, Lisbon and St Etienne biennales.
Speculating that there is a crisis of “mass imaging”, Adigard continues a long-term investigation on the culture of machinic representation, producing conceptual imagery, videos, and publications. This on-going research and learning led to the Machinic Modernity design and philosophy course conceived for the California College of the Arts MFA Design program. The class explores possible translations of contemporary theories into design forms, and led to Constitution, a San Francisco Airport Museum exhibition that he co-curated.
Adigard and McShane’s designs are part of collections at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Library and the Library of Congress, and has been featured in major international exhibitions, film festivals and publications, such as The Sundance Film Festival, the London Design Museum, Helsinki Design Museum, the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the International Symposium on Electronic Art and international biennales. Recognition includes the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design, the Rome Prize in Design and the Venice Biennale Special Mention.
20 year history in images…
Their work continues to receive international recognition for its stylistic, conceptual and innovative contributions to the world of design, and is included in Meggs’ History of Graphic Design.
MAJOR AWARDS
- Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design
- Venice Biennale National Participation Special Mention: U.S.A. Pavilion
- Rome Prize: design
- Public Art Network Year in Review/Americans for the Arts National Recognition award: StreeTALK
- Dai Nippon Award: Interactive Media
- ID +Print magazine’s Gold Awards
SHOWN AND/OR IN PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- Denver Art Museum
- Pasadena Museum of Art
- Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
- Wellcome Trust in London
- London Design Museum
- Sundance Film Festival
- Venice and Lisbon Biennales
PATRICIA McSHANE studied fine art, photography, and sculpture at SFSU and received a BFA in graphic design from CCAC. She has served as adjunct faculty at California College of the Arts and has been a member of Astra Women’s Business Alliance and Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).
ERIK ADIGARD DES GAUTRIES studied art and semiotics at the Sorbonne, Paris and Beaux Arts, Montpellier, and received a BFA in design at CCAC. He serves as adjunct faculty at California College of the Arts, where he teaches graduate level design theory. Adigard is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) and American Institute of Graphic Design (AIGA). He has acted as an advisor for both Adobe Systems Academic Achievement Awards and California College of the Arts. Adigard lectures and juries internationally at academic institutions.
PRIMARY COLLABORATORS PAST AND PRESENT
media strategy: Chris Salter, Mark Petrakis
sound design, media strategy: John Alderman
social media strategy: Stephen Ruiz
marketing strategy/copywriting: Steven Mason
flash and video production: Gregory Cowley, Mike Axinn
web technologies: Philip Foeckler
product design: Herbie Pfeifer
fabrication: Bruce Koball, Robert Bilbrey
architecture: Tim Rempel
Their Berkeley building is shared with architects, computer engineers, mechanical and industrial designers, and musicians who inspire enthusiasm in their work.