About

About

Mike here. Product designer, systems nerd, building in code. I design end to end: vision → strategy → pixels.

Previous teams ♡

  • Pentagram
  • Google Creative Lab
  • Splice
  • VICE News
  • Consensys
  • SuperRare Labs

Always down to

  • Kick soccer balls
  • Look for 4-leaf clovers
  • Connect
  • Make funky music visuals
  • Jot bullet points

Services

As a specialist in generalism, I've spent my career shipping at the front of new product categories: dataviz → AR → creator tools → web3. I see form as a key function, so I approach product and brand holistically, and obsess over craft.

Fractional founding designer

Drop-in design partner for startups, covering product and brand, shipping via quick iteration

Design for emerging tech

AI-native apps, web3, builder tools, and weird new surfaces without established patterns

Platform architecture

Multi-sided marketplaces, networks, protocols

Journey & lifecycle design

Service design from onboarding, to activation, to retention

Design systems

Component libraries that scale across surfaces, teams, and brands

Information design & content

Content models, info architecture, dataviz, diagrams

Contact

Michael Deal • New York, NY

Info in resume format.

Check out my partner Meg for creative direction and brand strategy.

Recognition

Press for personal projects

In print:

  • (2x) National Geographic
  • New York Times
  • Newsweek
  • HOW Magazine
  • PRINT Magazine

Digital:

  • The Guardian
  • The Smithsonian
  • Fast Company
  • Brainpickings
  • Mental Floss
  • Gawker

Books

Personal projects:

  • Understanding the World (Taschen)
  • Ocean (Thames & Hudson)
  • Atlas of Knowledge (MIT Press)
  • Whale Music (Rothenberg)
  • Visualisation: A Handbook for Data-Driven Design (Kirk)

Professional case studies:

  • Designing Brand Identity (3rd–6th editions)
  • Data Visualization: Convey, Clarify, Construct (Do/Work)
  • Data Visualization: A Successful Design Process (Kirk)

Film and TV

Exhibited

Professional:

  • Museum of Modern Art, Talk to Me (Project for Lisa Strausfeld, 2010)

Personal:

  • Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Madrid
  • Aquarium Tropical, Paris
  • Palma Aquarium, Mallorca
  • Seattle Aquarium
  • Biomimicry 3.8, Dubai

Speaking

Conferences:

  • NY Creative Tech Week (2016)
  • Sci Viz Conference (2016)

Schools:

  • I taught a 2-semester course at School of Visual Arts (Adjunct Professor, 2017–2018)
  • Icahn School of Medicine (2016)
  • Maryland Institute College of Art (2016)

Awards

  • (3x) Society for News Design 39 (2017)
  • Society for News Design 38 (2016)
  • Motion Awards: News Graphics (2016)
  • Type Directors Club Certificate of Typographic Excellence (2012)
  • Selected for Print Magazine's Regional Design Annual (2012)
  • HOW Magazine Best Logotype (2011)
  • Type Directors Club Certificate of Excellence (2011)
  • AIGA 365: Design Effectiveness (2011)