Where the judgment comes from
These projects aren't a service offering — they're where the judgment comes from. Most were carried out within formula D_, a Cape Town-based experience design studio.
The brief was to bring the Old Fort’s history to life — from colonial military base to apartheid-era prison — without touching the historic fabric of the building. The design approach was deliberately analogue: the aim was a low entry barrier, an experience that surprised visitors without demanding anything of them. Profile-cut steel figures represent real characters from the site’s history, lit to cast shadows that become part of the narrative. Steel structures carry text, images, and information through the spaces. Integrated lighting and carefully placed technology support the experience without leading it. All 67 exhibits were free-standing and reversible, leaving no mark on the structure.
Key learnings: designing within severe constraint as a creative condition rather than a limitation — and the discipline of using technology in service of an analogue experience, rather than as the experience itself.
A separate commission produced two full-scale replica cannons for the ramparts, including a working gas-fired Howitzer built to original historical specifications. Based on archival research, the replicas were constructed by a specialist in historical re-enactment and installed by crane. The Howitzer fires weekly, echoing its colonial-era use.
A holographic installation in Joe Slovo’s original cell brings one of the Fort’s most significant occupants back into the space. Using the Pepper’s Ghost technique, a life-sized projection of Slovo recounts a letter written from his cell during six months of detention without trial. The figure occupies the room as if present, narrated through an earpiece, with printed context visible through the viewing panel.
The Old Granary’s history — customs house, prison, government office — demanded an exhibition that respected the building’s ambiguity rather than simplifying it. The design used found and replica artefacts as the primary medium: objects that visitors could handle, each narrated through handheld headsets. A morphing map projection traced Cape Town’s changing shoreline across centuries. An animated courtroom scene reconstructed an encounter between a freed slave and a colonial official. Every intervention was designed to be removed without a trace.
Key learnings: using objects and space as narrative devices, and the technical discipline of integrating technology inside a conservation-listed building without compromise.
Formula D_ was contracted to produce the exhibits for a new visitor centre in Rwanda to specifications from MASS Design Group — solid timber kiosks, wall-hung media panels, printed wallpapers, and interactive touchpoints across the full centre. The design quality of the architecture set a high bar; the work had to meet it, built and installed on a remote site far from familiar supply chains.
Key learnings: the judgment required to maintain design quality under logistical pressure — translating intent into decisions on a remote site, where the easy compromise is always available.
The Shark Sense exhibit asked visitors to experience the world as a shark — using directional sound, airflow, vibration in the handgrips, and VR to simulate the animal’s sensory system. The design challenge was making something physically and emotionally convincing, not just technically functional. The fiberglass shark head, the ergonomics of the platform, the sequencing of the sensory triggers — each was a design decision as much as an engineering one. Red Dot Award 2016, A’ Design Award and IxDA Award 2018.
Across more than a decade of museum projects — tangible user interfaces, custom aluminium touch kiosks, projection-mapped environments, tactile interactives with integrated mechanics — the consistent challenge was designing experiences that worked for real visitors, in real environments, day after day.
Key learnings: the ability to hold design intent and physical engineering in the same frame — and an understanding of how interactive technology succeeds or fails in the hands of real people.
As R&D Manager and Lead Designer at Power Logic, the task was to develop a modular power system that could accommodate 18 international electrical standards within a single coherent design language — screwless clip assemblies, custom aluminium extrusions, injection moulded components, and a plug over-moulding line with distinct international variants. The design constraint was real: every component had to be manufacturable, certifiable, and consistent across markets. ISO 9001 QMS adopted during this period.
Key learnings: understanding product design as a system — where form, material, manufacture, and compliance are not separate considerations but a single design problem.
The brief was simple: a salad server for a high-end homeware brand known for sculptural stainless steel objects. The design concept — the server as an extension of the hand, shaped for scooping rather than tossing — determined everything that followed: the leaf form, the grip aperture, the mirror polish. Prototypes were laser cut and rolled; final production was stamped and pressed. The servers were in continuous production from 2007 to 2016.
Key learnings: the discipline of following a single design idea all the way through — from concept to tooling to shelf — and letting the market test it over time.