jorge diego etienne exhibits 15 years of design prototypes at mexico city’s museo franz mayer

mockups before fuckups at museo franz mayer opens the archives of jorge diego etienne, revealing nearly 15 years of sketches, prototypes, and material tests behind the monterrey-based designer's practice.

JDE DESIGN edited by christina vergopoulou October 27, 2026 3 min

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JORGE DIEGO ETIENNE (JDE) EXHIBITS 15 YEARS OF PHYSICAL PROTOTYPES

Presented at the Museo Franz Mayer in Mexico City, Mockups Before Fuckups surveys nearly 15 years of design practice by Monterrey-based consultancy JDE, founded by industrial designer Jorge Diego Etienne. On view from October 16th, 2026, through February 14th, 2027, the exhibition focuses on the iterative processes preceding market production, exhibiting preliminary sketches, scale models, working prototypes, material experiments, 3D printed studies, and unreleased design concepts.

jorge diego etienne exhibits 15 years of design prototypes at mexico city’s museo franz mayer - 1 — all images ©Jorge Diego Etienne (JDE)

EXPANDED ARCHIVE BRINGS UNRELEASED DESIGNS AND COLLABORATIONS

The exhibition layout is structured around the studio’s five methodological stages and fifteen core design principles, framing physical prototyping and error mitigation as fundamental risk-reduction tools. Spanning varied typologies, including tableware, furniture collections, public spaces, and urban infrastructure, the displayed works feature Etienne’s early aluminum pen holder Choose Your Bullets, custom tableware developed for Michelin-starred restaurant Pangea, and research pieces from the Galeana collectible design series, alongside corporate collaborations with TANE, Libbey, Coca-Cola, Tupperware, and Cemex. Curated with the assistance of Roble Vargas, this expanded edition follows an earlier presentation at Centro Cultural Plaza Fátima in Monterrey and is accompanied by a monographic publication edited by designaholic (books).

jorge diego etienne exhibits 15 years of design prototypes at mexico city’s museo franz mayer - 2 — Mockups Before Fuckups runs at the Museo Franz Mayer in Mexico City through February 2027

jorge diego etienne exhibits 15 years of design prototypes at mexico city’s museo franz mayer - 3 — the exhibition surveys nearly 15 years of work by Mexican industrial designer Jorge Diego Etienne

jorge diego etienne exhibits 15 years of design prototypes at mexico city’s museo franz mayer - 4 — the show focuses on physical prototyping, sketches, and iterative studies preceding finished manufacture

jorge-diego-etienne-mockups-before-fuckups-museo-franz-mayer-designboom-1800-2 — gallery displays are organized around five methodological phases and fifteen operational design principles

jorge diego etienne exhibits 15 years of design prototypes at mexico city’s museo franz mayer - 5 — Etienne’s Choose Your Bullets machined aluminum pen holder represents early studio output

jorge diego etienne exhibits 15 years of design prototypes at mexico city’s museo franz mayer - 6 — unreleased prototypes and abandoned concept models illustrate the role of structural error reduction

jorge diego etienne exhibits 15 years of design prototypes at mexico city’s museo franz mayer - 7 — prototyping phases for custom hospitality tableware are on display

jorge diego etienne exhibits 15 years of design prototypes at mexico city’s museo franz mayer - 8 — heavy material and architectural experiments include aggregate studies

jorge diego etienne exhibits 15 years of design prototypes at mexico city’s museo franz mayer - 9 — the exhibition positions physical mockups as essential testing tools across industrial design

jorge diego etienne exhibits 15 years of design prototypes at mexico city’s museo franz mayer - 10 — design practice by Monterrey-based consultancy JDE was founded by industrial designer Jorge Diego Etienne

jorge diego etienne exhibits 15 years of design prototypes at mexico city’s museo franz mayer - 11 — the exhibition will be on view from October 16th, 2026, through February 14th, 2027

project info:

name: Mockups Before Fuckups
designer: Jorge Diego Etienne | @jd_etienne, @jde.design

venue: Museo Franz Mayer | @museofranzmayer

location: Mexico City, Mexico

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. See more project submissions from our readers here.