In 1997 Méndez was brought in by Tony Arefin as a freelance art director for Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, Oregon, working on the Microsoft account, including a concept for Microsoft Store. Again introduced by Arefin, in 1999 she began working as the creative director at Ogilvy & Mather in New York, first on the IBM account with Chris Wall, then with Brian Collins at Brand Integration Group (BIG), who then asked her to set up and lead a BIG studio at Ogilvy in Los Angeles, a position she held until 2003. She worked on global brand identity projects for clients such as IBM, Motorola, Trend Micro, The One Club and Mattel.