Courtney Giovagnoli, is a French product designer who finds and experiments with mycelium and fungi to create sustainable alternatives to plastics and other materials. As a recent graduate holding a masters degree in Innovative Material and Sustainable Design, her goal comes with both aesthetic awareness and environmental sensibility.
Designers have the power and responsibility to contribute to a more circular way of designing products, that is, putting ecology at the center of the design process, to guarantee that what is produced, is repurposed or reintegrated in our environment without negative externalities. Here lies Courtney's vision, using mycelium and fungus to restore the link between nature and society, inherently the link between fungi and people.
Some of her work include:
1. Mycoplastics, a term she coined which uses mushrooms to create textiles. Mycoplastics are flexible, and quite elastic in nature allowing her to test different approaches in fashion and stationary.
2. Laser engraved drawings on mycelium that can be personalized as an artistic experiment
Courtney sees to promote mycelium and fungi materials to make them accessible to as many people as possible, to raise awareness about sustainability through the objects and the materials we own.
She quotes, “Mycelium can fit very well into our society, that sustainable materials can be delicate and even luxurious. As a designer, we have the power and the responsibility, at our level, to contribute to a more sustainable and responsible world for our planet. We must think about producing and designing products with an ecological conscience. That’s why I decided to work on mycelium and fungus to restore the link between nature and society, which means the link between mycelium and people."
⌭ 📸 Courtney Giovagnoli
.
.
.
.
.