The avocado is the poster child of healthy, conscious living. It is also quietly draining ecosystems. We turned that contradiction into a data design editorial, exhibited at the Future Lab Sustainability Exhibition at Tongji University, Shanghai.

The challenge

The data existed. The problem was invisibility. Water depletion, deforestation and cartel-controlled supply chains were scattered across sources and illegible to the average consumer. We needed a medium that made them impossible to ignore.

The approach

Research. We mapped the avocado trade across environmental, social and economic dimensions to find where the real damage happens.

Synthesis. We connected datasets that rarely meet: deforestation in Mexico, water consumption per kilo, organised crime in the supply chain.

Translation. We designed a magazine editorial in the spirit of National Geographic, with an interactive prototype alongside.

The outcome

Avodata was exhibited at Tongji University in Shanghai in 2022. It is a way of working I still use: start with research, find the human story inside the numbers, and design the format that makes it land.

Team: an international group of product, interaction, digital and service designers, working remotely.