MYCEL is a brand I created from scratch: a B2B sustainable packaging company that grows its materials from mushroom roots instead of plastic. The brief I set for myself was clear to design an identity that felt scientific and premium, not greenwashed. Something that could sit in a boardroom and still feel like it came from the earth.

The process:

• Started with 7+ logo explorations ranging from highly detailed mycelium illustrations to clean wordmarks, letting the concept evolve before committing to a direction

• Tested dense, intricate root networks, bottle-based illustrations, cell-like monograms and abstract forms each one teaching me what the brand needed to feel like

• Landed on the final mark: organic, uneven lines that reference the root network of mycelium in nature, abstracted just enough to read as a minimalist M

• Built a color palette of deep olive and raw cream to communicate biodegradability and natural origin, not the bright greens that read as greenwashing, but something earthy, confident and scientific

• Developed a pattern system using the root motif, extending the identity across packaging surfaces and materials

• Applied the full identity to product mockups showing how the brand lives on actual mycelium packaging: blocks, trays and wraps