Three years after winning the Design Museum’s Design Ventura competition, the Avogo, designed by Brighton College pupils Pietro and Matias, goes from strength to strength. The hand-held avocado tool has recently been featured in world-renowned style magazine Dezeen and on Japanese high-design website Tabi Labo, and the boys’ passion for design has led to them raising money for charity as well as increasing awareness around the problems of avocado farming.
The Avogo is a tool to cut and destone an avocado. It was important to Pietro and Matias that the product was small, incorporating a hook, and that it echoed the formal aspects of an avocado. The most important part of the design was the hooked blade that curved towards the hand - if the user's hand slips while cutting an avocado, the inward blade makes an injury impossible.
Supported by our Design and Technology department, the project has come a long way since it began in 2017. Miss Awbery commented: “The Avogo project has been on an astonishing journey, from the boys pitching their idea in the Dragons’ Den final back in Fourth Form, winning the national competition and running a highly successful Kickstarter campaign with national radio interviews and press interest. The boys have now got to an exciting place with the tool produced professionally and proceeds going towards two very worthy causes. Myself, the DT department and the school are incredibly proud of all they have achieved.”
With the original design selling 250 units and all profits donated to charity, the Avogo was relaunched last December with a sleeker, more stylish and higher-quality design. This product is handmade in Italy, by a family-run business that has been producing knives for 10 generations. All profits will be shared between Brighton College’s Opening Doors scholarship fund and Modatima, a leading organisation in Chile that campaigns for the human right to water and the ethical and sustainable cultivation of avocados.
Matias interviewed Rodrigo Mundaca, founder of Modatima and human rights defender, about the situation. Rodrigo explained: “In Chile, the cultivation of avocados is unethical. The agricultural model is deeply flawed and is associated with monoculture, which can lead to soil degradation. In addition, the use of finite resources such as water and soil often leads to people being stripped of their right to water. The way to move forward is to cultivate avocados in territories where people carrying out bad practises, such as stealing water through underground systems, are brought to justice. The access to water in Chile as a human right is the most important environmental problem in the country today.”
By continuing the development of the Avogo, Pietro and Matias are continuing their mission of raising awareness about the effects of the avocado industry whilst also bringing about immediate, meaningful change to the communities most affected.
Buy your beautiful, hand-crafted design icon for £26 here, and enjoy being part of the avocado revolution!
