ABOUT
Wild Resilience™
Stardust is a design strategy practice that is committed to practical, implementable projects in biomimicry and life-centered design. It puts life and its strategies at the core rather than the periphery, because our current paradigms are evolving, which means that we are too.
Ethos
Stardust is the culmination of ten years’ dreaming while moving. It’s an offering, an homage, an honouring of the knowledge that our world’s system of living is undergoing its most unprecedented change. It is a microcosm of the evolution that is taking shape around the world that has found its feet in Trinidad and Tobago.
The ethos behind this work is that we are made of the same substance as all of life - stardust - and that if we remember this, live this, then we will no longer live in opposition to life but in partnership and collaboration with it.
How we work
We work with businesses that want to do training, strategy, or communication of life-centered design. Each phase builds on the last, but these services are also offered separately - because they are customised to your needs. Find out more on our Services page.
To learn more about this approach, take a look at our Founder & CEO Giselle Carr’s talk at NASA Biocene 2020.
Founder
Giselle Carr
In July 2020 I founded Stardust, but the journey started long before, several years in fact. I’ve been a creative strategist for years, and mostly a storyteller and catalyst - for positive change within businesses, brands and markets in the developed and developing world. Over the past five years, I came to the realisation that I want to dedicate my life to the preservation of all of life. Climate Change is perhaps our greatest threat as a species, and my focus is squarely on our collective future.
It became clear that life-centered design was the path I wanted to follow when studying Design Management at Pratt, combined with biomimicry which I studied in 2016 in Costa Rica with the Biomimicry Institute. The possibilities embedded within these two areas of study excite me and most of my closest friends and colleagues - and it’s contagious. Everywhere I’ve lived and worked, I’ve witnessed a deep hunger and yearning for a better world - I have simply chosen to be a vessel, a messenger, a facilitator of its presence as a force for positive change.
It’s going to take a lot of us, collaborating, experimenting, trying and trying again, to design our way toward a world that sustains eight billion people in a way that respects the dignity of all of us and our planet’s living systems.
Portrait Photography by Luigi Creese & Creative Direction by Jeffrey Wight.Collaborators
Stardust Collaborators are invited to do the best work of their lives, in areas of work that bring them the most joy and create the greatest impact. Projects are approached in adaptive, multi-disciplinary teams.
Christopher Collens
Christopher Collens is a Trinidad-based photographer and writer with a strong passion for the worldwide artistic community. After a brief history as a regional fashion model, he switched gears towards content creation. Through unexpected means, he set on a mission to create meaningful work showcasing aspects of the human condition through visual work. As a Stardust collaborator, he offers a myriad of skills including writing, research, analysis, strategy, content creation, as well as photography.
He is currently pursuing further studies in data analysis and full-stack development, hoping to use his insight to aid local, regional, and international businesses with better representation of their brands on a worldwide platform.
As a curator of culture, Christopher is passionate about Caribbean narratives that defy convention. His photography reveals parallels between the human form and collective symbolism in a way that crosses borders and shatters visual stereotypes. He is not afraid to showcase beauty alongside discomfort; euphoria alongside angst. His work is arresting, visionary and authentic.
Through his collaboration with Stardust, he hopes to create a positive impact with his work and increase the reach of bio-inspired design principles both locally, and globally.
Follow Christopher on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Kassandra Huynh
Kassandra Huynh is a Biodesigner, Creative Consultant and Future Tastemaker based in Potsdam (Berlin area), Germany specializing in social and sustainable impact design.
With roots in St. Paul, MN, USA and being of Vietnamese and Hmong descent (indigenous group from Southeast Asia), it’s important to her to design for underrepresented social communities like her own.
She is also passionate about design for a proactive and regenerative future. Kassandra received her MS in Biomimicry (nature-inspired innovation) with a BFA in Furniture and Product Design. Additionally, she holds certifications in Biomimicry Thinking, Design Thinking (human-centered design) and Circular Design.
Today, she creates beautiful products, immersive spaces and experiences for responsible startups, NGOs, and clients like 3M, Herman Miller and Honeywell.
Mandilee Newton
Mandilee is an earthling and a climate enthusiast. She is an award-winning architect in practice for 20 years exploring and refining the principles of environmental sustainability.
She has served as sustainability director at the prominent Trinidadian practice ACLA architecture (est. 1945). As one of the first LEED credentialed professionals in the Caribbean, she is a Founding Member and Past President of the Trinidad and Tobago Green Building Council.
Today, she is Sustainability Manager at Glavovic Studio based in Florida, and is part of a world-class team of architects producing meaningful, resilient architecture.