Garrett Benisch is a designer artist working in Brooklyn, NY who uses his knowledge and skills to bring society to a more ethical and sustainable place. While working on his masters at Pratt Institute ‘19, Garrett focused on material experimentation applied to education, awareness, and bio-design projects while furthering his artwork. Before his time at Pratt, Garrett designed and executed furniture and interiors for doctor’s housing, teacher’s housing, and schools while living in Rwanda as a Fellow at MASS Design Group.
Holding a Bachelors in Fine Arts and a Masters in Industrial Design, Garrett often works in various media and at various scales. Projects include single installations as well as mass produceable products and are all rooted in rigorous design research.
Project: Sum Waste
Sum Waste is a pen and ink made from digested sewage, called biosolids. Every day New York City landfills 2.8 million pounds of biosolids. Sum Waste proposes creating a new sustainable industry from it instead. The resulting design features a compostable bioplastic pen barrel and a pigment in the pens ink both derived from biosolids.
Since its release in May of 2019, Sum Waste has received numerous accolades, press, and presentations at design events. Follow the link below to the official Sum Waste website to learn more.