Leyu Li is a London-based creative food designer who uses food as a medium to tell stories, create experiences, and design interactions. She designs with food to make ideas edible by blending taste, aesthetics, and artistic forms, turning eating into a narrative experience.

She graduated from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, and Goldsmiths, University of London. Her work often addresses hybrid food, cross-cultural communication, and social media, aiming to investigate the interconnections and tensions among cultures, ecologies, technologies, and societies, while speculating on future food and alternative food futures.

Her work has been exhibited at Milan Design Week and Dutch Design Week. She has been invited to share her projects globally, both online and offline, on platforms such as academic institutions like RCA, Goldsmiths, Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University, organizations such as ARUP, and Disegno’s global artist roundtable. Her works have been featured in international media outlets, including Dezeen, DAMN° Magazine, Next Nature, Mold Mag, The Future Laboratory, and others.


李乐宇 (Leyu Li) 是一位常驻伦敦的创意食物设计师，她以食物为媒介，讲述故事、创造体验和设计互动。她通过将味觉、美学与艺术形式相融合，将想法变为可食用的体验，让进食变成一种叙事性的体验。

她毕业于伦敦艺术大学中央圣马丁学院（Central Saint Martins）和伦敦大学金史密斯学院（Goldsmiths, University of London）。她的作品常涉及混合食物、跨文化交流和社交媒体，致力于探索文化、生态、技术与社会之间的相互联系与张力，并对未来及替代性食物的可能性进行推测和想象。

她的作品曾在米兰设计周（Milan Design Week）和荷兰设计周（Dutch Design Week）展出。她曾被国内外多个相关专业的顶尖大学和知名设计公司邀请做食物设计讲座，其中包括英国皇家艺术学院、伦敦大学金史密斯学院、西交利物浦大学、英国奥雅纳ARUP、意大利Molteni&C等。她的食物设计作品多次刊登在国际知名媒体，如Dezeen、DAMN° Magazine、Next Nature、Mold Magazine、The Future Laboratory等亮点报道。


Education
09/2022 - 01/2024 Distinction, MA Expanded Practice: Interactions & Experiment, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
09/2019 - 06/2022 First Class Honours, BA Design, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
09/2018 - 06/2019 Merit, Fad 3D Design, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, UK
09/2016 - 05/2018 Pass, BE Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, China


Exhibitions
2024 “Real Unreal” at Dutch Design Week 2024, Domusdela, Eindhoven, Netherlands
2024 “Saturated Spaces // ASAP” at Milan Design Week 2024, Saturated Spaces, Milan, Italy
2024 “CHINA&DESIGN” at Milan Design Week 2024, ADI Design Museum, Milan, Italy
2024 “Dust and Shapes”, Pushkin House, London, UK
2023 “Rule 6, No Rules Set”, Lewisham Southwark College, London, UK
2023 “Future Farmers Market” at Dutch Design Week 2023, Evoluon, Eindhoven, Netherlands
2022 “Where are the margins?”, Copeland Gallery, London, UK


Selected Talks, Presentations and Workshops
14/08/2024 - 20/08/2024 7-day workshop about Bio Design, Food Design and Speculative Design, Shanghai, China
26/10/2023 “Rituals For the Future”, Online Roundtable Talk, Disegno, London, UK
08/05/2023 “cM Donald’s and My Final Year Project Experience”, Invited Talk, Xi’an Jiaotong – Liverpool University, Suzhou, China
27/04/2023 “Food Design and Fiction: Decolonize McDonald's and Grow meat on broccoli”, Online Talk, Moma Design, Nanjing, China
26/03/2023 “cM Donald’s and Decolonization Design”, Artist Talk, The Fading Spaciousness, RCA CSSA, OXO Bargehouse, London, UK
27/10/2022 “But what if Giants, 風水(Fengshui), Carpets, Rivers, Wind and Sour Dough had to do with ARUP”, Artist Talk, ARUP, London, UK
13/08/2022 “Redesign McDonald’s Based on ‘Chinese Learning as Substance, Western Learning for Application’”, Online Talk, LuJunyi DesignLive, Beijing, China


Selected Press, Media, and Interviews
M Magazine of Molteni&C, "Rituals For The Future"
https://www.molteni.it/magazine/en/article/holiday-rituals-for-the-future

LS:N Global, The Future Laboratory, “Are hybrid meat-vegetables the future of cultivated meat?”
https://www.lsnglobal.com/article/view/30106#:~:text=Are%20hybrid%20meat%2D-,vegetables,-the%20future%20of

Tong.global, “Eating Right”, TONG Digital Paper #3, HEALTH

Dezeen, "Leyu Li proposes hybrid meaty vegetables by merging lab-grown meat with plants"
https://www.dezeen.com/2023/11/02/leyu-li-broccopork-mushchicken-peaf/

Next Nature, "Building the farm of tomorrow"
https://www.nextnature.net/magazine/visual/2023/ddw23-what-is-on-display

Next Nature, "Next Generation: Going viral with lab-grown meat and Leyu Li"
https://www.nextnature.net/magazine/story/2023/next-generation-going-viral-with-meat-plant-hybrids-and-leyu-li


Writings and Commissions
ANIMA Magazine, “A Receipe for the future of food”, ANIMA Magazine Issue2

Mold Magazine, "THE FUTURE OF CULTIVATED MEAT, NOW BROCCOPORK, MUSHCHICKEN, AND PEAF"
https://thisismold.com/process/manufacture/the-future-of-cultivated-meat-now

Finger Food Magazine, “cM Donald’s”, Finger Food Mag Issue2

DAMN° Magazine, "cM Donald’s", DAMN°84, The Everlasting Hunt for Money
https://www.damnmagazine.net/leyu-li-cm-donalds


Awards & Grants
2023 +86 International Food Design Competition, Shortlisted, China
2023 Tong.Global 2023 Spring Creators, Winner, UK
2022 Goldsmiths Excellence Fee Award, UK
2022 The Tom Fund, UK

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