Sweet and Tart
Carnegie Mellon Survey of Design Fall 2020: Special Carriers
Here’s the narrative:
You’re going on a picnic date with your S/O. With a total of two egg tarts. One for each of you.
Let’s get started.
Project Debrief
- objects are not taken out of the carrier, objects and carrier function as the same unit
- the carrier is special: this can be shown through transparency vs. secrecy/surprise, intricacy, protectiveness
- carrier can describe characteristics of what’s inside of it -> adopt similar forms
- ritualistic: gift giving
What are the characteristics of a common carrier?
- handle: something to hold on to
- sometimes held by hand, by fingers, by wrist, by shoulder
- a base: an area where the carrier can be set down
What items found at a store would benefit from an improved carrier?
- drink trays were always frustrating to me. I’ve definitely flipped/dropped a drink tray more times than one. They’re out of balance, and also only support so little of the cup
Why? What are the characteristics of such items?
- they only work if there are 4 drinks of equal weight in the entire carrier
- they can only mostly be held by the bottom, which can sometimes be inconvenient
What are the affordances/limitations of a carrier’s materials/construction?
- how cheap vs how expensive
- how sustainable
- how accessible
- scale: what is the largest sheet of the material that can be worked with
- durability: how long does the carrier need to last
How might the form of the carrier align with what the carrier holds?
- logically makes sense: something will hold an object well if that object fits in the space well
How might the interaction with the carrier be made enjoyable, like opening a gift?
- interactive
- evolving
- opening gifts: temporary, sometimes destroyed (like wrapping paper)
- suspenseful reveal
Understanding the Material
Corrugated Cardboard
- held together by three layers: two flat sheets and one corrugated sheet in between
- the corrugated sheet, when folded out, is longer than the sheets that hold them
- can be scored to be folded; scoring against the corrugation is stronger than scoring parallel to the corrugation. when scored, folds easily one way, does not fold at all the other way
- can be scored to round
- layers can be peeled off to make more flexible
Understanding the Subject: Egg Tarts
- Mostly uniform shapes, cup/tin bases
- Circular base, radial symmetry
- Base itself is a shallow pan
- The custard almost has a “film” covering it, making the custard itself not that delicate. However, the crust is crumbly and could break easily.
- They are purchased mostly individually.
Life Cycle and Purpose
Every product has a life cycle. The cardboard carrier starts as an idea, then sketched into a foldable cutout, and then constructed. When meant to be put to use, the object it carries is put inside, the carrier must travel, and a way is found for the object to finally be consumed.
Therefore, some questions arise:
Does it need to be easy for the object to be put in? What is the carrier traveling through, and how strong does it need to be? (Could a sense of fragility make something feel more special?) Does the carrier need to be easy to open? Does it need to be easy to close? (Does it need to ever close at all?)
During the life cycle:
What are the primary values for the carrier to be designed with? How can I make the receiver enjoy the carrier? What are the best and worst things a carrier could be or do?
Sketch Models
Inspiration board: https://pin.it/5KDlsE7
“The Catapult”
I wanted to explore a method of “self presentation” in this one. Fitting with the narrative of going on a date, I wanted to create a carrier which could also physically serve the users. This element of movement would enhance the experience with the carrier by add a sense of wonder and pleasure, thus making the carrier truly special.
While the intention behind this interactive element was a definite positive, this form of a carrier did not prove to be a good execution. Some problems that arose include:
- It was not the most stable, protective, or perfectly reliable. It would hold the tart sometimes, and not hold it well in other instances (hence the name “the catapult”). I needed something that would work every time.
- When opened, it completely unfolds, showing the full blueprint of the carrier. This made the carrier feel less “special” to me. I don’t think I want the users to be able to see the entire “history” of the carrier, exactly how it was created, and to think about it. I wanted to reserve some of the process just to myself; good design gives users what they need when they don’t even know they need it — there is a sense of secrecy that I indulge in as a designer.
- Also, when fully opened, there is actually more distance created between the two users. I wanted this carrier to bring two people closer together, but this carrier literally forces them to be more physically apart.
This led me to think about:
- The cardboard to object ratio. My object by itself is very small, which is part of what makes it enjoyable. Therefore, I want to make something that imitates this intimacy and delicacy, which may mean keeping it simple, small, and generally contained. With such a small object, it doesn’t make sense to use such large amounts of cardboard. It would feel less special, to open a big box revealing small objects. The dimensions of a box bring with it a set of expectations.
- Differences between the process of constructing vs. using/opening it. I don’t want for the entire carrier to need to be reconstructed every time it is opened. I want to explore the idea of only one movement needing to take place for the entire carrier to present itself and the object, similar to how only one string of a bow needs to be pulled on for the entire thing to come apart.
The Milk Carton
In this sketch model, I wanted to explore the most basic functions of a carrier for a form like an egg tart. I learned that all “carriers” carry some of the same characteristics: there’s something to secure the form of the object, the walls of the carrier, and a handle at the top which pulls at least two of the walls together.
It ended up looking like a milk carton, which seems to be the basic form of many boxes/carriers in the world. And there’s a good reason for this popularity too–the milk carton shape simply works, really well. It does exactly what it is supposed to, perfectly.
A lot of these fundamental ideas can be adopted for my own carrier, such as walls that come together to make a covering which comes together to make a handle. At a very high level, this just makes sense.
The Oven
In this sketch model, I explored the element of a “hinge” where two trays would be connected through one side. When the handles were held together, they would bring the trays together and “close” the carrier as well. When the carrier “opens” the tarts could slide out.
I generally liked this idea. Its fundamentals aligned with the features I wanted in my carrier:
- When carried, it held together, so that it would open when set down.
- There was an interactive and presentational element where the tarts would slide out.
However, I ultimately decided that this version of a hinge would not work because it made the tarts open onto only one side. Fitting to the narrative, there are two “receivers” of the “gift”, sitting across from one another. I want both to be able to open and see the gift simultaneously.
Prototyping
The Cherry
This sketch model also tried to work with the idea of a hinge, something that rotate out into a final display of the tarts. I personally enjoyed this model quite a bit because I thought it was really fun, simple, and easy. The hexagonal case of the carrier also emulated the size and shape of the egg tart itself. I feel that this made it more special because as the carrier is made to the exact dimensions of the tart, it can only carry the tart. Answering some earlier questions regarding lifespan, this also gives the carrier only one lifespan, with its one and only purpose. Being so temporary, something to be experienced only once, remembered only as a memory rather than kept as tangible memorabilia, truly does make something special.
This prototype is also of a very unique shape, and it doesn’t really look like a carrier (but it intuitively is a carrier because of the handle feature). There are really only so few things in the world this form could carry, which creates a sense of wonder. It’s a carrier that the receiver is excited to set down, and cannot wait to actually open. It recreates the childhood joy of simply just wanting to know.
Here’s what I learned:
- There are differences between how the carrier looks through a photo, vs. how it feels–to be held in hands–in real life. I personally think the carrier is easy to assemble because one of the rules of cardboard as a material: it bends easily according to a score, and basically cannot bend at all the other way around. I believe that being able to see and feel the scores in real life reveals the shapes the carrier is supposed to bend into to assemble. It is also generally intuitive to fit opposing tabs into each other, which is how the handle is made.
- Anything can be a handle, as long as it looks like something you hold on to. A good handle also isn’t completely restricted to the ways it can be held, which also makes it adaptable and more universally useful. While I would want to control the security of the item and how the item is held through a handle, I don’t feel a need to control the details of how the carrier itself is held. Whether someone feels more comfortable holding something in their palms or dangled on two fingers is up to them.
“small egg tart in big egg tart”
For my next prototype, I wanted to enhance the enjoyable elements of the previous while revising some criticisms.
There were some fundamental ideas I wanted to ensure were preserved:
- The carrier imitates the shape of the object.
- The carrier can carry this specific object, and only this specific object.
- There is a sense of wonder regarding the contents of the carrier. It is something that the receiver wants to look forward to opening.
- There is an element of self-presentation and display when the carrier opens.
I started with the idea of egg tarts in an egg tart shaped carrier, hence the name small egg tarts in big egg tart.
The idea was to make a stout and wide truncated cone shaped carrier base. The egg tarts would sit in cut out circles of the diameter of the egg tart, so that they hung on their edges with gravity. When placed down on a flat surface, the top part of the carrier would naturally collapse and the egg tarts themselves would pop out. A shape that does something similar is some paper lanterns.
However, something that I had to realize was that the amount of space and circumference the tart took up was far smaller than that of a tart that was collapsed. The cardboard would literally have to break in order to collapse in that way. I also concluded that the paper lantern only works so well intricately folded up because it was made of paper. There was no way to use cardboard in the same way; and if there was, it would go against the nature of cardboard.
Therefore, I started thinking about my collapsing element working with shapes with sides (rather than circles). I came up with a prototype for a box that collapsed on all four sides when put down. The shape of the handle would be two ellipses cut out of the top covering of the box; when the carrier is put down, the ellipses would fall down around them, fulfilling the elements of self-presentation and display.
However, upon when I even just started cutting out this carrier, I knew that the size of it was dissatisfactory. It was incredibly chunky and just generally large.
So, I went back to the basics. I started refocusing, relearning, and experimenting with the variety of ways cardboard could be manipulated to do certain possibly unpredictable, possibly pleasant, things.
From this, I decided to settle on a simple, origami-inspired, form.
When held together (by a “handle” of a sort pulling two sides together), the carrier would contract. When put down, the egg tarts would sit flatly and “pop” out.
Some immediate constructive criticisms I encountered for this design:
- I was so in love with the idea of the egg tart popping out by itself, but because the egg tart is only one inch tall, it actually only had very little visual effect.
- It was not very protective. I definitely want to add a cover, but am unsure of whether a base to cover the tins is also needed. I think the visual contrast between cardboard and tin is interesting, but I’m conflicted on whether it adds or detracts from the overall design.
Just some things to think about.
Lastly, for all my carriers, I have spotted and nailed down my single fundamental flaw: I just had too much stuff doing way too little.
It just felt like there were such large quantities of cardboard which weren’t really serving a function to enhance the carrier. All of the “excess” cardboard was included purely because it was necessary for the carrier to function at a basic level. In a way, this also worked against the “true nature of cardboard”.
Final Iterations
New developed craft strategies:
- Channels: allows for a cleaner outer look at folds, and also stronger folds.
- Double layer of cardboard: cardboard is thick. Layering is a way to create “molds” to objects in an additive manner.
- Pushed in handle: allows for a thicker and sturdier area to hold on to. It also can be used to keep the handles from the joining sides together.
- Scoring with bone folder vs. knife: similar to the channels, allows for a cleaner outer look as well as greater retained strength.
Final Carrier
The final carrier aimed to emulate the shape and function of a basket, inspired by and fitting with the original narrative of a picnic date. It indicates for the placement of two egg tarts, and tabs together to keep the sides connected and the lid intact with the sides. To open, only two simple tabs need to be pulled so that the lids flip open.
I find that it is the micro details (is that redundant?) which make this carrier “special”. It’s the extra base that makes the carrier so specific that also protects the egg tarts (from hitting against each other). And it’s the tabs that join together in opposing, and therefore harmonizing ways. The simplicity of the carrying, opening, and presentation is incredibly attractive.
I’m trying to understand myself. What even happened in the time between my previous prototype and this final? In all honesty, how did I even get here? The space between then and now–I truly wonder what that space looks and feels like.
I remember throughout working on this entire project I had always felt like I was falling behind. I never settled for a single design, and at the very end basically made a 180 with it and somehow produced a functioning, and satisfying, carrier which checked off most of my original boxes. Between versions of my carrier, it was more the ideas and intentions which evolved and carried themselves throughout, rather than working modes of execution. It was hard for me to really see the progress I was making throughout this project, because it was intangible for the most of the time. I realize now that while I was mostly working on new iterations based off “intuition”, my own intuition was actually “improving” and growing simultaneously. My own mind became something I could trust more. Allowing myself to trust my mind though; that was what was truly difficult.
Conclusions
Cardboard is quite unforgiving, but so am I.
Never have I known what I wanted to make, but not been able to make it, so much in my life before.
I never would have thought that cardboard would make me question myself so much. For the last few weeks, as soon as I ever put my head down and shut my eyes, I would see 3 things: an ominous blonde figure, my 15–112 assignment, and my cardboard carrier. I would dream in cardboard, thinking about how to manipulate it to bend or curve in certain ways. It was really quite beautiful–to visualize such 3-dimensional subject matter in an oddly infinitely-dimensional space of the grey matter attached to my spine.
It was my fears which proved to be my greatest downfalls. My fear to settle on a design to commit time to refine. My fear to make the first cut through a sheet of cardboard. It was my fear that made me often believe I would rather make nothing at all than something I wouldn’t be proud enough to put my name on.
But then I remember about what the carrier is, and what the carrier actually does. The story, my narrative, is already 90% of the experience; it’s the blue skies, the soft patch of grass, the being with the person they love that’s the true experience. It’s the sweet and cute and delicate pastry that’s the experience. It’s the carrying, receiving, and opening–it’s the experience that I am trying to make, not the perfect cardboard box. So, at the same time, it was the experience, process, and learning from the carrier that I was trying to obtain. I remember that at the very beginning of the project, I already had these goals and ideas (ie. to only use one sheet of cardboard, to have strong craftsmanship, or to have joyful interactions), but when asked by my peers why I had such an impulse to follow them, I was out of words. Working through this project, I now understand myself and my own train of thought better. I was able to decode myself, better understand why I think the way I think, why I am the way I am, and credit myself more self-respect.
Epilogue
Bloopers
Final Acknowledgments
One night, some of us decided to condition ourselves to feel happiness with head pats. With every few head pats, we’d feed ourselves a chocolate. From then on, “head pats” would be almost code name for trying to make someone else feel better.
This project, and documentation of its process–how it, and I, have amounted to be what/who we are–feels absolutely incomplete without acknowledging all the advice, cool (and sometimes nonsense) conversations, and general life help I received.
Special thanks to Gia, Tara, John, Shannon, Jessica, and Ricky :-).
esp. Ricky–for the head pats.
