Loave — a Gift-Giving Object

September 2020

Duration: 3 Weeks

A special carrier for a loaf of bread, constructed entirely from a single sheet of cardboard using no adhesives. Considerations included form and function, a celebration of the object inside, as well as special-ness and enjoyability— particularly in gift-giving.

Final model hand-cut and assembled from a single sheet of 30”x24” cardboard.

Field Research

Notes from researching existing methods of packaging and transporting bread:

Use of thin materials is common— paper, clear wrap, cardboard. Most bread holds a pretty solid form and doesn’t need much exterior reinforcement to protect its form.
Bread is often wrapped in paper or put in a paper/cardboard box, and then placed into a separate bag to carry. This is practical, because the bread needs to be kept from air to stay fresh, and a bag with a handle makes it easy to transport. However, it doesn’t lend much consideration for the bread’s form or align with the shape of the object inside.

Material Experiments

Making a cylinder out of cardboard— no adhesives and in a singular piece.

Making models of my loaf in cardboard— to grow familiar with the material and have a non-perishable point of reference.

Rapid Prototyping

Sketch Model 1

With my first sketch model, my goal was simply to make something that could successfully carry my loaf. After realizing that the overall shape of the loaf resembled a trapezoid, I aimed to make the carrier in a similar shape by bringing up “walls” that ran up the height of the loaf to create a handle at the top.

Sketch Model 2

From there on, I took a more conceptual approach: with this carrier, I played with the idea of creating an interaction that would be reminscent of pulling bread out of the oven.

Refinement and Experimentation

From there, I continued to try and resolve the remaining issues with the “oven carrier”: constructing the inner and outer components using no adhesives. I tried both:

Reinforcing the walls to stand up with an extra layer:

Iteration 3

And tabs from one wall that you could insert into the side of another wall:

Iteration 4

A New Direction

While the oven-carrier was giving me some trouble, I went back to the drawing board to try out another idea. Here, I tried a method of containing the loaf in which the different sides would fold together to form and secure the handle:

Iteration 5

This iteration proved quite successful! It was simple, pleasing, and intuitive, if not a little bit clunky.
And before finally relenting my “oven-carrier” idea, I tried a mash-up of the two models:

Iteration 6

Refinement

From here, I moved forward with the folding-unfolding model. Further iterations included:

Graphic elements on the flaps:

Iteration 7

Cutting the shape of the flaps almost as much as possible to really “hug” the shape of the loaf:

Iteration 8

And another pass at a decorative element:

Iteration 8.5

The decorative approaches were interesting, but also, unnecessary, and spoke a different “visual language” than the main form of the folding-carrier: the form mimics the shape of the loaf itself, while the wheat-shapes speak to a more narrative aspect of the bread and where it’s coming from.

Meanwhile, the eigth iteration, with its simple silhouette and pleasing handle securement, successfully celebrates the object inside without overshadowing it with decorative elements.