Eco-Friendly Transforming Plant Holder

An exploration in creating laser cut packaging for small plants.

Background

In one of my undergraduate design courses, we were tasked to create a functional carrier for two or three small potted plants entirely out of cardboard. Our constraints were that we could use a maximum of two sheets of 16"x32" cardboard and the final product could not use any tape or glue.

This project was completed solo over a three week period.

Final Product

This short video gives an overview of the final product and demonstrates construction methods.

The final product consists of three interlocking pieces that slot through a hexagonal base. The handle is easily removable so the base can be used with or without it.

What I came up with next was a method to slot together three pieces of cardboard that fit into a hexagonal base. In this first design, the handle was supposed to be held in underneath the tabs of the side walls, but that did not work as the initial tab design was too weak to hold in an additional layer of cardboard.

Final net sized to a sheet of 16"x32" cardboard.

Initial Ideation

The beginning of it all: I knew wanted to do something with a hexagon and three round potted plants because of the space efficiency of hexagons and also try to do something with three interlocking pieces of cardboard. This design, however, was reliant on cardboard being a lot more flexible than I originally thought, which is why I moved on.

What I came up with next was a method to slot together three pieces of cardboard that fit into a hexagonal base. In this first design, the handle was supposed to be held in underneath the tabs of the side walls, but that did not work as the initial tab design was too weak to hold in an additional layer of cardboard.

Prototyping

I spent a majority of my time in development, going between designing in Adobe Illustrator, cutting it out on the laser cutter, and evaluating the successes and failures.

Below are a few of the key iteration points.

Reflection

This was one of my favorite projects in undergrad. I got to utilize rapid prototyping using the laser cutter and I was able to design something functional, aesthetic, and eco friendly. This project was also where I learned that your first idea is not always the best. I started off with three unique ideas, and the one I ended up going for was the idea I was the least confident in at first.

Fun fact about this project: This class project was heavily reliant on the laser cutters in the community makerspace, where I worked at the time. I spent basically all my time at work helping my peers in the class to use the lasers, and when I got off work I stayed to work on my own. The influx of students using the laser cutters put such a pressure on the staff and machines that I told my supervisor the project wasn't sustainable. After that quarter, design students were no longer able to use the laser cutters for this project. Sorry!