Falafel is great, but it can get messy while eating and it needs something to hold it all together.

Our Ofalafel packaging makes it easier to hold the falafel and keep it in one piece while eating.

Our packaging is made of cardboard so it is able to absorb anything that drips out of the falafel like the Tahini sauce of the Baba ganoush . It has a piece that connects the two halves so that when you are ready to open up the box even more you are able to pop it and it opens.

Our team began the studio breaking up into four groups. Originally, Sam had chosen to work on the packaging and I on the mold, but in the end we collaborated and worked on both. We began by researching unique packaging and the purposes that they served and decided to take parts to formulate our package. We wanted to make the packaging very similar to the shape of the falafel sandwich because we wanted to show how different it was and make it recognizable. After we decided on a design we went onto Rhino modeled it and laser cut it out of cardboard.

The package is in the shape of an arc with the top open. There is a small piece that holds the packaging in the center to keep it all together. When the person eating the falafel sandwich has gotten down to the packaging they are able to pop it open and continue eating without having to take the sandwich out. The packaging has the ability to be joined with another one if someone decides to take away the sandwich for later.

We wanted the falafel to be attractive so that if someone saw a person on the street with one , they would want to ask where they got it from. We spent a lot of time focusing on making sure that the packaging would be strong enough to support the falafel and make it very easy to eat. We experimented with the materials such as cardstock and regular paper, but the laser cutter kept messing up on the cuts and we felt that neither of those materials would be strong enough for the sandwiches.

One minor challenge that we faced was getting the size of the falafel right. When we first started out the falafel was a lot larger in diameter so we had to figure out the right dimensions to fit the new sized falafel snugly. To do this we had to go back into Rhino and change all the dimensions and choose the pieces to etch or cut so that it could fold properly.

Iterations :

1. For our first iteration, we created a design on Rhino that what two arcs  with a rectangle down the middle so that when you folded it it was a arc with the top open. To connect the package we hot glued the sides to the rectangle in the middle. However the pieces in the middle didn’t stay in position and would flop around so we labeled the package ineffective and went back to brainstorming.

2.  For the second iteration we made the design out of cardstock and kept the design the same  for the most part, but we made etches in the rectangular part to make it easier to fold. The laser cutter kept messing up the cut and would cut all the pieces instead of etching and cutting. Once we finally go the laser cutter to make the right cut we decided that the cardstock wasn’t strong enough even though it was thick and could bend well.

3. For the 3rd iteration, we halved the size of the packaging because we made the falafel smaller. We added in a piece in the center  that would connect the two halves of the arc so that the packaging wouldn’t flop around. This way the person eating the falafel would be able to choose how much of the falafel was covered.