The Scorpo (Student Project)

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Derrick Lin

Global

Packaging Designer: Alexander Gaspar
Additional credits: Cas D’Haenens, Cédric Cuvelier, Demian Esser, Liam de Brabandere, Manu Desmedt & Wannes Devloo
Project Type: Student Project
School: HOWEST
Location: Belgium
Packaging Contents: Fruit bowl
Packaging Materials: Paper – corrugated cardboard

I’m Alexander Gaspar a Belgian Industrial Design Student (21 years old) at Howest in Kortrijk (Belgium). Together with six other students I developed the ‘Scorpo’. It’s a design (fruit)bowl made out of stainless steel and veneer. The curve of our bowl is easy to grasp and this makes it easy to move around with the bowl or for example present something to your guests. The bowl’s main feature is its appearance. We selected a special type of veneer (Zebrano) which has a really special look. Together with the deep black steel frame it makes a unique piece. We made a limited edition of 30 bowls.

Of course the bowl needed a packaging to be sold, so we started to think. We wanted something that caught the costumer’s attention and at the same time protected the Scorpo. That’s when we came up with the hexagon shape. This shape takes less space than a normal box and at the same time accentuates the curves of our bowl. But a hexagon shape alone wasn’t enough to stand out, those exist already, so we went further. Instead of hiding our good looking bowl in a box, we wanted the packaging to show the features of our bowl to the costumers. What better way to show our product than making a frame around it? So that’s what we did and we couldn’t be happier with the result. A strong frame which presents the Scorpo and protects it at all times. Even when dropped, the bowl remains steady in its place.

We wanted the packaging as clean as possible. Because of this (and partially because of our limited budget, being students) we decided to use stickers instead of a fully printed packaging. We added a fun element by pasting the sticker over the edge so it is visible from the top and the side.

A hexagon is easy stackable and has the ability to form a nice honeycomb pattern. Because off the relatively small sticker a wall of Scorpo packaging’s could look a bit monotone, so we decided to perk it up by using two colors of packaging, black and cardboard. To make our packaging we chose corrugated cardboard (E-flute).

And this is how the packaging of the bowl came to existence. The team and myself were very pleased with the result. The Scorpo is now being sold in multiple Belgian design stores.

What’s Unique?
The packaging has multiple elements that make it stand out.

First of all, the way the packaging frames the product is unique. A complicated design with very little material loss makes sure the packaging is made out of a single piece of cardboard. Because of the design it was possible to make an attractive packaging for a difficult product and still show all of its features.

The second unique aspect is the sticker. With a fun idea (making it triangular instead of rectangular and pasting it over an edge) we created an added value for the look of the packaging, without printing it completely.

And thirdly the hexagon shape is a nice alternative for a rectangular shaped packaging.