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Bao is a bespoke, handcrafted lunch bag created to foster surprise and playfulness when sharing a meal with others.
Bao was created and sold as small batch, limited edition run product in collaboration with boutique design store Walrus Design Inc. in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Using carefully-chosen and locally-sourced woods and textiles, each BAO was individually crafted with care and precision to create a lunch bag that helps people to appreciate and celebrate their interactions with their food; be it a fleeting lunch break at work, or a grand picnic adventure with friends.
In a yearly partnership between Emily Carr University of Art + Design and Walrus Design Inc., industrial design students were challenged to develop a limited series of homeware items for sale at Walrus.
Collaborating in groups of three to four, students were tasked with managing a budget and adhering to material specifications, all while considering the costs of resources and labour.
In addition to product development, students were also responsible for branding and marketing which involved creating video and photo content. The final products were to be launched and sold at Walrus in the summer of 2021.
The Walrus x Emily Carr Project happened during the latter half of the Covid-19 pandemic, when students were allowed to work together in pods under social distancing supervision. During this time, our team wanted to design something to facilitate the kind of social connection that we had lacked under social distancing protocols.
After many rounds of iteration and brainstorming, the idea of BAO formed after we identified food rituals being a common thread of connection for all team members.
The BAO bag went through many different versions before we settled on our final concept, which is inspired by a "Furoshiki" (風呂敷) cloth, a cloth commonly used in Japan to wrap goods for travel and transport.
The name BAO comes from the Chinese word for "wrap" (包), which is also partly a homophone for "bao-bei" (宝贝), meaning "precious one" or "treasured"; we wanted people to treat their lunch boxes and the moments they spend sharing food with others as precious.
At the core of the BAO design is the notion of travel and being on the move, flexibility and adaptability, and the reveal of something hidden: an unveiling of a surprise.
BAO has three primary parts:
Eight BAO bags were fabricated for the project, and were launched and sold alongside four other Emily Carr x Walrus projects in the summer of 2021, to many positive reviews and feedback. For the packaging, labels, instructions and tear sheets were designed to give the product a final finish and cohesive touch.
Overall, this was an excellent opportunity to learn about:
