Carry Container

A slim glass lunch container that keeps food safe until lunch and still fits in a backpack like a binder.

Glass is the container students trust with their food, and the one they hate carrying. I designed Carryout Slim, a Hydro Flask concept that keeps the glass, adds a cooler and a snack boot, and stays thin enough to stand next to a laptop. Now I'm adding a small screen that nudges people to eat together.

MY ROLE: [Your role: research, concept, form, CAD, 3D printing]
COURSE: 51-343 Product Design 3 Studio · Fall 2026
TIMELINE: [X weeks] · Fall 2026
TOOLS: Sketching, SolidWorks, 3D printing, Firefly for early ideation
PRODUCT: Carryout Slim, a Hydro Flask concept
STATUS: Form study done · now adding a social screen

[A line from a student about packing or reheating lunch]

— [Who said it]

SO WE ASKED

How might we make a lunch container students can trust with their food, without it fighting their backpack?

01—THE PROBLEM

Glass containers win on food. They lose in a backpack.

Students pack glass containers because they're microwave-safe and avoid microplastics. But they're thick, heavy and awkward, and they don't fit in a school bag next to a laptop.

[One line from your research on why glass is so popular.]

[A packed backpack: the glass container next to a laptop]

FIG. 01Add photo

02—WHO IT'S FOR

Kai packs lunch the night before.

[Who Kai is: year, schedule, where they eat on campus.]

[What you heard about packing lunch]
[What you heard about reheating on campus]
[What you heard about food going warm by noon]

[A quote from a student you talked to]

[Persona board: Kai]

FIG. 02Add photo

03—THE INSIGHT

Efficiency, but not at the expense of health.

I started out designing for quick packing. The more I looked, the more the real issue was food sitting at an unsafe temperature for hours.

So the container had to do both: keep food safe, and still slide into a backpack like a binder.

04—EXPLORATIONS

From a folding tray to a split container.

01A thin compartmented tray with top panels that fold up and back down. [What it got right, and why you moved on]
02Small characters on each lunchbox that react when another one is nearby. I parked the electronics to get the form right first.
03A rectangular body with designed rounded corners, carried upright: two-thirds glass for the reheatable part, one-third grippy plastic for vegetables, with a clear line between the materials.

[Sketches and foam models]

FIG. 03Add photo

[The split-material model]

FIG. 04Add photo

05—WHERE IT STANDS

Carryout Slim.

A slim, cooler-lined glass container in Hydro Flask's design language, with two greens: Palmer Green and a darker trim green.

The glass part goes in the microwave; a small removable snack boot at the bottom holds snacks and utensils and never does.
It stays thin enough to stand in a backpack like a binder.
Parts are designed for 3D printing at the School of Design lab, with DFMA in mind.

[One line on what the final presentation panels showed.]

[Hero render or printed model]

FIG. 05Add photo

[Exploded view: glass, cooler, snack boot]

FIG. 06Add photo

[The four 11×17 presentation panels]

FIG. 07Add photo

06—WHAT'S NEXT

Lunch is better with someone.

I'm reworking it into a product with a small screen that nudges people to eat together.

01In Intro to Physical Computing I'm prototyping two linked lunch boxes: a magnet and reed switch sense an open lid, and an E-ink face smiles when both are open at once.
02[What you'll test with students, and how]
03[How the screen fits the form without breaking the slim profile]

[Updated: Month Year]

[The two-box radio prototype]

FIG. 08Add photo

07—WHAT I'M LEARNING

[Lesson 1.] [One line on it.]
[Lesson 2.] [One line on it.]

[Close with one line in your own voice.]

NEXT PROJECT · Physical

Softform