Designs for All > Unsung Classics: Egg Carton

Some designs seem to have been with us from ever. They become such a familiar object that we forget that they were once designed by someone. While shopping in a traditional grocery store we might buy farm eggs, and often they would give us the eggs in a little bag with the reminding of looking after those fragile eggs. We walk to our house and while arriving there’s always a “broken egg”, even though we have walked to the kitchen as soft as cotton. To avoid these ruptures in those traditional shops they sometimes cut up a piece o cardboard from an egg carton and so we walk home with this carrier of eggs. The solution is better, but sometimes the absence of top allows an egg to brake. Late egg cartons with top are the best solution and are most frequent today. There is one peculiar feature on these objects which is the material they are made of. Just by touching we can find out what we have in front of us. In the States almost 500 patents of egg cartons were patented before the XXth century. Most frequents were big trays to hold several dozens of eggs. It wouldn’t be until the beginning of the XXth century that first model of the well known today egg carton with texture and actual shape was designed by Morris Koppelman.
Egg cartons for a dozen and half a dozen eggs are J.W. Boyd invention. He registered the patent in 1966. Today egg cartons with top are more frequent than big carriers with no coverage. Nowadays the design specialization is being done in several aspects:

• There are new holding systems.

• There are trays manufactured with recyclable materials.

• Foams and resins are frequent materials for contemporary manufactures, and to maintain the quality of the textures specific volumes are given to those structures to guarantee the identification of the object by touching this emotive design.