Randy Ludacer · CLIENT: Baker's Dozen Egg Cartons, LLC
The Baker's Dozen Egg Carton is a reusable molded pulp carton that holds 13 eggs. The eggs are arranged in two rows of four with a row of five between them. The carton is made of 100 percent recycled paper, using the traditional molded paper fiber method. Large packing machines handle even numbers of eggs, so the 13-egg carton is intended for small producers who pack eggs by hand at farm stands and farmers markets. A debossed logo keeps the surface smooth, so farmers can add their own labels.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- A reusable, molded pulp egg carton that holds 13 eggs. For small egg producers who pack their eggs by hand. Farm stands, farmer's markets and the like.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Width 210 mm x 152 mm x 72 mm (closed)
- Tags
- egg carton, baker's dozen, package design, structural design
- Production Technology
- Although the Baker's Dozen Egg Carton contains an unconventional number of eggs, it is manufactured using a deliberately traditional method. Egg cartons made of molded paper fiber have have a long history. In this way the Baker's Dozen carton was designed to be structurally strange, yet familiar. (It is also made of 100% recycled paper.)
- Design Challenge
- Realizing that our customers were not retail consumers, but small poultry farms, we consulted directly with them - the famers who had been contacting us. What we learned that their customers typically reuse cartons, bringing them back to be refilled. Realizing that our customers had customers of their own, we came up with a self-effacing, debossed logo. This gave farmers the option of smoothly covering our logo with their own labels. Or they could simply rely on the carton's self-explanatory statement: "Contains 13 Farm fresh Eggs."
- Project Duration
- The project has taken about 8 years, in all, to complete.
- Operation Flow
- In 2012, when the Baker's Dozen Egg Carton was still only a concept, the Huffington Post listed the Baker's Dozen Egg Carton as 1 of several packaging concepts they wished were real.
Naturally, I wanted to grant their wish. But how?
Then I got a call in from Willow Valley Farms in Nebraska. And I had to tell them what I'd told so many others: that the product did not yet exist.
Together we formed Baker's Dozen Egg Cartons, LLC - Research
- Early on, a few large egg producers had expressed interest in our new 13-egg carton, but their egg-packing machinery was only designed to pack eggs in pairs. They could only handle even numbers like, 6, 12 or 18 eggs. To pack an odd number like 13 eggs, they would need to make a major retooling investment.
This meant that, for the time being, our cartons would only be practical for small egg-producers who would be packing their eggs by hand. (Farm-stands, farmer's markets and the like.) - Inspiration
- Maybe it was a counter-intuitive response to finding out that my cholesterol levels were slightly elevated. But, in 2011, I began to play around with an idea for fitting even more eggs into a carton. The Baker's Dozen Egg Carton was the eventual result.
- Patents
- Baker's Dozen Egg Cartons, LLC. (trademarks pending)
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