INDUSTRIAL DESIGN • TOOLING • FACTORY DEVELOPMENT
MODULAR Food Container system
DISCIPLINES
Industrial design / CAD & rendering / 3D-printed prototyping / Overseas factory management
01 FEATURED DESIGN CASE STUDY
MOD LUNCH & MOD SNACK
A modular bento built around a single clear base. Swap the dividers, choose a lid, and one container reconfigures from a three-compartment lunch to a snack-and-dip pairing. No loose parts, no separate boxes. Getting there took three tooling rounds, a stack of 3D-printed and machined samples, and months of back-and-forth with the factory floor.
PHASE 01
CONCEPT & MOCK-UPs
PROJECT INTRODUCTION
The original concept for the MOD food container system came from Herbst Produkt Design Agency: a transparent base sized to nest standard dividers, with a color-matched lid. Their only deliverable was a series of 3D-printed samples, no tooling cut yet. My role was to take that concept to manufacturing quality.
FORM STUDIES — Herbst submitted several MOD container form options. I reviewed each and picked the features that were feasible for manufacturing.
PHASE 02
TECH PACKs
TECHNICAL DRAWINGS / FACTORY COMMENTS
Full construction and hardware specs went back to the factory as marked-up tech packs. See the annotated pages here.
PHASE 03
3D - printed prototypes
SAMPLE / TOOLING COMMENTS
Before committing to any steel molds, geometry was proven on 3D-printed and machined samples. Wall thickness, divider-post height and the lid's sealing lip were printed, measured and marked up by hand. I sent tech packs back to the factory as tooling comments.
Callouts and blue witness marks flagging flaws in the sample tooling.
MOLD SAMPLE BODY, PRINTED LID — Critical dimensions checked and annotated for factory comments.
PHASE 04
TESTING & EVALUATION
SEAL & LEAK VALIDATION
LEAK TEST — Failures during the T1-T2 phases exposed flaws with the gasket that drove revisions, documented and sent to the factory.
VENT TEST — During testing, features were removed due to safety concerns such as the steam vent failing to release pressure.
PHASE 05
FINAL DESIGN
IN-PRODUCTION & ON SHELVES
The whole system had to work. From the first printed post to the last click of the latch.
Every compartment, divider and seal was iterated on real parts and real factory feedback. The result is a modular family that reconfigures without loose pieces and ships in two colorways.
3 Tooling rounds
T1 to T3 injection-mold samples
2 COLOR WAYS
Mint + Steel Gray, Lunch + Snack
2018 - 2022
CONCEPT TO SHELF — 2018 CAD to 2022 retail
