ORIGAMI TO GO

Client: WOK

TEAM: Catalina Velazquez, Eduardo Palma, Daniel Diaz, Luis Felipe Gonzalez

WOK is an Asian restaurant chain in Bogotá, seeking to design a take away service to broaden their scope as a brand. Origami To Go started with the goal of designing a packaging line to transport the restaurant’s food. As a requirement we had to set sustainability as a priority. We aimed to build functional prototypes and an implementation schedule for the restaurant. Our team developed a packaging line that translates the restaurant's experience to a "take away" scenario.

This project was built on the insight “WOK is a space to cultural education”, as the users have an Asian experience in a South American country.

The designs where inspired by origami and maintained an intuitive approach, enabling the customers to explore - and discover - the packaging on their own, which also happens inside the restaurant. The packaging is easy to carry and to pile up. Using the sushi bar as a reference, the plates are also made in front of the user while he waits for his food to be ready. This way, the cultural education is magnified using origami as another element to speak about Asia.

DESIGN PROCESS

Prototyping the take out experience with some customers.

Through the use of investigation tools like “draw the experience”, we were able to find that what we needed to accomplish was a way of extending the “WOK experience” to the user’s home. In accordance, we identified the key user profiles of the restaurant's consumers, as well as the particular characteristics that made their experience unique.

Some drawings of the "WOK Experience" drawn by some of the restaurant's customers.

When analyzing the data we found that WOK, beyond being a restaurant, is a cultural meeting point where a strong Asian narrative coexists with traditional Colombian elements. The novelty of the Asian cuisine is made accessible by the familiarity of the local mannerisms, creating a setting of exploration for the customers, who feel entirely comfortable experimenting with chopsticks for the first time.

Passive observation to identify insights about the customer's experience at the restaurant.

Another key insight we found was that the restaurant generated certain social dynamics that translated in particular dining experiences. These findings acted as a framework of the conditions the team needed to recreate outside of WOK.

The models where produced in recycled paper with a hydrophobic layer made of sugar cane to ensure usability and liquid containment.

Prototyping session with the restaurant's staff.