The story of the little lock.
We knew exactly what was inside.
Nevertheless we opened the package with some anticipation.
We had sent Those Two salad servers in the mail to ourselves. The aim was to test how the packaging survived being posted.
Our faces fell. While being bumped and jostled via Australia Post, one of Those Two serving pieces had become knocked from her carefully designed insert. She was still protected, but the dislodgement was disappointing.
We had imagined the new owner opening the box and discovering the serving pieces waiting there perfectly in place, gleaming peacefully if not a little mysterously… Not ruffled and harried by their journey!
Much care (along with some swearing) had gone into the design of the packaging and especially of the insert. The handsome, hand stamped cardboard needed to be firm enough to hold each individual salad server, and flexible enough to release it easily.
A solution was found! Using Gary’s engineering skills a small lock was designed, just a strip of cardboard folded this way and that and slipped inside the circular handle of the salad server.
It is in the end a boring little thing:
It is easy to imagine the recipient pulling the lock out and tossing it away without a second thought, turning to focus on the main item, the salad servers.
However, though seemingly insignificant it is quite literally a key holding the packaging together. The instruction PULL → has been inscribed but unlike Alice in Wonderland, nothing magical happens. When you PULL → all that happens is: the rest of the construction relaxes, enabling you to remove the salad servers.
The little lock is not a noticeable object.
And yet, with its small inscribed arrow I cannot help but admire it.
Laid flat it does nothing. But folded and placed carefully within the ring it becomes a force to be reckoned with. A small, thin piece of cardboard is able to hold a stainless steel form in place. With one light pull it is removed, and has no more force.
If the lock was made of steel it would not work as it had to be flexible as well as strong. The folds create the tension.
Tension is required for it’s strength.
Folded incorrectly or placed at the wrong angle, the lock is not a lock. It’s just a daggy bit of cardboard. But put in its place, where its particular folds have relevance, where it has a form to push against, it becomes a thing of strength and beauty. Folded at the correct angle and placed in the right way, it pushes against the metal and the cardboard insert, becoming an intermediary between the materials, a very credible lock, able to hold our serving pieces in place and withstand the rigours of going through the post.
A uniquely constructed part holding everything in place and keeping things stable…
Don’t underestimate the boring!
Thankyou for reading!
