Garfield Six-Pack Holder
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Garfield is headed to the picnic, but needs a way to carry his six cans of soda while skipping along
with Odie. That means that he needs a six-pack holder that he can hold with one hand and will not release
and cans of soda while swinging it. Also, the only material available for this holder is cardboard.
More details on the exercise can be found here.
The Design Process
The original idea I had involved cutting two parallel slits into a long, flat piece of
cardboard. These slits would create a strip of cardboard that could be raised off the remainder of the
cardboard. If you round the area between this strip and the remaining cardboard, you could slip in a
soda can in. My plan was to make six of these holders and then create handles on both ends of the
cardboard strip.
When I tried to construct this, there was never enough tension in these slots to keep the soda cans
from falling out during swinging. I tried this design four times. Each of the first three designs got
closer and closer to containing the cans during moderate swinging, but I never got the desired results. I
began to grow frustrated and, as a result, produced a sloppy product with the fourth try. I began to feel
hopeless and doubted if this approach would work at all.
Suddenly, I decided that I would shift my goals. Instead of trying to create a six-pack holder using
a small amount of cardboard, I decided to focus on durability and aethetics. The final product below
is tremendously strong. It can be swung in any direction and even in circles. It also preserves the
artwork on the original cardboard box. Unfortunately, it uses 515 square inches of cardboard and
Garfield will not get any dessert because of that. If I had to work on this project again, I would be
a lot more aggressive in reducing this number. There are several places where I could remove a
substantial amount of cardboard and preserve the durability of the holder.
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