Kerr & Co.
Flatware That's Anything But Flat
Two Toronto design firms collaborate to create a holistic design strategy for an eye-catching, award-winning brand of eating utensils sold at Costco
Reena Jana
Design challenge One: How do you reinvent a product as enduring and iconic as the fork? Design challenge Two: How do you effectively display flatware—intimate but mundane products—in the cavernous setting of a Costco store? Design challenge Three: How do you overcome the limitations of a tiny marketing budget and create packaging that can also serve as point-of-purchase seduction for a brand of stylish, moderately priced eating utensils that isn't yet a household name? Design challenge Four: How do you cut down on manufacturing and shipping costs in order to keep the final cost of the flatware product down for budget-conscious but quality-seeking consumers shopping at Costco—and avoid waste in order to be socially responsible?
Alone, each of these challenges might seem daunting to some designers. But two Toronto design firms, Kerr & Co. and Hahn Smith Design, worked in tandem to meet those challenges with a shared client, Gourmet Settings. The 13-year-old maker of flatware scored a deal in 2005 to create exclusive bulk sets (45 to 65 pieces) of forks, knives, and spoons for Costco. Gourmet Settings, also based in Toronto, had previously worked with both design firms on several lines of flatware design and again asked them to collaborate: Kerr & Co. worked on industrial design and logistics; Hahn Smith Design worked on graphics and packaging. The design problem they faced: to rework their tried-and-true approach of creating elegant, sleek Gourmet Settings-branded products to appeal specifically to Costco shoppers.
The Gourmet Settings brand was already sold in a range of outlets from Wal-Mart to tiny upscale boutiques. But here the designers faced the unique challenge of developing a product for the no-frills, warehouse-like environment of Costco, where the product might get lost amid row upon row of giant packages of goods from price-driven competitors. Here we look at the firms' complex design development for the Gourmet Settings for Costco line, which involved user-centered research, rapid prototyping, logistics control, and innovative packaging design—and won the design teams this year's Gold IDEA award for design strategy.
Reader comments