Jerke Woodchips
Packaging
A product concept I created that serves as an extension off of the smoked jerky brand I created, Jerke. This sampler is a variety pack of woodchips to smoke food with. The packaging is entirely made of fully biodegradeable InnoCell material and the intention is to soak the woodchips in the plantable tray. Once you use your soaked woodchips you will notice 3 seeds of that variety of wood implanted into the bottom of the packaing that you already began germinating when you soaked your woodchips. Then the tray can be planted to grow more trees of that variety.
The packaging highlights the different flavor profiles and best uses of the woods being offered as well as promotes the message of bringing tree conservation awareness to the world of smoking foods. The concept of strangler figs and how they kill their host trees, and the comparison of this behavior to human behavior towards trees, inspires the call-to-action in the branding of reversing our destruction to trees. The form of the trays is inspired by the form of a mature strangler fig suffocating a regular tree.
The bottom contains interesting facts about each type of tree in the sampler to further promote tree conservation.
Process
I hand-carved the trays from CNC/modeling foam and sourced the correct type of woodchips for each tray. I spraypainted the trays to match the color choices for the wood varieties. Initially I carved a traditional woodgrain texture into the trays and then incorporated the concept of strangler fig trees to inspire the form and branding.