I spotted this beautiful collapsible crate on the weekend in K-Mart. It is an exquisite piece of design and manufacturing.

There was no fancy packaging or pretentious product branding. It was simply shrink-wrapped with a single stuck-on barcode. The only way you could tell what it was was by the pricing label on the shelf! And yet - it is so self contained, so honest, so "this is a spade"... I love it!

It comes flat as shown in the top left photo below. When you lift the handles (folded into the back as shown on the top right photo below), the whole thing pops up into a crate! Magic.

crate1

Every part folded neatly and fitted together. The tooling on the mould was very well done with no daggy bits of plastic hanging off the joints and seams - as is often the case with cheap stuff.

Someone has invested rigorous thought into this simple little thing. This is craftsmanship. This is mastery. And I want to know who designed it!!! And it cost $4. Someone really gave a damn for $4. I take my hat off to you.