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Make It Clear
Posted by: Daniel Cane on 13th Dec 2010 in Design Top 5

Five of the best water bottle designs, or - how to add huge value to something that is essentially free.


1. Perrier
2. Ty Nant
3. Bubble Bottle
4. Ogo
5. Evian


1. PERRIER
To most of us the original bottled water, Perrier has been bottled for nearly a hundred years now. Naturally carbonated, the spring near the Mediterranean coast of France was leased by Irishman St. John Harmsworth in 1903, who named his hew product after the spring’s previous owner Dr. Perrier. Harmsworth had a unique product, so himself devised a unique container for it. The simple and distinctive skittle shape of the bottle was inspired by that of the Indian clubs he used, a popular method of resistance fitness training at the time. Not only a distinctive and recognisable form on shelf, the tapered neck instinctively becomes an inviting handle.


2. TY NANT
To follow their award-winning glass bottle, which had been around since the late 1980s, in 2003 Welsh spring water brand Tŷ Nant enlisted fellow countryman Ross Lovegrove to come-up with ‘Tau.’ The concept for their first PET container was an elegant, asymmetrical form reflecting the shape of a stream of water as it falls. The form is instantly recognisable as depicting water as a substance; there is no easily definable 'shape'. Like Naoto Fukasawa’s juice cartons, it is highly descriptive yet witty. With the bottle’s new uneven surface, the distinctive elliptical label was retained from the old glass bottle, maintaining a touch of the Tŷ Nant brand DNA. To achieve this, a surface was retained on one side of the neck just large enough to allow labelling on a smooth plane, rather than the complex geometries present across the rest of the bottle. This meant putting locators in the bottom of the bottle, allowing them to be precisely oriented on the production line.



3. BOBBLE BOTTLE
The eco star of the list is the Bobble bottle water filter. A carbon filter in the lid removes the 'contaminants' and added chlorine from normal tap water, meaning consumers can continually drink from the same container, saving them money, and saving us all from mountains of empty PET bottles. As ever, adding a bit of glamour to the everyday, Karim Rashid’s design ticks all the boxes. It’s made of recycled material, can be re-used hundreds of times, can be recycled at the end of life, and costs just £10; so mineral water consumers will make their money back on it in a week. Water Bobble is available online from Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and House of Fraser, no less.



4. OGO
Ogo is water, but with more oxygen; 35 times more to be precise. The Dutch brand’s spring water sells in quantities of just 330ml, so what they describe as ‘the breathing water’ must be intended more as a little indulgence, than as a thirst-quencher. And unless you’re a fish, the dissolved oxygen won’t do a great deal for you. The container, which was conceived by French design and architecture agency Ora-Ïto (who are also responsible for the exclusive aluminium bottles for Heineken) is a spherical form reflecting the shape of a gas bubble held in a liquid. Although not wholly practical, there is an elegant simplicity and charm to the container, and it’s perhaps the most hand-friendly in our top 5.



5. EVIAN
Evian have produced many notable examples of eye-catching packaging. There was the beautiful tear shaped Millennium bottle a decade ago, the odd Nomad sports bottle, and more recently surface decoration designed by the likes of Paul Smith, Christian Lacroix and Issey Miyake. Our favourite though is Evian ‘Origine.’ The triangular form with it’s uneven edges honours the familiar Evian logo, itself a depiction of three mountain peaks in the Rhône Alpes where the water is sourced. The large angular form is a rather awkward shape to pour from, but is a cool piece of very literal brand communication. Rendered in glass it looks exquisite, it would be a hard heart indeed that put this out for the recycling...