Designers from O-I in Australia have turned to New York City to find inspiration for a bottle shape exclusive to the Australian market.
The glassmaker was commissioned by independent Australian beverage company NutrientWater to produce new packaging for a range of organic drinks it plans to introduce here.
Pitched at premium cafes and restaurants, the range will include organic juices, sparkling fruit drinks and a market-first range of sparkling iced teas.
To give the range a premium appeal, therefore, O-I Australia was brought in to design and manufacture a proprietary glass bottle specifically for the new range.
It was decided the drinks would be launched in 275ml glass bottles and marketed under the brand name SOHO, after the vibrant and fashionable area of Manhattan. O-I’s product designer, Stephen Wallace, says the brief from NutrientWater represented a great opportunity to create a bottle shape that was unique to the Australian market.
“The aim was to design a recognisable bottle for the SOHO brand focusing on maximising the bottle’s height, and to achieve this we used a long sweeping neck profile,” he says.
“The bottle is a really clean, modern shape which complements the stand-out label graphics.”
In a further nod to the product’s ties to New York, NutrientWater commissioned award-winning street photographer, Markus Hartel, to shoot a series of urban street scenes from his hometown in New York City’s Soho to feature on the product labels.
“Soho is regarded as having one of the world’s most vibrant café cultures and these iconic New York scenes provided a source of inspiration and further reason to enjoy NutrientWater’s premium range of modern organic drinks,” Wallace says.
The new drinks line is due to go on sale later this year.
