PET: protect and perfect
Transcripción
PET: protect and perfect
PET: protect and perfect Designer viewpoint by Steve Osborne of Osborne Pike Let’s face it, modern life is hard to imagine without plastic bottles. Ubiquitous within the soft drinks and toiletries worlds, plastic continues to replace glass and cartons in a growing number of food and drink categories. And until very recently with the dawning of the age of ‘eco-plastics’, plastic bottles and jars meant PET. Producers, consumers and designers alike have fallen in love with PET because of its impressive array of positive attributes: light, strong, cheap, highly transparent and very flexible in form and colour. Supported by continued innovation in plastic labels, sleeves and caps, PET bottles have been designed in myriad forms and styles. The glassiest Rocket Science Perhaps the toughest challenge for a PET bottle is to take over the role of a much-loved glass predecessor. This example from The Netherlands’ biggest supermarket Albert Heijn passed my test: pick it up and if your hand flies over your shoulder, you thought it was glass. The world of energy drinks sports some pretty wacky bottles shapes, but Lucozade found a simple and effective formula and stuck with it. Allied to the surfboard graphics, this really does what it says on the, er, tin, ‘giving you a physical edge’. Waiter, there’s a mountain in my water... Steve Osborne Form without function, however, is a waste of space, so for me the best PET bottles designs are those which tell clear, exciting and differentiating stories... Bored with wannabe Evian bottles with a mountain range carved into the shoulder? Then why not try one with a mountainous punt? Argentina’s Tridimage had to ‘push the boundaries of PET blowmoulding technology’, but then again that’s what it’s there for. Evian pioneered the use of embossing to tell its story in the bottle as well as on the label. A special pre-form colour and the translucent ice-blue cap makes this bottle look colder and more refreshing than its competitors. Respect. Bright This is the kind of thing that PET was made for, and it works because the designer delivered a perfectly formed story; not a half-baked one. Lord of the Rings Not the cuddliest bottle in the world but breathtakingly different. Go on, count the rings and make up a story about that number. © Beverage Innovation 2011. Reproduced with the permission of FoodBev Media - www.foodbev.com | For details about syndication and licensing please call +44 (0)1225 327890. 28 SPECIAL REPORT www.foodbev.com/beverage Issue 84 - April 2011