Beer that “fits the hand” - The design process of a special beer bottle

The young Brazilian consumers are open to new and innovative packages and products. The latest innovation comes with the launch of Summer Draft beer.

At the time the summer period which accounts for about 40% of total sales in this segment, starts (southern hemisphere) Cervejarias Kaiser introduces Summer Draft beer in a special long neck. The draft beer is a Pilsner, light and refreshing, with low fermentation, a slightly bitter flavour, a bright colour with 4.7% alcohol content. The beer is double-filtered and made from special hops that are more resistant to UV radiation. That is the reason that Kaiser Summer Draft could be introduced into the market in a clear transparent 355 ml glass bottle.
The result: a beer, presented in a very special designed bottle, with a mild and medium sweet taste that typically must be savoured ice cold.

In general the blogosphere classifies Summer Draft in terms of taste and quality from reasonable to good, albeit one blogger writes: “My German uncle once said when tasting Summer Draft: In Germany we wash our cars with this!”
All right Summer Draft. Summer Draft is brewed by Femsa. FEMSA (acronym for Fomento Económico Mexicano SA) is a Mexican beverage company. Since January 2006 when it acquired Cervejarias Kaiser, the group operates in Brazil under the name Femsa Cerveja Brasil. Kaiser was purchased from the Canadian multinational Molson, which owns still 15% of the shares. Heineken controls 17% in this company.
The Brazilian beer portfolio includes brands such as Kaiser, Sol, Bavaria, Xingú, Santa Cervo, Summer Draft and Heineken. The group consists of thirty bottling plants, 235 distribution centres, 64 soft drink brands, 15 beer brands and employs some 56 thousand people in the nine countries where it operates, including Brazil.
FEMSA, the world's second largest Coca-Cola bottler, operates in Brazil the world's largest (in terms of production capacity) Coca-Cola bottling plant in the city of Jundiaí in the federal state of São Paulo.

The long-neck Summer Draft bottle has a height of 227 mm and a diameter of 62 mm and weighs, filled with 355 ml, 602 grams and is made of blow moulded flint glass, which has in addition to about 62% quartz a high content of lead oxide (about 24%), which gives the material a relatively high density of 3.5 to 4.8 gr/cm3.

The product is truly innovative; the design of the bottle with its anatomical contours gives consumers the feeling of a "handshake" as it fits perfectly in the hand, with recesses for the fingers and thumb. Exactly the way you hold a bottle when bringing it to your mouth.

The blow moulded flint glass bottle and the two self-adhesive transparent labels, both developed by Dil Brands, show the golden liquid in combination with the vividness of the silver and the graphics in black. The ‘S’-curve on a 'clean' forefront and the diagonal lines represent the new visual identity of Summer Draft.

DIL Brands specializes in the packaging design and branding. With 42 years experience in the Brazilian market, the company has offices in São Paulo, Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile. It also is represented in New York, Amsterdam, London and Barcelona, as a result of partnerships with Bridge Design and Coleman Schmidlin. DIL Brands designed products for companies like Unilever, Nestlé and Parmalat.

The challenge for Dil Brands in this case was to create a new visual 'look' for Summer Draft (design of the bottle and the labels), with the aim to rejuvenate the brand. The package had to have a modern look and differentiate on the store shelves; it had to stand at the centre of attention.

The ultimate design is a modern asymmetrical shape which allows for easy grip in all conditions. DIL chooses an iconic image for the label. The reverse printed label on the back of the bottle gives an impression of a three-dimensional effect in combination with the front label. The combination of the label and the bottle creates a truly innovative and modern look for Summer Draft.

The accompanying photographs show the development process from the old Summer beer bottle to the modern Summer Draft bottle.
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© Weslley Murylo De Souza Steeman

Securing Exclusive Wines

The worldwide system that tracks the origin of a good glass of wine from the château to the consumers, is based on the offset printed seal (bottle closure) made from aluminium foil in which the "taggant" is incorporated. The taggant is a chemical registration, emitting a specific unique electro-optically signal linked to a particular brand (in this case eProvenance).

The system, designed by eProvence, comprises three components: a semi-active RFID tag placed in the shipping box to record temperatures throughout the distribution chain, a passive RFID tag with a unique code in the bottom of the bottle for tracking, stock management and discouraging pilferage; and a proprietary, and a tamper-proof neck seal with a covert code (deveoped by InkSure Technologies Inc) applied at the base of the capsule to authenticate the wine inside the bottle and thwart counterfeiters.

InkSure Technologies Inc. is a leading supplier of covert machine-readable security solutions (CMRT) for the detection of counterfeiting, fraud and abuse. Together with eProvenance LLC, this system is introduced in the market for exclusive wines. InkSure adapted the security ink to this market and developed handheld readers, which form an integral part of the eProvenance system to address the growing counterfeiting problems within the fine wine market. The printing is done by George Schmitt & Co.

In addition to authenticating the wine, the system monitors and records the storage temperature, while the origin of each bottle in stored a secure online database. With the eProvenance system, the bottle is secured, the content is secured and the conduct of the temperature maintained during the distribution chain monitored.

The first application will take place in nine vineyards in the Bordeaux region, including Chateau Bauduc, Chateau Lynch Bages, Chateau Margaux, Chateau Palmer.

The applied patent involves the integral system, with a fast, encrypted, online database of the unique bottle, the shipping box, and the identification numbers in the capsule, coupled with the authentic data of the chateau, the shipment data and temperature development, which together create the electronic originality data for each bottle.
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© Weslley Murylo de Souza Steeman

The EnviroClear Refillable Water Bottles

According to the 2008 Global Bottled Water report from Zenith International Ltd, the worldwide sales of bottled water will rise from 206 billion litres in 2007 to 272 billion in 2012 (32%). The per capita consumption amounted to 30.8 litres in 2007, an increase of 1.4 litre compared to 2006. Bulk packages of more than 10 litres accounted for 36% of the total consumption.

A recent study of increased toxic antimony (also known as stibium, chemical symbol Sb, a silver grey metalloid) concentrations in 132 brands of bottled water from 28 countries, conducted by Dr. William Shotyk, director of the Institute of Environmental Geochemistry at the University of Heidelberg, shows that in PET bottles, the level of antimony increases the longer the water stays in the bottle. In his study Dr. Shotyk also included a number of PP bottles produced by the Container Corporation of Canada (CCC) and came to the conclusion that the water stored in the PP bottles showed no increase in antimony concentrations.

With this result in hand, Container Corporation of Canada (CCC), a world leader in the field of polypropylene (PP) injection stretch blow moulding technology, introduced the EnviroClear refillable water bottle.
The EnviroClear refillable water bottles are the first dishwasher safe, refillable, reusable, cost-effective bottles designed to reduce the number of PET water bottles, which, most likely, end up in landfill. The EnviroClear refillable plastic bottle is an example of "recycling", since it can be decontaminated or sanitized in the dishwasher. Reuse of existing PET bottles for water seems to be a feasible alternative, however, PET bottles are often distorted when they are exposed to the high temperatures of a dishwasher.

The EnviroClear refillable plastic bottle is perfectly safe in use for baby food and eliminates the risk of Bisphenol-A (BPA), which can lead to hormonal and neurological changes in small bodies and is present in polycarbonate.

CCC’s EnviroClear refillable water bottles are available in 250 ml and 500 ml sizes. The 250 ml bottle has a quadrilateral shape, can lie flat without rolling and is ideal for school lunch boxes and briefcases. The larger 500 ml bottle is perfect for the gym, office or car.
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© Weslley Murylo De Souza Steeman

Water Bottle for Children Doubles as Toy

The, by top designer Yves Behar of “fuseproject” in San Francisco, designed symmetrical Y-shaped single-serving bottles for Y-Water, Los Angeles, should attract the attention of children, since they, when empty, can serve as a toy, brick or as part of a game.
The small size of the 9 oz (267 ml) bottle, accentuates the health aspect (portion control and calorie use) of this new organic, low-calorie drink for children.

Although the package will certainly attract the attention of adults, the unique design is created with the children's market in mind. The bold, geometric shape - inspired by an upward-downward, three-dimensional Y - was enabled by the unique characteristics of blow moulding of the Eastar EB062 co-polyester resin from Eastman Chemical. Offering water-like clarity, this material was able to provide the wall-thickness necessary to withstand Y Water’s 185° F (85° C) hot-fill process and the durability to withstand rough handling and reuse by children.
The effect on the store shelves is further enhanced by the biodegradable hang tags, which are placed around the neck of the bottle. The labels contain cartoon-like drawings and humorous texts such as “Bone Water … because you don’t want your skeleton walking out on you.”
The drinking opening is closed with an aluminium seal, while a cap completes the package.
Y Water currently comes in four preservative-free, artificial colouring and sweetener-free formulations: Bone Water is enriched with calcium, fluoride and vitamins A, C and D; Brain Water has zinc, molybdenum and vitamins B6, B12 and C; Muscle Water features magnesium, potassium and selenium as well as vitamin A and C; and Immune Water has antioxidants and vitamins A, C and E.

The playfulness of Y Water is further conveyed with its capability to be reused as a toy or building blocks. Natural rubber connectors called “Y Knots” allow end-users to connect different packages into molecule-like formations. The reusability of the Y Water package as a creative medium for children prolongs the useful life of the package, making it a more sustainable concept

Eastar EB062 is free of Bisphenol A (BPA). The polyester family is regarded as the most environmental friendly of all plastics, because it can easily be recycled and processed for other purposes.
Y-Water accepts empty bottles for recycling.


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© Weslley Murylo De Souza Steeman