Water Bottle Design Goes Round and Round

As a traditionalist, I find the bottled water phenomenon absurd. As a packaging geek, I marvel at the endless array of glass, metal, paperboard, rigid and flexible plastic, and even metal/plastic combination structures that designers dream up to hawk water to millions and millions of believe-they're-dying-of-thirst consumers.

That said, it should come as no surprise that I spent a fair amount time during my recent family vacation to Japan combing the aisles of grocery stores and "100 yen shops" (Japanese dollar stores) looking for uniquely designed packaging. My kids and wife suffered through my packaging treasure hunts in Tokyo, Hakone, and Kyoto. I was thrilled with what I found.

The 100-ml test-market-size, two-piece aluminum Lemon Coke can I came across was cute. Also intriguing was the PLA (renewable polymer) portion pack of liquid gum sugar I was served at a restaurant to sweeten my green tea. This gum sugar pack was dveloped for debut at the environment-focused 2005 World Exposition in Aichi. And the PE/EVOH/PET butter container-tube with a rigid plastic bottom, rigid self-dispensing cap, and flexible film sides was like nothing I'd ever seen (and I'm afraid to squeeze it).

But no package could hold a candle to the spherical, baseball-sized water bottle my Japan editor, Toshio Arita, and I simultaneously spied in neat rows on a smoothie bar counter in Odaiba, the futuristic business district in Tokyo harbor. In a moment of ugly-Americanism, I bowled over Toshio in order to get to the unique bottle ahead of him. Toshio is 72 years old, but he's incredibly quick.

These OGO brand still and sparkling "waterball" packages are impressive on number of fronts. What first appeared as oversize type graphics are in fact an optical illusion. Reverse-direct-printed in miniscule two-point type on the monolayer PET waterball's back panel is the ingredient "analysis" for the super-oxygenated water. OGO's claim to fame is a line of oxygen-enriched products, including oxygen "shots" in pressurized metal canisters. Somehow they've determined that besides being deprived of bottled water, earthlings breathe air containing a third less oxygen than our Neanderthal ancestors. OGO water containers 35 times as much oxygen as "regular" water. I can only imagine the Sumo-like feats of strength my koi would perform if I filled the fish pond at home with OGO water.

According to Netherlands-based "O-Company" sales and marketing manager Richard Pechey, OGO's ball shape has aesthetic and practical relevance that both graphic and structural designers can appreciate. "Consumers love the sensuality of the roundness," says Pechey, who also noted that the extra-thick bottle walls and integrated molded seams enable the container to hold its shape during the high-pressure oxygenation process. Pechey would not reveal the barrier coating used nor any other molding technology details.

OGO water has been marketed in the U.K. and Europe for some time. Pechey said OGO is expanding its distribution on a global scale, "but in a controlled and strategic way." U.S. consumers will likely see it sometime this fall. Pechey was surprised when he learned that I had found the product in Japan this summer. Odd, I thought, given the fact the retailer had handed Toshio and me a glossy four-color Japanese-language brochure about the bottle and its renowned designer, Paris-based Ora Ito.

What surprised me (or maybe not given the whole bottled water craze) was the price of one 330-ml bottle of OGO. It cost 525 yen‹about $4.75 for 12-oz, of water. Er, excuse me, oxygenated water. Yikes! That'll take your breath away to the point you might have trouble uttering, "Wow! What a package!"

David Luttenberger, a certified packaging professional (CPP), is the director of Packaging Strategies, an intelligence briefing service for packaging markets, technologies, and businesses.. He can be reached at (610) 436-4220 (ext. 18) or at dluttenberger@packstrat.com.