We might take it for granted, but we in the Western world are luck to have such great access to drinking water. You can get it from your public park from a tap, filter it at home, buy it in plastic bottles and casks and we go through litres of the stuff everyday. Did you know, however, that some water is better than others?

At least that what designers are paid to make you believe.

European-style water bottles — sparkling, fresh from the source and pumped straight into a clean green bottle — have not changed for years. They use a series of techniques to mould our perception about the product and the consumers themselves, and they do it bloody well.

The shape

With a few notable exception, the most popular water brands, San Pellegrino, Evian and Perrier, carry a very traditional shape and haven’t been changed since it all began. Like a good logo, they don’t really have to. From a marketer’s perspective, a traditional shape means a quality product. This can apply to all kinds of products. Newspapers often have an ‘First Printed In xxxx’ or ‘Established In xxxx’ on their front page. Hell, even I do it. It shows there’s a history of success behind a product. People assume bad businesses go out of business.

This works so well with water because so many people consider bottled water a gimmick. If a bottle has not been changed in eighty years, people will subconciously notice that the business has been going strong for so long and they might think bottled water might not be just a modern folly.

The colour

Clear, blue-green or blue. Why? Because they want you think of what you’re drinking.

The San Benedetto is clear for a reason

Pure, cool, crisp, clean and refreshing are the buzzwords water marketers love to hear. For such words, they get ‘em straight from the source: mountain streams or polar seas. When you think of bottles by San Benedetto, my personal favourite, you think of waves (but some brands that sell juice even use sea imagery for the hell of it!). San Benedetto also positions the label quite high, allowing the buying public to get a good look at nothing: clear glass and clear water. And that’s just what the buying public want to see.

The label

Again, this is where it pays not to be modern. Though some waters, particularly the exclusive ones such as Ferrarelle, pride themselves on unique and usual minimalist designs, most brands opt to cram as much info they can in on one side in their oldest serif typeface.

The use of repeating background images is common, so too are drawn motifs, like statues and characters. You won’t get a lot of that these days, but for bottled water, it works. Green and blue glass bottles tend to provide a lot of soft colour already, so the less the better. The consumers are thinking of clean, pure water, so why bother dirty it with colour?

Oh — I nearly forgot — put as much French or Italian on the bottle, no matter who you’re exporting to. It makes it exotic.

The price

This is probably the best marketing weapon a premium water company can have. The more exclusive, the better. When shopping for the best, price means very little and it suits the image the companies are trying to get out there. If the consumer is aware they’re paying for design as well as the product, neither the company or the consumer would have a problem with it. That’s just the nature of premium goods.

Evian limited editions, years 2005, 2008 and 2009

Evian have done something really typical of the industry by annually releasing limited edition bottles, each created by a prominent designer. In 2008 and 2009, the traditional shape of the Evian bottle was changed slightly and new graphics added. Simple as that, they had a winner and another level of bottle to flog.

Yes, Evian backwards is Naive. Say what you want, and I tend to agree with you, but you’ve got to admire quality design. I’m a fan of the not-so-humble European water bottle because its a craft that has worked on its niche for decades and changed very little.

Posted on August 4th, 2009 in Object Design | No Comments

There’s a great story to the Major League Baseball logo.

It’s not often that you come across a piece of branding so effective  that it is openly copied by a competitor. The MLB logo of 1968 has, and more than half a dozen times at that.

For added spice, it’s also a story of controversy, with some confusion over who designed it. That’s all been sussed out and everyone’s sure it was an illustrator called Jerry Dior from New York. While working at Sandgren & Murtha in 1968 he had a vision of a white silhouette of a batter hitting a ball on a division of solid red and blue. From there, the logo won the praises of  the MLB selection committee and before long was on the uniforms of players for the 1969 season.

Dior’s attitude towards the design process at-the-time reflects its uniqueness. In an interview with ESPN, he claims he designed in one afternoon using Magic Markers.

“ I did the rough sketch and cleaned it up a bit, and that was that.”

An attitude like that tells me no one could have prepared or planed a concept to come up with what Jerry did. Dior certainly didn’t. He had an epiphany and simply ran with it.

Jerry Dior, years later, with his own slice of excellence

That noted, Dior wasn’t in the business of leaving his designs to the rare Hail Mary. His technical illustrative skills, according to Sari Victoria were second to none. Quite simply, this logo wouldn’t have happened without Dior’s drawing ability. In contrast to Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, where Lin’s concept carried her design, there is something to be said about the suggestion the logo’s visual effect would have been lost without Dior’s technical skill.

The logo can also be rebranded for each team

Notice all three colours –red, white and blue — are completely separated, but they’re not evenly separated. Dior knew that ‘the rule of thirds‘ creates a naturally interesting visual arrangement and positioned the batter in the right third. The batter himself, unlike the NBA logo which features the outlines of Jerry West, Dior’s is ‘pure design’. Dior’s intention was for the batter to be faceless, viewable as carrying the bat in either hand. Add to that Dior’s awareness of a distinctively American style that runs deep through the design. The neatly chamfered edge around the logo and the Dick Tracy-like nose of the batter carry soft curves reminiscent of the Streamline Moderne movement: it truly is classic ‘Yankee’ design. But as if you didn’t know that when you saw the red, white and blue.

Such is the charisma of Dior’s design that other sports governing bodies use it — blantantly and without remorse — in their own logos.

With the exception of the NBA, copies just don't look as good

Alan Siegel, Dior’s colleague at Sandgren & Murtha was entrusted with the design of the National Basketball Association logo. Siegel said the commissioner of the NBA wanted the league to have a “visual alliance” with the MLB. Such is the strength of the brand, even a year after it was put into use. Since then, everyone from the WNBA, AHL, Indy Racing League, the PGA tour and even recently Major League Gaming have got in on the act.

Cliche, but it’s true; like a fine wine, Dior’s logo just gets better with age.

If you liked the history of the MLB logo, have a quick look at a controversial moment where  a hilariously confident James Sherman, comic book artist, claims the design in this interview. He later backflipped claiming an honest mistake.

Posted on August 2nd, 2009 in Logo Design | No Comments