6 ms·

The Coke bottle was designed by a small team in a competition

46 points by jimsojim 11y ago

542458 11y ago
The title here confuses me. I don't see anywhere in the article that they make the case that it happened by chance. Seems like it was designed by a small team who were trying to design a distinctive bottle - The complete opposite of chance!
- jmilloy 11y ago
  Agreed, though I guess they happened to see an illustration of a cocoa pod when looking up coca.
  - MBCook 11y ago
    Yeah, I think the 'chance' is that coca and cocoa are so similar in English.
- probablyfiction 11y ago
  But because of HN rules, we can't change it to something more appropriate and less clickbait-y
  - SilasX 11y ago
    Sure they can: >Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - dang 11y ago
      Precisely. Thank you! Title changed to be less misleading. If someone suggests a better title, we can change it again.
- notahacker 11y ago
  I presume it's with reference to the coca/cocoa confusion and the probably apocryphal story that they were inspired by seeing the word next to "coca" in the dictionary. But yes, in a world where major brands have names which happen to be the founders' surname, slogans thought up at the last minute to fill space and logos designed by freelancers for pennies this was a corporation that thought the mere shape of the packaging was so integral to their future success they held a competition to design “a bottle so distinct that you would recognize if by feel in the dark or lying broken on the ground.” It's not accidental that they achieved that.
Someone1234 11y ago
Fair warning: There is nudity on the page that may not be work-safe (YouTube video's freeze frame contains topless individuals).
- elbigbad 11y ago
  Thank you for pointing this out. I am at work! Luckily I always check comments before clicking on the articles (seriously, this isn't a joke). :)
- johansch 11y ago
  Oh how I relish living in a country where someone witnessing me viewing this page at work this wouldn't be grounds for immediate dismissal or reason for some stupid lawsuits. (Sweden. I hate living here for a bunch of other reasons though. In fact I am about to emigrate, again.)
  - theworstshill 11y ago
    Whats your reason for emigrating?
    - johansch 11y ago
      In no particular order: Craving a warmer climate. Not feeling fairly taxed. (My marginal income tax rate is 58 or 60%, I forget which. And it will increase next year. And then again. And so on.) Having stock option vestings taxed at my marginal income tax rate PLUS an additional ~30% for the company's social security payments. Not feeling very hopeful about the economic future of Sweden, with the current flow of economically speaking worthless immigrants/"refugees". (A third of them or so satisfy the UN critera for being a war refugee.) For the past month the rate has been about ~2k/day. It will likely go up exponentially over time unless policies are changed. In Africa alone there are probably half a billion people who would prefer Sweden. Living in a country that has become so twisted that it is social suicide to publicly suggest that having a 10-20x higher immigrant rate of illiterate and uneducated people from e.g. Somalia and Afghanistan than the rest of Europe might be somewhat problematic in the long run.
api_or_ipa 11y ago
One of my absolute favourite podcast/radio shows is "Under the Influence" on CBC Radio. Recently they aired a terrific episode on product packaging and discussed Coke's signature bottle and it's origin. Interestingly, it came up in a conversation I had with my mother recently that one of the most distinct memories she has of growing up is going to the corner store and selecting a soda from the icebox. Each bottle had a unique shape and texture that uniquely distinguished it from all other brands just from touch alone. I really enjoyed hearing the tinges of happiness in my mothers words as she recalled a memory from so long ago. These two experiences really shaped me. Before I thought marketing was glorified manipulation of buying habits. Now, I see it as shaping the experience of enjoying the product. It can be a very powerful thing, as my mother's recollection from over 60 years ago demonstrates.
natewevans 11y ago
pretty cool to see the industrial design elements and what resonated with the designers based on their cocoa pod inspiration. shape: "an elongated shape and distinct ribs"; "curvier, with more girth" color: "German Green" material: "made of heavy, durable glass" weight: "no less than 14.5 ounces"
apapli 11y ago
I love how coke essentially crowdsourced their bottle design. Silly me thinking crowdsourcing was some sort of "disruptive innovation".
- joezydeco 11y ago
  There are other examples of this in history. A good one is the invention of the modern billiard ball. Balls were made from ivory and were very expensive, which prevented the mass popularity of the game. Michael Phelan put in an ad in the paper offering $10,000 (the equivalent of millions today) to anyone that could develop a substitute for ivory. The result was cellulose, which later begat Bakelite, a perfect substitute. http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-post-billiards-age/ http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-post-billiards-age...

46 points by jimsojim 11y ago

The title here confuses me. I don't see anywhere in the article that they make the case that it happened by chance. Seems like it was designed by a small team who were trying to design a distinctive bottle - The complete opposite of chance!

jmilloy 11y ago
Agreed, though I guess they happened to see an illustration of a cocoa pod when looking up coca.
- MBCook 11y ago
  Yeah, I think the 'chance' is that coca and cocoa are so similar in English.
probablyfiction 11y ago
But because of HN rules, we can't change it to something more appropriate and less clickbait-y
- SilasX 11y ago
  Sure they can: >Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - dang 11y ago
    Precisely. Thank you! Title changed to be less misleading. If someone suggests a better title, we can change it again.
notahacker 11y ago
I presume it's with reference to the coca/cocoa confusion and the probably apocryphal story that they were inspired by seeing the word next to "coca" in the dictionary. But yes, in a world where major brands have names which happen to be the founders' surname, slogans thought up at the last minute to fill space and logos designed by freelancers for pennies this was a corporation that thought the mere shape of the packaging was so integral to their future success they held a competition to design “a bottle so distinct that you would recognize if by feel in the dark or lying broken on the ground.” It's not accidental that they achieved that.

Someone1234 11y ago

Fair warning: There is nudity on the page that may not be work-safe (YouTube video's freeze frame contains topless individuals).

elbigbad 11y ago
Thank you for pointing this out. I am at work! Luckily I always check comments before clicking on the articles (seriously, this isn't a joke). :)
johansch 11y ago
Oh how I relish living in a country where someone witnessing me viewing this page at work this wouldn't be grounds for immediate dismissal or reason for some stupid lawsuits. (Sweden. I hate living here for a bunch of other reasons though. In fact I am about to emigrate, again.)
- theworstshill 11y ago
  Whats your reason for emigrating?
  - johansch 11y ago
    In no particular order: Craving a warmer climate. Not feeling fairly taxed. (My marginal income tax rate is 58 or 60%, I forget which. And it will increase next year. And then again. And so on.) Having stock option vestings taxed at my marginal income tax rate PLUS an additional ~30% for the company's social security payments. Not feeling very hopeful about the economic future of Sweden, with the current flow of economically speaking worthless immigrants/"refugees". (A third of them or so satisfy the UN critera for being a war refugee.) For the past month the rate has been about ~2k/day. It will likely go up exponentially over time unless policies are changed. In Africa alone there are probably half a billion people who would prefer Sweden. Living in a country that has become so twisted that it is social suicide to publicly suggest that having a 10-20x higher immigrant rate of illiterate and uneducated people from e.g. Somalia and Afghanistan than the rest of Europe might be somewhat problematic in the long run.

api_or_ipa 11y ago

One of my absolute favourite podcast/radio shows is "Under the Influence" on CBC Radio. Recently they aired a terrific episode on product packaging and discussed Coke's signature bottle and it's origin. Interestingly, it came up in a conversation I had with my mother recently that one of the most distinct memories she has of growing up is going to the corner store and selecting a soda from the icebox. Each bottle had a unique shape and texture that uniquely distinguished it from all other brands just from touch alone. I really enjoyed hearing the tinges of happiness in my mothers words as she recalled a memory from so long ago. These two experiences really shaped me. Before I thought marketing was glorified manipulation of buying habits. Now, I see it as shaping the experience of enjoying the product. It can be a very powerful thing, as my mother's recollection from over 60 years ago demonstrates.

natewevans 11y ago

pretty cool to see the industrial design elements and what resonated with the designers based on their cocoa pod inspiration. shape: "an elongated shape and distinct ribs"; "curvier, with more girth" color: "German Green" material: "made of heavy, durable glass" weight: "no less than 14.5 ounces"

apapli 11y ago

I love how coke essentially crowdsourced their bottle design. Silly me thinking crowdsourcing was some sort of "disruptive innovation".

joezydeco 11y ago
There are other examples of this in history. A good one is the invention of the modern billiard ball. Balls were made from ivory and were very expensive, which prevented the mass popularity of the game. Michael Phelan put in an ad in the paper offering $10,000 (the equivalent of millions today) to anyone that could develop a substitute for ivory. The result was cellulose, which later begat Bakelite, a perfect substitute. http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-post-billiards-age/ http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-post-billiards-age...