Monash Students Design Emma & Tom’s New Juice Bottle

Monash University Art, Design & Architecture students have collaborated with industry partner O-I Australia to create a new O-I Industry glass bottle being trialled by Emma & Tom’s.

Image: Students Harrison Young and Katelin Eichner with Gavin Wong, O-I Design Engineering Lead.

Monash University Art, Design & Architecture students have collaborated with industry partner O-I Australia to create a new O-I Industry glass bottle being trialled by Emma & Tom’s.

The 250ml ‘Millie’ glass bottle delivers two serves of fruit, in the form of no sugar added juice and appeals to health-conscious consumers.

The project harnessed the students’ creative talent to create a commercially viable and environmentally friendly packaging solution.

Students worked with glass bottle and jar manufacturer, O-I Australia, specialist brand agency VOICE and the Australian Beverages Council to create the innovative bottle.

O-I asked students to design a juice bottle which contained two servings of fruit according to Australian Dietary Guidelines.

It was extra challenging for the students as the design needed to fit within our operational parameters, and packaging design parameters outlined by our design agency VOICE.

O-I’s Australia and New Zealand Business Development Manager Bayard Sinnema

“The bottle needed to solve the real-world health problem of people meeting their daily recommended servings of fruit.”

Students worked in teams of four to six to meet the brief and have their design produced by O-I.

Monash University Bachelor of Communication Design students Harrison Young, Cassandra Da Costa, Ellie Boland, Lucy Chesterfield and Natalie Ming Chi Su won the challenge and designed the Millie bottle.

The O-I Australia 'Millie' glass bottle

From the class, students Katelin Eichner and Harrison Young won O-I internships to develop the product and communications strategy for the Millie bottle.

“What interested me most was seeing the design process form from an idea, perhaps a few sketches on paper, to a final, marketable product,” Harrison said.

“Being a part of a team that worked from zero to an amazing end product gave me real belief and confidence in myself.”

“I had never learnt much about the design process for a physical product which will be used, let alone the manufacturing and marketing process, and this all interested me,” Katelin said.

“This project inspired my love for the written word and marketing.”

The project has inspired Harrison to move to New York in 2019, while Katelin has commenced postgraduate studies in marketing.

Emma & Tom’s intends to launch the Millie bottle in China before bringing it to the Australian market.

“We will be launching a range of premium chilled fruit juices and smoothies in the Millie bottle once O-I has completed its trials,” says Emma Welsh, co-owner of Emma and Tom’s.

“Our intention is to sell product in Millie bottles into China initially, where there is a strong move away from juice in plastic to juice in glass, particularly in leading hotels. We will also be launching the product in Australia.

“We are seeing a definite shift with consumers leading the change in the market away from plastics.”

“Glass provides a strong fit with the health and sustainability values that are central to our business and is the best and most sustainable choice for packaging our juice.”

The ‘Millie’ glass bottle has been announced as a finalist for the 2020 Australasian Packaging Innovation & Design Awards (PIDA). Congratulations to everyone involved, and good luck with the award.