Last week, we published a piece on the Bottlass packaging design in which I was critical of the concept. We were since contacted by Kyung Kook, the Vice President of Bellevue-based Innovative Design Service Inc., the company that produced the design. In his response, Kyung rebuts several of the points made in the original entry, and has included photographs showing that the Bottlass is, in fact, in production. Kyung's response is printed below.
Frankly, I was very excited to see the [Core77] post about our design, "Bottlass" and am pleased that someone was interested enough to share his take on our design. I believe this is a valuable opportunity to look at our design from a different perspective.
First and foremost, the design phase I of Bottlass is actually being manufactured and sold in South Korea at this moment.
The product based on our design was made available to the public in Korea since April of this year. The material used is called eco-zen, a type of enhanced plastic.
Secondly, I am aware that opening the container may cause a bit of hassle. But this can be easily fixed. If we print instructions on the container, informing the drinker to set up the container before holding it in place and pulling off the seal, this should bypass the inconvenience. It may take a bit more steps than the conventional bottles or cans, but the excitement and satisfaction gained from Bottlass's unique design will do more than justice.As I have mentioned before, Bottlass is already being produced and sold in [the] Korean market. It has been proven to be stable enough. Take a look at the pictures of our first edition.
They are standing securely on their own. Many improvements are being made to produce the most efficient design. So far, we have created up to five different designs and we are currently in the process of making more enhancements.
Bottlass was created as a two-piece design so it can accommodate its look of a bottle and a glass. It was not created to break down in size like those cheap screw-stem plastic wineglasses. The objective of this design is to make this product as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Anyone who wishes to enjoy a glass of wine or beer can do so, while maintaining that feel of drinking from a real wine glass for less than half of the price without having to be stuck only where they are available.
Another reason for making this specific design was to allow drinkers to gain control of the amount they wish to consume. Buying an entire bottle of wine means it has to be finished within a day or two of having opened the bottle. Bottlass is designed to be convenient for drinkers who desire to drink one or two glasses without needing to buy an entire bottle.
If the bottles were to be made out of plastic, they will not be so fragile that they have to be shipped like glass wine bottles. If they were to be made out of glass, they would indeed need to be packaged more carefully. Nevertheless, Bottlass' pointy top design should not cause too much hindrance. If they were to be pallet-stacked, the cardboards in between the packages should distribute the weight of the stacked packages. The picture that Mr. Noe has posted is a packaging of water bottles. If our design was to be implemented in wine products, it should indeed be treated like one. We have no boundaries in terms of what it will be used for and what material it will be made out of, depending on what manufactures want.
As for filling the containers, the manufacturers may need to build some type of holders without having to change the entire product factory line. The cost, I believe, will be minimal in comparison to the overall manufacturing expense. There are different ways of packaging differently shaped bottles, but we are confident that the industry itself can come up with an ideal way to make it more feasible and economical.
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