Enerzal
Can a bottle look sporty, but still have a wide appeal?
2017
Industrial Design
About
Enerzal was a new sports drink from FDC, a company best known for Electral, their oral rehydration powder, taken when sick. The challenge was to move convincingly into the sports drink category without carrying the clinical associations of the parent brand.
FITCH worked on the new brand identity, and I was tasked with designing the bottle.
Design Process
Most sports drink bottles lean into an aggressively athletic visual language: angular, chunky, overtly masculine. Enerzal's target was broader: different age groups, different activity levels, men and women. A bottle that signaled "serious athlete only" would have narrowed the audience before a single drop was sold.
The design is deliberately curvilinear rather than angular. The curved waist makes the bottle comfortable to hold for a range of hand sizes, while ribbing provides the structural rigidity that a thinner wall profile requires. The cap was sized smaller than the wide-mouth standard on most sports bottles, easier for kids to drink from, and less aggressive in profile.
The logo was embossed on both sides of the bottle, ensuring the brand remained visible even without a label, important for a new brand trying to establish recognition on shelf.
Once the form was finalized, the design was refined in collaboration with the bottle manufacturer to meet the tolerances of their bottling operation, a standard but important step that shaped the final dimensions.
Bottle Render
Bottle Render
Bottle Render Close-up
Dimensions