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Designing a Bottle

blog.soylent.com

61–70 of 151 posts

Re: Designing a Bottle

#61
post #44

Wouldn't a Boxed Soylent (sealed bladder in a box like boxed wine) be most efficient for shipping to consumer, and most efficient for consumption? If they are really trying to optimize every aspect, that seems like the solution (from my armchair!). My first thought when seeing the headline was "oh boy, Silicon Valley has been shopping something in a bottle for 1 year now, and now they're experts in bottle packaging i…

What kind of plastic is this? Actually, I don't care; I wish disposable plastic in general would go away. Isn't part of their marketing greeness? But their model is keurig-for-calories? They _could_ refuse to do the plastic bottles and ship paper bags of powder...

Amen! Do we really need another billion plastic bottles in the trash stream? Doesn't this contradict the entire spirit of Soylent?

Re: Designing a Bottle

#62
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But isn't that exactly what design should do? Not mimic for the sake of mimicry, but attempt to better understand the rationale for any decision and ultimately designing with intent . The homework is the meat of the thing. So what if the result is the same? At least the team behind the work now understands how they got there—and communicate as much to their current or potential fan base. I wouldn't want to hire a bab…

I guess it depends on how much time and money you want to waste. A team of people spent two years supposedly working on this. That same team could probably have gotten samples from 4-5 manufacturers and selected an Odwalla bottle with a brand design in 2-3 weeks. It just seems silly and wasteful to me. But hey, it's not my money!

A distinctive bottle makes the product stand out

Re: Designing a Bottle

#63
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it depends on how much time and money you want to waste. A team of people spent two years supposedly working on this. That same team could probably have gotten samples from 4-5 manufacturers and selected an Odwalla bottle with a brand design in 2-3 weeks. It just seems silly and wasteful to me. But hey, it's not my money!

A distinctive bottle makes the product stand out

How distinctive can it be when to the average consumer it's the same as Odawalla?

Re: Designing a Bottle

#64
post #37
post #32

First time I had heard this: a pressurized cylindrical container pushes outward with equal force in all directions. This is crucial for pressurized beverages. My favorite bottle redesign ( http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/2010/3/15/ecocoke.html ) was done on Coca-Cola and had a similar "sqround" shaped bottle, but I don't think he considered the pressure in the bottle.

I find it hard to believe that the asymmetric design has optimal strength:weight ratio, which means it's not 100% eco-friendly. It looks like it's deliberately wasting material so it can have a distinctive shape that can be design patented, instead of a fully optimized generic bottle.

That's the difference between a freshman design project and an actual design used in practice. It's unlikely he has the mathematics/engineering background to do a proper analysis of his design.

He's not thinking of the bottle as a pressure vessel (which it is).

Re: Designing a Bottle

#65
post #4
post #2

Same! Complete! Nutrition! More efficient! Please, it’s a bottle design. Is Soylent trying to create a following like Apple fans? At least Apple makes good products.

Hey now. Soylent is a perfectly cromulent Ensure knockoff. ;)

Not really. Check the nutritional label. Disclosure: tried Soylent and didn't find it agreeable with my belly.

Re: Designing a Bottle

#66
post #44

Wouldn't a Boxed Soylent (sealed bladder in a box like boxed wine) be most efficient for shipping to consumer, and most efficient for consumption? If they are really trying to optimize every aspect, that seems like the solution (from my armchair!). My first thought when seeing the headline was "oh boy, Silicon Valley has been shopping something in a bottle for 1 year now, and now they're experts in bottle packaging i…

What kind of plastic is this? Actually, I don't care; I wish disposable plastic in general would go away. Isn't part of their marketing greeness? But their model is keurig-for-calories? They _could_ refuse to do the plastic bottles and ship paper bags of powder...

A keurig type machine for soylent paper bags would be an interesting sight. Now I wonder how keurig even began convincing people to use their unconventional methods for coffee.

Re: Designing a Bottle

#67
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are often transported in thick reusable crates rather than cardboard boxes.

Then maybe soylent were solving the wrong problem

From the article, they needed a solution that works for small numbers of bottles being delivered to an individual.

Re: Designing a Bottle

#68
post #33

This is a nice blog post - what's with all the hate? So it's basically a marketing tool, but isn't that what blogs are for? As a customer of Soylent, I appreciate that they are writing blog posts about their thought process. It feels nice to be communicated with. Also, I highly doubt a detailed blog post like this is going to convert many new customers - seems like it's mainly for existing ones. FYI, the new bottles…

> So it's basically a marketing tool, but isn't that what blogs are for

depressing thought

Re: Designing a Bottle

#69
post #18

Wouldn't a Boxed Soylent (sealed bladder in a box like boxed wine) be most efficient for shipping to consumer, and most efficient for consumption? If they are really trying to optimize every aspect, that seems like the solution (from my armchair!). My first thought when seeing the headline was "oh boy, Silicon Valley has been shopping something in a bottle for 1 year now, and now they're experts in bottle packaging i…

Yeah I thought they'd just go with a tetra Pak and move on But it would t make a nice blog post of be as distinctive brandwise

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Re: Designing a Bottle

#70

Wouldn't a Boxed Soylent (sealed bladder in a box like boxed wine) be most efficient for shipping to consumer, and most efficient for consumption? If they are really trying to optimize every aspect, that seems like the solution (from my armchair!). My first thought when seeing the headline was "oh boy, Silicon Valley has been shopping something in a bottle for 1 year now, and now they're experts in bottle packaging i…

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