Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Designing a Bottle

blog.soylent.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 151 posts

Re: Designing a Bottle

#121

Post by basseq »

vinchuco wrote: post #66
gyrgtyn wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't know how difficult it is to mix Soylent, but you can buy an automatic baby formula maker for $150-$200. Put water in the tank, power in the top, and boom: automatic mixing. I'm surprised an enterprising Soylent enthusiast hasn't hacked something up yet—particularly given their "early adopter" tech audience.

It shouldn't be too much harder to add "pods" (powder containers) to that device. It might even make the process easier because the machine wouldn't have to measure the right amount.

Re: Designing a Bottle

#122

Post by coldpie »

JshWright wrote: post #97

There are tons of bottles with that shape on the shelves of my local grocery store... It's quite common with any drink that isn't carbonated (and therefore doesn't have to contend with higher pressures). Juices, teas, etc...

Yeah, I'm left wanting. I thought maybe there was something interesting going on, but instead they seem to have discovered that rectangles pack more efficiently than circles. That's it? I learned that in geometry class as a teenager.

Re: Designing a Bottle

#123

Post by staticassertion »

ckastner wrote: post #109
sametmax wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are very condescending. These people are trying to do something, they share the process, they try to get some inspiration from people they like. What's the big deal ?

I do believe they are trying to do something, but it has more to do with marketing and product placement than with design. Lastly, we did our best to follow the “less but better” teachings of 1960’s Braun designs. These enduring designs are known for their stripped down features and clean lines. No unnecessary buttons or extraneous curves, just what you need; everything in its place. It's a bottle. There's no need to…

This is silly. Your argument is still "It's a bottle therefor stop making a big deal about it" - it's someone's job to care about it. They explain the problem they set out to solve, how they solved it, a background to how these problems are solved (I don't know shit about design, so the "less but better" reference is actually interesting).

If you want to say "It's marketing" no shit, anything any company publishes ends up going through marketing at some point. Every tech blog a company has is marketing. Who cares?

Re: Designing a Bottle

#124

Post by Raphmedia »

zichy wrote: post #91

Dear (Soylent) designers, please stop comparing yourselves with big names like Kubrick or Rams. You designed a plastic bottle - no more, no less.

Design is design. Be it bottles or something else. You use references and inspirations to come up with a strong design.

Re: Designing a Bottle

#125

Post by jclardy »

weego wrote: post #57
pervycreeper wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Then maybe soylent were solving the wrong problem

Milk cartons delivered to a school can be in a crate of hundreds, Soylent is delivered to a single person in a box of 12 or so.

A few cartons being damaged in the school delivery is fine, but even one damaged in the Soylent delivery means an angry customer.

Re: Designing a Bottle

#126

Post by jclardy »

ensiferum wrote: post #111
jitl wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The blog post cites visible damage from door delivery shipping as the major design issue that they were trying to solve. (Paper) cartons are much weaker and less resilient than plastic bottles. Think about the number of times you've seen dented or folded chicken soup cartons on supermarket shelves... I've certainly seen plenty of Safeway soup boxes to avoid because of obvious exterior damage. I don't think cartons wo…

And what exactly is the problem with denting? As long as the contents aren't spilled it should make no difference, no?

The problem is the customer paying $4+ a serving won't find that acceptable. A school won't care if a few $0.50 cartons are dented in a shipping crate of over a hundred milk cartons, but a customer that gets a dented $5 drink is going to complain and ask for a refund/replacement.

Re: Designing a Bottle

#127

Post by tonyb »

As someone that has a few commercially produced products (BBQ Rubs and Sauces) I never cease to be amazed by how much work the packaging piece of the puzzle is.

I easily spend as much time worrying about bottle, closures, labels, etc. as I do about the actual product.

Re: Designing a Bottle

#128

Post by rahilb »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #106
rahilb wrote: post #103

reminds me of possibly my favourite document of all time, the pepsi galaxy. https://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-arnell... > The Pepsi Ratio is created by two simple circles, that are in a set ratio to each other: The Golden Ratio. > The Pepsi Ratio is aesthetic geometry. > The Golden Ratio establishes a proportion of one part (a) relative to another (b). Playing by these rules produces an aestetic t…

It took me a long time to determine whether this was genuine, tongue-in-cheek, or a parody.

That's the hallmark of all the best satire :)

Re: Designing a Bottle

#129

Post by zichy »

staticassertion wrote: post #123
ckastner wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do believe they are trying to do something, but it has more to do with marketing and product placement than with design. Lastly, we did our best to follow the “less but better” teachings of 1960’s Braun designs. These enduring designs are known for their stripped down features and clean lines. No unnecessary buttons or extraneous curves, just what you need; everything in its place. It's a bottle. There's no need to…

This is silly. Your argument is still "It's a bottle therefor stop making a big deal about it" - it's someone's job to care about it. They explain the problem they set out to solve, how they solved it, a background to how these problems are solved (I don't know shit about design, so the "less but better" reference is actually interesting). If you want to say "It's marketing" no shit, anything any company publishes en…

It's more about being pretentious.

If you show me a nice program you coded, I'd say "that's cool".

If you show me a nice program you coded and tell me that you've been inspired by John Backus, Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds, I'd say "yeah well it's still a program".

Re: Designing a Bottle

#130

Post by rpeden »

d--b wrote: post #81

I wish they made a blog post about how they came about to think that Soylent was a good branding name. Having seen the movie, it makes me want to barf just looking at the bottle. This is not a joke, I actually feel nauseous because of the name.

To each their own, I guess.

I'm inclined to buy it because of the name. I appreciate a company with a good sense of humor.

That, and every time I see a Soylent ad on Facebook, I usually get a good 10+ minutes of amusement from reading the indignant comments about the product's name. To be clear, I have no problem with your stance on the issue; you described your feelings concisely and reasonably. Those FB comments, though....many of them are neither concise nor reasonable.

I think that sometimes, a name that provokes this kind of reaction is a good thing. Maybe it's better to have a product that people either love or hate than for some reason than to have one that everyone is indifferent about.

Post reply on HN