"The contour bottle has slim, elegant curves, and vertical grooves inspired by illustrations the industrial designers at the Root Glass Company in Terre Haute, Indiana, found in a reference book.
Since then, the bottle has helped make Coke a global behemoth; it’s helped make artists like Andy Warhol even more famous; and it’s helped establish American preeminence in industrial and consumer-product design.
British design critic Stephen Bayley put on the first exhibition of Coke-related art and design at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1986. He’s co-author of a glossy coffee-table book about the iconic brand and bottle.
“I grew up with Coke — for me, that was the taste of pleasure,” said Bayley. “Get access to Coke and you get access to that glorious American dream world.”
The 1915 bottle was invented in a contest Coke put on for glass-makers. The company wanted to distinguish its packaging from copycat cola-makers who were cutting into its business. Coke’s board issued this challenge, according to a history posted on the Coca-Cola company’s website, to develop: “a bottle so distinct that you would recognize if by feel in the dark or lying broken on the ground.”
Happy # 100 to an American classic.
