The Simple but Brilliantly Designed Bisleri 5L bottle

In our everyday products, there don’t seem to be too many that actually catch your eye for being beautifully and thoughtfully designed.
I can hardly think of any.

While I am not a fan of packaged drinking water, there was a time over a decade ago when that was all I drank for a year and a half! Not proud of it. Back then, in a role that involved a ton of meetings and being on the road between those meetings, a 5-litre and a few 2-litre bottles were a common sight in the car. And I’d drink directly from the 5-litre once I was out of the 2-litres. And that might be the reason it took me a while to actually notice and appreciate the beauty of the design of that 5-litre Bisleri bottle (left one in the pic below).

The sides of the 5-litre bottle, that the company has always referred to as the ‘Rocking Bottle’ are curved, allowing you to place it on the edge of a table and easily fill other bottles by ‘rocking it’ on its side, without leaving a pool of water around. Because that’s what the 5-litre bottles are for, filling other bottles. After all, they are too small for homes. And who is crazy enough to drink directly from a 5-litre bottle?

And it might either be thoughtfully designed so, or a cost thing, or even a half-assed effort at being eco-friendly, but the plastic on the side near the base is thin enough to flatten as the bottle tilts, forming a sort of extended base. And as you tilt more, it might flatten a bit more, again intentionally or unintentionally offering a bit more stability when pouring.

Bisleri’s 20-litre bottle (right) however, a common sight in apartments rented out by out-of-town employees, as well as a practical option for homes where both partners are busy working, while useful, is just as badly designed. These 20-litre giants must surely be the cause of many a serious back problem.

Are there any products you use or come across regularly that are beautifully and/or thoughtfully designed?

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