Miller Lite Iconic Bottle

So this has been under wraps for some time now. I went through a lengthy process of vetting out various design firms and came down to 4sight. In addition to that, there was quite a bit of consumer insights eval along with some conceptual quant/qual work we did to narrow down the concepts. I’m currently in the process of writing a short article about design and how it influenced the development of this bottle. The development of this bottle was “new” in many ways for the company and I’m proud to have led the design intiatives for such a project. I’ll post that up as soon as I can. Below are the results and I’m curious to see what my fellow design peeps think. It was incredibly challenging from all aspects and something that opened my eyes to various aspects of the business.

First thoughts are - wow that’s pretty bold - and what happened to the vortex neck? Thought that had enough equity to make it into the next generation of structures.

I wish the images were of similar qualities…not fair of a comparison to look at a blurry image next to a very sharp one.

I like the silhouette in general. Wondering about the shield around the grain logo at the bottom.

In general it makes sense for dark colored bottles to have higher label placement - better shelf recognition - and I bet the angled (vs perpendicular) label wasn’t easy to pull off.

When will this be rolling out in the PNW? Still waiting on my angled Bud and now this.

You’re killing AB InBev on packaging. I love it. As Slippy said, it’s a bold move but it’s a move in the right direction. I can’t wait to see how it looks and feels in person. I’m usually a can guy (punch tops!) but I’ll get this when I see it, for sure.

Would love to see more background. Nice work!

Looks old fashioned, which is fine, but it feels wrong with the NFL-NASCAR-WWF graphic. 2 worlds (demographics) colliding here.

Agree. Would love to see “The Champagne of Beers” label on this bottle, I bet that would be pretty fresh.

Through our research, we found that people began to identify the vortex as a design element. So we decided to take the opportunity to reinterpret that element into something more tangible like the tactile area on the lower portion of the glass.


It was an area of detail we wanted to communicate effervescence and it needed to be framed somehow and this was the final execution after exploring other options. The “shield” is not as prominent in normal lighting conditions. I love this area though because it provides a great “fiddle factor” opportunity for consumers.

It should be in PNW by the end of the month in bars/restaurants. If it’s not there by then let me know and I’ll see what’s up.

I agree with the photo resolution. I wish it was better as well.

Thanks NURB! Here’s an article by Gizmodo that I’m featured in that starts to get into a little detail about the recent industry changes. Why So Many Beer Bottles Suddenly Look So Different

I have an article I wrote about the background of design for the bottle coming out this Monday which I’ll post for you guys to check out. I was limited to 400 words and legal review, so I had to crop a lot of awesome info out.

It’s a huge move for us on a brand with such a long history with our consumers. That relationship made designing this bottle much more complex than simply designing a bottle for a new brand with no consumer relationship built behind it.

Yeah, we actually got that a little in our research. It was pretty complex sifting through the data and try to come up with something contemporary yet played within the emotional lexicon of miller lite. I think the reason it feels off is because the graphic development was done independently of the bottle design work. Something we’re working on.

Here’s some additional detail on the process that was approved by legal earlier this week. It’s my first article about the process of design and I was trying to capture some relevant points of the process but I was limited to just 400 words. So please forgive me if it appears that I’m jumping around.

http://www.millercoorsblog.com/miller-lite-iconic-bottle/

Anything that you would have liked to learn about that I didn’t include?

I could not figure out why that bottle felt so familiar, and then it hit me…

Ah yes, the Sprite bottles from the 60’s. I’m not surprised considering our research methodology relies on the historical context of what’s around them. Although, the consumers we used were not alive in the 60’s and so they may be have gravitated to the structural elements from a different source.

It’s always a challenge designing a heavily commoditized material with production restrictions in place. I’m sure all the bottle designs out there have a couple “grandparents” floating around out there. :smiley: