Glass manufacturer Ardagh Group has teamed up with Absolut Vodka to create a limited-edition bottle that highlights the need to recycle and reuse our existing resources.
The Absolut Company, together with communication and design agency Drama Queen Communications, first briefed Ardagh’s Design Team to create a bottle design based on recycled glass.
Together they developed the ‘Absolut Comeback’ design: a bottle using actual pieces of broken, recycled glass, reflecting the recycled glass that goes into every Absolut Vodka bottle.
To create the ‘recycled’ bottle design, Ardagh’s designers used the reverse engineering technique. Product Designer, John Oczabruk explained:
“Because this is a completely original bottle design, we first needed to create a sculpture by attaching pieces of recycled Absolut bottle glass to a 3D print of an Absolut bottle, to maintain the bottle’s iconic look and shape.
“The reverse engineering began by digitally scanning the sculpture into our modelling system, then reconstructing the design to work smoothly in production.”
The detailed process required a pan-European approach: UK, Swedish and German design teams were all involved, using 3D prints, digital scanning and virtual sculpting techniques to create the final 3D shape.
The result was a ‘recycled glass’ version of the Absolut vodka bottle.
It is said to symbolise the bottle’s recycled content and aims to celebrate recycling and inspire others to recycle too, for more sustainable, circular living.
