Ardagh has created a reusable, citrus themed jar in partnership with Duerr's, the UK's oldest, family-owned jam and marmalade company.

Ardagh’s designers were given a specific brief by Duerr’s Managing Director, Mark Duerr, to develop a totally unique jar that looked like, and had the feel of citrus fruit.

Sales and Marketing Director, Richard Duerr says: “The shape and format of preserve jars hasn’t changed for a long time – consumer research told us that we needed to do something to shake up the category and appeal to a younger consumer.”

What on paper sounded a fairly straightforward project was in fact full of technical challenges.

To create a tactile ‘citrus’ jar to the right size and scale and replicate the peel effect, the Ardagh design team had to find a balance between meeting the aesthetic expectations of the customer, the practicalities of volume production and the need for outstanding shelf presence.

Through a combination of 3D printing, Prototyping and CAD sculptured embossing, the project evolved through numerous iterative development stages.

Clear models (Perspex) were produced as part of this process to replicate what the finished glass jar would look like, specifically in relation to the peel effect on the surface.

A critical tool in achieving the all-important peel effect was sculptured embossing.

This advanced design software uses a haptic device, which gives the designer hands-on control to manually sculpt real-life effects on the surface of the container, which in this case was the peel of the orange.

A further decision had to be taken about the labelling, as all previous Duerr’s products had used conventional paper labels.

In this instance, as conventional labels would crease over the jar’s spherical surface, a full body shrink label was chosen.

The Fine Cut Sunny Seville and the Thick Cut Classic Seville launched in-store in October 2016.

Richard Duerr, says: “The range is packed full of the freshest, juiciest fruit, with natural, simple ingredients.

“The new packaging will totally transform the fixture, with shoppers already saying they can’t wait to use the jars as anything from candle holders to cocktail glasses once the contents have all been enjoyed!”