Above: Bottle design by Kylie Holmes

THIS IS IT: Project by Kylie Holmes

THIS IS IT is a campaign against the use of PET water bottles. It aims to raise awareness of the devastating effects that PET bottles have on our environment, health and society.

THIS IS IT is targeted at all PET bottled water consumers. Last year, sales of bottled water reached $11.7 billion in the U.S alone. That's 8.82 billion gallons. This number becomes staggering when you bear in mind that the amount of oil it takes to produce one standard PET bottle of water is the equivalent of filling that bottle ¼ full of oil. It also takes 3-5 times the amount of water in one standard PET bottle to produce that bottle, due to the manufacturing process of the plastic.

To raise awareness, I have created a series of 12 postcards promoting the dangers of PET bottles. Each postcard addresses a different issue/danger/alternative to using PET bottles.

I have also designed a glass water bottle called 'THIS IS IT?' that acts as a test sample of reclaimed/desalinated water. The purpose of this is to demonstrate to the consumer that all water ends up tasting the same, thus helping them get over the mental roadblock of drinking water from alternative sources. This concept is best explained by the text on the back, which reads,

“"PURE SPRING WATER. TEST YOURSELF, THEN CHECK UNDER THE CAP FOR THE ANSWER".

Finally, with PET bottled water sales projected to rise exponentially in the coming years, the time to act is NOW to prevent further damage to our planet and ourselves. This is crunch time. THIS IS IT.

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About Message in a bottle

Third year Communication Design Students at Monash University were encouraged to participate in the Aspen Design Challenge 'Designing Water's Future' by responding to the environmental issue of buying drinking water in plastic bottles. The Message in a Bottle required students to develop a campaign to discourage the use of bottled water through the sale of bottled water. The ironical message would imply that this is the last bottle of water you will buy.

Students were asked to design and brand water bottles for desalinated water and for reclaimed water (recycled sewage) so as to highlight the urgency of the issue. The water bottle was also designed to promote the sale of the ultimate resource book on water. This "Aquapedia" would be the definitive book on water and could be purchased on line.

Project leader

Russell Kennedy, Senior Lecturer, Visual Communication,
Monash University, Faculty of Art & Design

Links

Water Project website
INDEX: | AIGA Aspen Design Challenge website