The commodification of H2O: how water became a designed product

Bottled water is one of the great success stories of the design industry. The design brief could have quite simply been written as: Add value to a 'colourless, transparent, odourless, tasteless, liquid compound of oxygen and hydrogen' (Oxford Dictionary 2008), that is freely available virtually everywhere. It appears an impossible challenge. However, due to a clever combination of branding and packaging, H2O is now transported around the world, and is available as a differentiated product at distinct price points, even on the same supermarket shelf. The research project traces the evolution of this phenomenon and the factors that led to its success. One key factor is the social symbolism contained in the packaging, and its capacity to confer status. As the contents, H2O, are completely undifferentiated, the packaging assumes an importance perhaps unparalleled in consumer product design. The environmental, economic, and social factors that result from the success of bottled water are explored.