A bottle competition
The Coca-Cola contour bottle grew from a 1915 packaging competition. Chapman J. Root assembled a Root Glass Company team that included plant supervisor Alexander Samuelson, auditor Clyde Edwards and bottle designer Earl R. Dean.
Research, sketch and mould
Edwards and Dean researched plant forms at the library in Terre Haute. A cocoa pod provided the reference for the curved central body. Dean translated the sketch into a machined mould and produced sample bottles for the competition. The original design belongs to that Root Glass team.
What to examine
Study a bottle’s outline alongside its lettering, then consider what remains identifiable when one of those cues is removed. This makes packaging recognition a concrete design question. Following the move from library research to mould and sample also gives the shape a production history, rather than explaining it solely through the reputation the finished package later acquired.