Did you know that the classic Coca-Cola glass bottle has some Swedish roots? 🇸🇪 In 1915, the American soda company launched a nationwide competition to design a new bottle – and they aimed high, to say the least. The brief? ‘A bottle so distinct it could be recognised by touch in the dark or even when broken on the ground.' 👀 Enter Alexander Samuelson – glassblower extraordinaire and 19th-century immigrant from Surte, west Sweden. As the shop foreman of contenders Root Glass Company in Indiana, Samuelson sent two of his men to a local library to look for design inspiration. 📚 What caught their eye? An illustration of a cocoa pod. 🌱 The pod’s elongated shape and distinct ribs would inspire their winning design and the ribbed shape of the glass bottle we know today. 🏆 The patent, much like Coca-Cola’s secret recipe, became a central part of the company’s highly recognisable branding. 🔐 A fun fact: Coca-Cola was forbidden in Sweden until 1953 because of food laws against caffeine and phosphoric acid! ❌🇸🇪 The Coca-Cola Company #CocaCola #AlexanderSamuelson #SwedishDesign #DesignHistory 📸: 1. Records of the Patent and Trademark Office/National Archives (Patent No. 48106) 2. Jörgen Ludwigsson/Smålands Museum 3. Photographer unknown/Svenska formgivare 4. Medicaster/Wikimedia 5. Bertil Samuelsson/Postmuseum 6. Percy Heldebrandt/Grenna Museum 7. Photograoher unknown
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