Sunday, 25 April 2010

Designed by Morons: the new Al Rawabi milk bottles



What mental midget designed the new Al Rawabi milk bottles? The shape is now square-ish and the ‘handle’ is so thick that I can’t get my hand round it to pour. There's no way a child or elderly person could use it. In fact, unless you have hands the size of a pro-wrestlers’ you won’t be able to use it either right or left handed without spilling the contents. 

6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Is it supposed to look like a camel?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ah, the Moron School of Design - it has a huge number of graduates working in all sorts of industries.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This reminds me of the roundabout freeway interchanges (largely now gone except for the one out at Jebel Ali Village) that appeared in Dubai in about 1992. These guys are fascinated with the way things look, not the way they function (circle being high on their preference list). With the roundabouts: you would exit the freeway on a two lane ramp; you were then faced with a one lane roundabout- one on each side of each off ramps- thus if you were turning left you went through one roundabout to turn left and then another on the other side to go straight. Backed up traffic for miles since you had two lanes ocming in and one lane inside - but they pretty from above and in plan- they ended up tearing them all out and installing what you now have which are standard off ramps. Brilliance!

    ReplyDelete
  5. A bit late I know, but I have to defend the new milk carton. I think it is aesthetically very pleasing - a solid, "chunky" yet elegant design that leaves notions of blow-moulded HDPE being flimsy and cheap-looking as far behind as any consumer package I have ever seen. It is also practical: the footprint is relatively small so it fits comfortably in the fridge door shelf leaving plenty of room for my water bottle, orange juice and whatever "beverage" may be open at the moment. Despite this small footprint, the pinched waist means it has a low centre of gravity so it is not easily knocked over. And as for the grip, well if you look carefully it is significantly tapered. Now while I may have the build of a professional wrestler (please note I am talking Giant Haystacks here rather than The Rock), I have the delicate hands of a (lazy) artisan and the slender fingers of a seamstress - ok, too much information - but what I'm getting at is that I had no trouble picking it up and pouring (also nicely facilitated by the vertical wall tilting away below the spout).

    No, I think what we have here is what the guys in the IT department generally refer to as a "user problem". Honestly, you all come off as moaning minnies. For a start, there is always a huge choice of milk cartons available. Pick a boring old conventional one if that's all you can cope with. Me, I will reinforce my innate sense of cutting edge superciliousness by making a beeline for the Al Rawabi unit every time. And Anon 5:54, "These guys.." Seriously??

    ReplyDelete
  6. Rootless: I agree, the bottle works so well if you just stop using it like any old milk carton. The new grip is great for stability, one hand always being close to the spout part when pouring.

    ReplyDelete