2D Artwork to 3D Bottle Contours

Graham Packaging Company, L.P., a global producer of custom blow-molded plastic containers, has designed a new 64-ounce PET (polyethylene terephthalate) hot-fill grip bottle for Apple & Eve juices and juice blends that features unique three-dimensional, sculpted detail on the bell of the jar to make it more eye-catching on store shelves.

The bell displays the Apple & Eve logo — an apple with a bite taken out — on a basket filled with fruit. “The logo and the fruit basket are rendered in a very intricate way, to an extent that hasn’t been done before in the industry,” said John Denner, director of PET Packaging Development for Graham Packaging.

Denner credits Sheldon Yourist, a design manager at Graham Packaging, with pioneering a proprietary electronic design process that translates two-dimensional artwork into a three-dimensional relief design. The process creates a 2D “contour map” of the raised and lowered areas of relief, which is graphically projected onto a 3D bottle contour. This digital information is then used to create the molds in which containers are formed.

“This is the first time this kind of process has been used for plastic container design,” Denner said. “It would be difficult or impossible to do this any other way, unless you were to sculpt the bottle by hand in clay or plaster and then reverse engineer it with a digital laser scan. Our process is much more efficient and cost-effective.”