Function and Form

One of the most exciting things to witness in the world of design is the re-imagination of an everyday object. Take the humble chair. Brad Dunning’s curation of The Modern Chair exhibition made us contemplate how a creative rethinking of the ordinary can yield extraordinary results.

Consider the water bottle. Thanks in part to an eco-consciousness about reducing plastic waste, clever consumer marketing, and the VSCO girl phenomenon, the stainless-steel water bottle is having a moment. Nearly as ubiquitous as smart phones, carried by adults and teens alike, they’ve become something of a status accessory, often customized with stickers. The design differences between them are minute, and largely a matter of branding.

When we stumbled upon the All-Day Adventure Flask, it jumped out as a brilliant rethinking of a now-commoditized object. We discovered it on Kickstarter, an indie project pitched by Hibear, a small company out of Reno, Nevada.

Billed as “the Swiss Army knife of water bottles,” the Adventure Flask transforms from a water bottle to a pour-over coffee maker to a tea infuser to a cocktail shaker or wine decanter. A removable thermal core pops in the freezer and screws into the cocktail shaker to chill wine without watering it down with ice. A rubber sleeve protects the bottom and can be removed for use as a cup.

We love the attention to detail, with design elements that pull double duty. The top of the bottle unscrews and inverts to form the pour-over mechanism; when it’s removed, the bottom of the bottle is easy to reach and clean. The flat-topped cap rests solidly upside down, and it holds exactly one ounce of liquid—handy when you’re mixing cocktails. A mesh screen inside the cocktail strainer catches coffee grounds and tea leaves; it also aerates decanted wine and catches the little sulfites that float around in a bottle of red. The thermal core can be used as a muddler.