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Big Spaceship, project design and development
Glacéau, client

"Proving that beverages can be interpreted as objects of beauty, this site engages users in endless explorations, irreverent interactions and pleasing movement." —juror Liz Danzico

"The simplicity and fluidity of the design make this the best product site I've seen all year. The only disconnect is the inclusion of celebrities." —juror Jon McVey

Overview: Glacéau "improves" on Mother Nature by adding vitamins, electrolytes and flavor to plain water. Through a smart design and imaginative interface, the site provides visitors with an energized, humorous place where they can explore every bottle, flavor, vitamin and boost of energy. With a swirling product helix, three-dimensional bottles shown large enough to read, vibrant color and clever copy that consistently mimics what's found on the packaging, Glacéau aptly captures the personality of each and every product in the line.

• The site was created in six months by a ten-person creative team.
• Programming was ActionScript 2, the 3-D work was created in Cinema 4D, and After Effects was used for some animations and output of 3-D spins.

Comments by Big Spaceship:
What was the most challenging aspect of the project? "We were exploring fairly new ground when we began working with Glacéau (at the time, we'd only collaborated with one other beverage industry client). In retrospect, we think it was our fresh, bright-eyed perspective that ultimately worked to our advantage.

"The brand was already well-established when this project got underway. Its packaging was easily identified and its fans were dedicated. However, its offline personality was not evident online. Our biggest challenge was to evolve the brand in the digital landscape. It meant encapsulating the product’s humor and functionality in a way that aligned with its existing character.

"Glacéau had a wealth of imagery and content at its fingertips. The trick was to use it to communicate in a way that was intuitive, convenient and visually appealing. The packaging was already doing its job engaging the audience in an educational, entertaining way, we just needed to figure out how to abstractly represent the vitamins, minerals, fruits and herbs used to create these unique products. We decided to present Glacéau's waters from the standpoint of both art and science.

"With so many flavors and so much to say about each one, the scale of the project was huge—each flavor page contained anywhere from 25 to 100 moving objects at any given moment. Needless to say, we learned how to be thrifty when it came to vector and animation usage.

"Our strategy paid off. We not only made science approachable, we made it entertaining. At the same time, we redefined how beverages are communicated and depicted online."