140 year-old Heineken has a new design

Gerald Adriaan Heineken was 22-years-old when he purchased a brewery in the heart of Amsterdam and started making what became one of the world’s most popular beers.

Today the iconic beer brand is celebrating its 140th anniversary.

Heineken asked its drinkers around the world to come up with ideas for a new bottle in honour of the milestone, and Burrows Lightbourn Ltd is giving away 200 of the limited edition bottles to customers here.

Winning names will be picked once a month, between now and June,

Qian Dickinson, the beer sales and marketing manager, said the limited edition gift pack was something to be treasured.

“You can drink it if you like, but it’s one of those things you can have 50 years from now that you never open.

“It’s really a collector’s item and the fact it’s so limited and you can’t buy it [in stores] is quite typical for a lot of things we do for the Heineken promotions.

“You can’t just go to the store and buy a Heineken T-shirt, it’s something that’s given out to reward our consumers.”

Heineken could have easily hired an advertising firm to come up with a new design logo, but they wanted to engage with their customers, Mr Dickinson said.

The 2011 challenge sought to get designers from around the world to interprete the theme: how will people connect in the next 140 years? Each designer was asked to design half of the bottle, then join forces with a stranger via Facebook and submit a joint entry.

The company received more than 3,000 submissions and ultimately chose Rudolfo Kusulas of Mexico and Lee Dunford from Australia as the winners.

The limited edition gift pack includes four 16 fl oz aluminium bottles; a vintage edition from Paris 1889 and another from Amsterdam in 1931; a celebratory anniversary bottle and a bottle featuring the winning design.