I came across it the way you come across most things worth knowing about: by going up to a stranger. A woman lounging at Napier Quarter in Fitzroy, drink bottle in hand, so pristine and sleek I had to ask. “Joyrolla,” she said. “It’s called the Vessel.”
The aluminium suitcase of the drink bottle world is how I’ve come to think of it. Where quality, design and functionality combine to give you something that will age with glory. Words never used to describe a drink bottle before. I know.
It’s the work of Marissa and Alex Mills, the founders of Joyrolla, who came to product design through graphic design and photography, then large-scale events, and now an online store. “We’d always talked about creating a product of our own,” she says. “For a long time we didn’t know exactly what it would be. Eventually, it stopped being about waiting for the perfect idea and became more about just starting.”
Marissa tells us the design for the vessel was heavily inspired by mid-century furniture, architecture and objects from that era, spanning roughly 1945 to the early 1970s. “There’s so much personality in it,” Mills says, “particularly in the relationship between form and material.” The Vessel drew directly from vintage lighters and chrome furniture, “objects that feel considered even at a small scale.”
This way of thinking, which grew into mid-century design, emerged after World War II as a reaction against the ornate formalities that had ruled beforehand. It was a period of optimism, new technologies, and new materials. Lines were sleek and minimalist, colours kept warm. People were steering away from the decorative and overly embellished, toward something more honest that suited modern life. It came with a belief that good design should belong to everyone, not just to those who could afford the elaborate.
