Responses by Nathan Frank, head of brand development; and Philip Nessen, head of design, Interesting Development.

Background: The site is part of the launch of the Ever & Ever Brand by All Market Inc.—the parent company to Vita Coco—to disrupt the conventional water category dominated by single-use plastic bottles.

Unlike plastic, 75 percent of aluminum ever used is still in use today. It’s a more sustainable alternative for single-use beverage containers. Everybody knows there is a problem, but not everybody knows there is a solution. Instead of making people feel guilty or ashamed about the recycling crisis, Ever & Ever comes to the environmental conversation with a solution that doesn’t require a massive shift in their behavior. Its unique but familiar form—an aluminum bottle can—feels similar to holding a plastic water bottle. And with its resealable cap, customers can buy and drink water just the way they always have, but without the plastic waste.

In addition to e-commerce, the site also functions as a means of education about the infinite recyclability of aluminum versus plastic and other materials. It employs dynamic visuals and whimsical storytelling to tell a deeper story than what’s recyclable.

Design core: We wanted our branding to express an undeniable excitement about the solution. An excess of text and tiny spot illustrations reminiscent of a newspaper tell a theoretical history of each piece of aluminum. Looping titles and phrases mimic the product’s title, Ever & Ever, all a nod to aluminum’s infinite recyclability and the storied past of each piece of aluminum. As a wink to the can’s sheer volume of text, we have truncated text blocks several times. That way, we can sneak lots of text into the site in a way that isn’t overwhelming at first glance.

New lessons: The site had to balance usable and contemporary design while living up to the company’s branding, which—in many ways—runs counter to both of those things: looping phrases, old-timey layout, lots of text. In the end, we were able to find digital ways to reinforce that brand idea: looping movies, simply animated spot illustrations and rich transitions that evoke infinity. Between products, visitors can drag to scroll side to side, making page transitions feel like a rotation; we also leveraged infinite scrolling, so the site scrolls endlessly.

Navigation structure: The site is simple and has a straightforward navigation system: a traditional, one-page info website with many ways to a buy page. This was for a good reason: as we incorporated the nontraditional branding into the design, it became clear the site couldn’t be too novel, or the experience would feel alien.

We picked our battles here. We did reinforce the idea of an infinitely recyclable resource by creating a sense of endlessness. You can actually scroll through the Ever & Ever website forever without coming to an end.