My biggest gripe about hiking is the amount of stuff I have to carry. While it’s somewhat my fault — I don’t need my hairbrush — water is the real culprit. What if you could keep all the water you might want in one bottle?
Classes
Advanced Design, Product Development
Skills
Research & Strategy · Product Development
This was the inspiration behind The One Thing, a campaign I created in a design class as an extension of a business project. The previous semester, I’d worked in a team to conduct a comprehensive audit of the Hydro Flask brand. We surveyed consumers, ran focus groups, and analyzed data to come up with three product ideas. After bringing the ideas back to our focus groups and crunching the numbers, we found that the Smart Lid — a companion product with temperature control and a water filter — ranked first for consumer appeal and profit potential.

While innovating products for Hydro Flask was exciting, the project left me with the itch to create something. So, when a project for a future class was to revisit a past project, I jumped at the opportunity to bring the Smart Lid to life.
I started by analyzing the Smart Lid, focusing on its benefits, target audience, and purpose, and I determined that portability was its key value. Its built-in filter means that any water source is drinkable, and the temperature control makes it relevant, morning and night, transforming where and how Hydro Flasks can be used.

Insight in hand, I decided the best way to add value to the project was to bridge the gap between concept and consumer. To bring the lid to life, I came up with a campaign which pulled the Smart Lid off paper and into consumers’ thoughts, wants, and needs, centered around the tagline: “The one thing: carry only what you need.”

I built a design system around this copy, creating traditional ads and digital activations featuring diverse adventurers — from hikers with prosthetics to surfers on tiny boards — to reinforce that the Smart Lid is the one thing anyone needs for any adventure.