Glass Design Services

Shaping the future of glass packaging

At Ardagh Glass Packaging (AGP), our passion for glass drives our advancements in design and innovation across our operations in North America, Europe and Africa. We elevate our customers’ brands with our premium, iconic, quality glass bottles and jars that deliver knockout shelf appeal. We make it our priority to deliver the benefits of world-leading glass packaging direct to our customers.

We design and manufacture glass packaging that ensures your product in Ardagh glass becomes a distinctive feature of your brand. Through glass shape, size, colour and detailed 3D embossing, we create an emotional connection between your brand and consumers. A fully customised, one-of-a-kind glass design makes your brand instantly recognisable - even before the label goes on.

Brand premium

Glass has a long-standing reputation as a premium packaging material.
Its clarity, sparkling appearance and tactile feel all signal quality at first touch.
Glass is inert, meaning it protects a product’s purity without interacting with flavours, aromas or textures – a key aspect for luxury spirits, fine wines, high-end foods and beverages, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
Glass offers exceptional design flexibility, allowing brands to craft a unique identity on the shelf.

Design innovation

Design innovation sits at the crossroads of creativity, engineering and circularity, with the aim of improving performance while enhancing the consumer experience. Some examples of how we excel in design:

Automation and digitalisation enable more precise control of the forming process, helping to achieve consistent wall thickness and allowing advanced embossing and sculpting, even in lightweight designs.
Creative structural design such as bold sculpting shows how glass can serve as a canvas for storytelling.
Smart features such as ACL, printed QR codes and laser coding enable digital engagement and traceability.
Advances in digital design tools, such as Finite Element Analysis (FEA), allow new container concepts to be modelled and optimised for strength before they reach production. Wall thickness, weight distribution and structural integrity can be fine-tuned early in the development process, enabling lightweighting and down-gauging while retaining the dimensions and tactile qualities that brands rely on.

The focus is increasingly on doing more with less – reducing raw materials and energy use without compromising functionality or brand identity.

Lightweighting

To reduce the weight of a glass container we use advanced formulations to create glass packaging using fewer raw materials and reduced energy consumption. We prefer to take the approach of ‘rightweighting’ - refining the weight of the bottle, while ensuring we never compromise on strength, quality, durability or functionality.

Today, with cutting-edge design software and manufacturing precision, we can manufacture a 355ml or 35.5cl beer bottle weighing as little as 175g in North America. Our 75cl wine bottles in Europe can weigh just 300g. Our 750ml returnable beer bottles in Africa weigh as little as 430g. We continue to support our customers on this journey and push boundaries wherever possible.

Local connections

Regional design hubs across North America, Europe and Africa enable our teams to create and present new product designs tailored to customer briefs. We offer face-to-face on-site consultations with customers – or collaborate remotely online. From ideation to conception, we support our customers every step of the way. By partnering at the earliest design phases, we ensure products are crafted to exact production specifications for seamless implementation.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Where are Ardagh’s design teams located? Is there is a designer near me?

A: We have design teams across each of our regions – North America, Europe and Africa. In North America the design team is in Fishers (Indianapolis). In Europe, we have design teams in Germany, The Netherlands and the UK. In Africa, our design teams are in South Africa. Wherever you are based, support is just a call away!

Q: We currently use a different packaging format. Why should we move to glass?

A: With glass packaging, the possibilities are endless. Glass is inert, meaning it protects a product’s purity without interacting with flavours, aromas or textures. Glass supports a circular economy as it can safely be reused and endlessly recycled. It is the only packaging material that can be produced by nature alone. Ardagh produces distinctive and innovative glass packaging in all shapes and sizes – with a choice of almost 20 different colours – for brand owners around the world.

Q: We don’t have a design agency – is this a problem?

A: Not at all. Ardagh Glass Packaging teams across all our regions work directly with customers regardless of whether they have a designer in-house or collaborate with an external design agency. Our design teams understand the glass manufacturing process as well as the retail food and beverage market. We understand shelf appeal. Let us bring your design or creative vision to life with efficient manufacturing, smooth filling-line performance, and standout impact at point of sale.

Ardagh Glass Packaging - your strategic partner in turning bold glass packaging ideas into real-world, manufacturable solutions.

Our creative designers – with their in-depth industrial design expertise – work together with our engineering and production teams. Together, we’ve mastered every stage of the glass container manufacturing process, so your vision moves seamlessly from concept to production. Many of the glass packaging designs developed by our in-house design team have been recognised with industry awards!