Message In A Bottle: Ever Vessel brings heart (and art) to our daily drinking habits

Good ideas don’t necessarily get dreamed up at a desk. Sometimes, they start on a small boat… A family trip, surrounded by water and the gentle rhythm of the sea. Somewhere between refilling drink bottles and watching the horizon drift past, Bec and Tim Bligh began thinking about these objects we carry every day; and how surprisingly difficult they can be to keep clean.

A water bottle seems simple enough. But like most ‘everyday’ things, it’s anything but. Most of us have a favourite bottle that follows us on our adventures, from office desk to bush hikes. It’s handled constantly, tossed into bags, dropped, refilled, sometimes lost, often replaced… It needs to work hard, feel good (and fit!) in your hand, and ideally be kept clean for the long haul. Tim and Bec noticed many brands focus on looks or function but not maintainability. What if, they wondered, a drinkware range could be both beautiful and easy to clean?

Ever Vessel grew from that question. Bec and Tim decided not to rush to market, but slowly refine form and function; designing, testing and developing every product from their home in Brisbane. In 2022, they launched the Mini, Multi and Glass Multi, with the Maxi and Super Maxi following in 2024. Their work has resulted in a collection of reusable stainless steel and glass drinking bottles that are thoughtfully designed, practical, and built to last: the kind of item you don’t need to replace every year because it still does its job and does it well.

More recently, Ever Vessel has added another layer to their story: supporting beautiful art. Their recent collaborations with Aussie-based artists Paola Castro, Ben Miners and Martin Thompson have turned their bottles into portable – and functional – canvases. It’s a natural evolution for a brand rooted in sustainability and everyday usefulness: proof that even the most ordinary objects can impart wonder. Bec Bligh shares more about the intention behind Ever Vessel.

Hi Bec! A little birdy told us that Ever Vessel’s story set sail while you and your family were on a boat trip – can you tell us more about what was happening that made you go, ‘we want to solve this problem?’

Haha, yes that little birdy knows a lot! After our daughter was born, we sailed up the Queensland coast for six months on a small multi-hull yacht. Space was precious, so every item that came on board was vetted. One problem we kept running into was mould growing in our water bottles in spots that were completely impossible to reach and clean in our tiny galley sink.

We wanted a bottle that could handle cold water, hot tea, or a straw without the mould building up because it was too hard to clean. We looked everywhere and nothing ticked all the boxes, so we decided to make it ourselves. The idea was born on the sea. And now that sailing adventure is something that softly resonates through our design and product names to this day.

From that seed of an idea to launching the brand, what was the most surprising twist in the journey?

Honestly, the most surprising thing was discovering how much signal there is in your customers versus everyone else. When you start a business, everyone you know has opinions and ideas to share, which is lovely and welcomed. As we launched into the world, we found that feedback from someone who found Ever Vessel through their online research carried a completely different weight. They made an intentional choice to purchase a water bottle from an unknown brand because of a close alignment in values. They’re not being polite or parroting features they like in different brands. They’ve made a thoughtful purchase and genuinely want to discuss their experience.

That shift has directly shaped our new products, colourways, and refinements with every production run. The business has been steered far more by that community than by any original plan.

Your bottles are simple, but beautiful: what are the core design principles that guide how you think about everyday objects? And how does what you offer differ from other typical brands on the market?

Over the years, we’ve realised that the best products we use daily are those designed with a clear purpose. From the start with Ever Vessel, our focus has been simple: make a water bottle you can actually keep clean. That sounds obvious, but lots of brands are chasing features such as UV lights, temperature displays and smart tech. Fun for five minutes, but nobody’s asking whether you can still clean it properly in six months.

Our bottles all have wide-mouth openings and shallow gasket channels specifically designed for easy cleaning. Gaskets hidden in hard-to-reach spots, components you can’t replace, and features that complicate long-term maintenance all shorten a water bottle’s useful life, either because upkeep becomes an impossible chore or the novelty wears off. Ever Vessel water bottles and tea flasks keep it simple. No batteries, no charging, no overcomplication.

We also take a slow-fashion approach to design offering a classic colour palette and minimalist aesthetic. Simple but classy. If you look closely, there’s a subtle water-drop dimple on each bottle that quietly connects the whole range. Small, intentional, and a nod to where it all began out on the water.

Over the years, we’ve realised that the best products we use daily are those designed with a clear purpose.

What were some of the main challenges you wanted to solve with Ever Vessel?

Cleanliness! The core challenge was an easy-to-clean multipurpose water bottle that was built to last. It meant focusing on minimalist design and avoiding ideas with impossible to reach holes and crevices. We also focused on quality materials using borosilicate glass and 18/8 grade stainless steel as they don’t retain flavours or odours the way plastic does. All things that add up to a bottle with a genuinely long useful life.

Each model in the Ever Vessel range is designed to suit slightly different audiences and their hydration preferences, but they all share the same core design principles and solve the same fundamental problems.
On cleaning, two mistakes come up constantly. First: not letting the bottle dry completely after washing. Second: ignoring the gasket. Gaskets have a porous surface that attracts odour-causing molecules, so if you’re not cleaning yours regularly, especially if you use your drink bottle for anything other than water, it’ll start tainting everything you drink. The problem is most bottles have deep gasket channels that make removal difficult or impossible.

The Ever Vessel range has won both Good Design and Red Dot awards. What do recognitions like these mean for a small design-led brand like yours?

The Red Dot for the Super Maxi was a big moment for us. What we loved most was that the jury comments described exactly what we set out to achieve with our “minimalist style and easy-to-clean lid design” offering “enhanced hygiene”. That kind of independent validation matters because it gives customers confidence that we’re not just making this stuff up. As a design-led brand, that distinction is important. There are a lot of products out there making design claims that really just refer to a logo or a colour choice, and it can be hard to cut through the marketing spiel. Not all awards are equal either. Recognition from internationally respected design institutions carries genuine weight, and we don’t take that lightly.

Can you tell us more about what sustainability means to Ever Vessel, and how you balance sustainable choices with the realities of manufacturing and product longevity?

Sustainability to us means continually making considered steps in the right direction, not ticking a box and moving on. We have always been believers in the ‘buy it for life’ philosophy, where the most sustainable product is simply one you actually use for a long time.

In practice for Ever Vessel, that shapes every decision. It means making choices that prioritise quality materials, simple design, and genuine repairability over the latest trending fad. We chose a leading manufacturer in China with certifications for quality, environmental responsibility, and fair labour. These were non-negotiables, not afterthoughts.

One area that has been an ongoing evolution is packaging. Having glass breaking in transit meant waste and replacement, the opposite of what we stand for. In 2024 we developed a lightweight custom cardboard over-box which helped minimise these incidents and is standard across the range.

We have always been believers in the ‘buy it for life’ philosophy, where the most sustainable product is simply one you actually use for a long time.

Your Artist Series collaborations with Paola Castro, Ben Miners and Martin Thompson bring an exciting new dimension to an everyday object – we’re particularly in love with Paola’s ocean-themed artwork ‘Mar de Vida’, so gorgeous! How did you go about choosing the artists you wanted to collaborate with? (And do you have a favourite design? Unfair question, I know!

Paola’s work is just stunning the way she’s woven her Mexican heritage and her adopted Australian home into a single piece. It is something really special.

For the initial three collaborations, we were fortunate to have some incredibly talented artists already within our extended circle who we knew and trusted. That mattered a lot, because there were plenty of unknowns at the time: timelines, production logistics, and getting ready for Christmas demand. Working with people we had existing relationships with meant we could navigate any hiccups with honesty and goodwill.

The other key consideration was range. Martin’s work is an original acrylic painting highlighting the beautiful flora and fauna of Western Australia whereas Paola’s is vibrant and narrative-driven. Ben was actually given a more specific brief to create a minimalist and on-brand design where he chose to pick up on wave geometry. Another nod back to where the whole story began, out on the water. Deliberately three completely different aesthetics and three very different artist’s stories.

As for a favourite design? Absolutely not answering that. Next question!

Was it tricky to find a way to ‘print’ these designs on the bottles themselves, in a way that would last?

Yes, genuinely tricky. We did extensive research and tested various printing methods. The quality difference was obvious and there was a clear winner. Most glass artwork in the industry is done via screen printing. We decided to invest in UV printing technology, which is relatively new and largely unseen in Australia. The whole process took several months but we’re really happy with where we landed.

The way the machine prints on the glass water bottle really gives a level of detail and colour fidelity these artworks genuinely deserve. And importantly, the print meets our daily use and washing standard.

You’re planning more artist collaborations in future – can you tell us about them?

We’re really excited to expand the Artist Series this year and beyond. The collaborations can work a few different ways. I’ve had my eye on a few artists I’m hoping to approach this year. We’re also open to artists who have their own following and are looking for a beautiful product to carry their work to their own customers. It goes both ways.

We’re also working with a local university on a competition to uncover emerging talent from the current graduate cohort. This one is particularly exciting because it’s about giving new artists a genuine platform.
If any artists are reading this and want to have a conversation, DM me on Instagram or drop an email to [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

For other makers and designers dreaming of turning a passion into a purposeful brand, what’s one piece of advice you’d share?

Run your own race. While it’s important to watch the market and be aware of what others are doing, make sure your key decisions stay anchored in your brand’s core beliefs. It’s easy to get pulled in every direction when you’re starting out. And embrace the rollercoaster. You’ll learn more about yourself than you ever expected. The path with the adventure in it is usually the right one.

♡ This is a Better Together Peppermint Partnership, where we team up with brands we love. This story was created with support from our friends at Ever Vessel, whose mission is to support the global shift to reusable drinking containers.