Heineken’s brief to its design partners was precise and unusual: create a glass that everyone who sees it will want to take home. It’s neither a branded glass nor a premium edition. A glass whose form alone was desirable enough to generate that response. The result, developed over several years by Dutch industrial design studio npk in collaboration with Heineken and Design Bridge and Partners, solved the brief and added something the brief had not asked for: a brand mark that prints itself on the surface the glass is resting on every time it is picked up.
The Design
The StarMark glass takes Heineken’s five-pointed star, the brand’s most recognisable symbol since the 1880s, and makes it the structural principle of the glassware rather than a logo applied to its surface. The star shape begins at the base of the glass and traces five lines vertically up the exterior, forming the vessel’s distinctive profile. The star is not printed on the glass. It is the glass.
The functional consequence of that design decision is the campaign’s single most interesting detail. Because the base is moulded in a star shape rather than the standard circular foot that conventional beer glasses use, condensation accumulates differently along the star’s five points. When a cold glass is set down on a bar or pub table and then lifted, the moisture that has gathered beneath the star-shaped base remains on the surface as a temporary impression. Heineken’s star is left behind on the table.
The mark does not require ink, projection, or any electronic element. It appears because cold beer in a glass produces condensation, and condensation pooled beneath a star-shaped base leaves a star-shaped water mark. The branding mechanism is entirely the product of physics.
The Engineering Challenge
The design that produced this effect was not straightforward to manufacture. When npk presented the star-shaped glass concept to the first manufacturers they consulted, the response was that the structure was too complex to produce at the scale Heineken would require. Millions of glasses need to be manufactured consistently, transported without breakage, and withstand the daily operational conditions of bar service across every global market.
npk’s expertise in mould design for large-scale industrial production gave the project its path forward. The studio worked directly on the engineering of the manufacturing moulds rather than simply handing over a design for others to execute, which is the distinction that made production viable.
Before any glass was made from the final mould, multiple prototypes were produced in acrylic with the visual appearance of glass. Those prototypes were evaluated not only for aesthetics but for grip, stability, balance during the pour, ease of carrying multiple glasses, and comfort throughout the drinking experience. Bar staff at the venues where the glass would eventually be used participated in the testing to ensure the design could function in the operational conditions of actual service.
The Launch in Ireland
Ireland was the first market to receive the StarMark glass, with the rollout beginning in bars and pubs across the country in April 2025. Nine years had passed since Heineken last introduced new glassware. Mark Noble, marketing manager at Heineken Ireland, described what the glass represented: “The Heineken star has long been synonymous with the brand’s DNA and has always been the marker of good times. It’s been nine years since our last new glass launch and there’s been so much innovation within the brand in that time, we wanted the new glass to reflect that while also paying homage to our globally recognised symbol.”
To launch the glass, Heineken created the Reach for the Star campaign, which took the glass’s central design feature, the star shape, and installed giant star installations in Irish locations whose names contained the word “glass.” Glasson, Terryglass, Baltinglass, and Glasnevin each received a large-format star installation. People who found and photographed the installations could present the image at participating pubs and bars to access drinks served in the new StarMark glass, during its initial limited distribution period before full rollout.
The launch was supported across outdoor media, digital panels, content creators, and local press. More than 5,000 StarMark glasses were distributed to pubs and bars across Ireland by the brand’s distributor United Wines during the Reach for the Star campaign.
The Global Rollout
The StarMark glass is now the standard Heineken beer glass across all international markets with a single exception: the Netherlands, where a dedicated design for the home market is still in development. Both the standard Heineken Original and Heineken 0.0 variants were developed within the StarMark format simultaneously, with the two models preserving the star structure while differentiating the product identification for each version.
The campaign and the glass design were recognised at the FAB Awards 2026, the international awards programme dedicated to food and beverage brand design, where the StarMark received the principal recognition for design alongside two Gold awards, one for packaging design and one for materials and point of sale in alcoholic drinks.
Design Bridge and Partners was named Agency of Design for the third consecutive edition at the same awards.
What the Glass Does for the Brand
The Heineken star has appeared on the brand’s products since the 1880s. In more than 140 years of brand history, it has existed as a printed or embossed mark: an image applied to or pressed into a surface. The StarMark glass converts it from an applied mark into a functional one. The star is not on the glass. The star is the glass. And the glass, in the daily act of being lifted by a drinker, leaves the star behind.
That moment, the star-shaped water mark on the table surface when a StarMark glass is picked up, is an advertisement produced by the physics of cold liquid in a shaped vessel, requiring no media budget and occurring every time the glass is used. It is also the answer to the brief: a glass that everyone who sees it will want to take home is a glass whose design produces a moment worth noticing, without requiring anyone to notice the logo at all.
Campaign Name: StarMark / “Reach for the Star”
Agency Name: npk design (industrial design) / Design Bridge and Partners (brand design)
Brand Name: Heineken
Location: Ireland (first market launch, April 2025); global rollout to all international markets, 2025 to 2026
