The iconic FINK Water Jug
About the iconic water jug
“The Water Jug became the first F!NK product and is still the mainstay of the company. It encapsulates the qualities of F!NK + Co. that have distinguished it since it was established in 1994: distinctive design, rethinking function and technical innovation.” Merryn Gates, “Fostering Design: Drawing on a Pool of Raw Talent” Object Magazine Issue 49
Quite simply, nothing else looks like or pours like a F!NK Water Jug. Originally commissioned in 1993 as a limited release vessel for the opening of an elegant new restaurant in Australia’s national capital, Canberra, the early prototype was refined and its manufacturing streamlined, allowing the potential of the Jug as the quintessential F!NK piece to be realized. The Jug was issued as the vanguard for Robert Foster’s then fledgling design company F!NK + Co., and to this day remains its signature piece.
The F!NK Water Jug is available in six stunning anodized matt colours – Deep Blue, Turquoise, Red, Orange, Black and Purple – as well as a lustrous silver satin finish. Exclusive colours can be negotiated for special editions.
About FINK
If you live in Canberra the chances are very good that you own or have gifted an iconic F!NK jug, platter, beaker or earrings. Or all four.
F!Nk + Co. is a much loved and respected Australian design company with an international reputation for producing world-class tableware, hollowware, jewellery and lighting. It was established by Robert Foster in 1993 with the aim of creating a design and manufacturing business to support and generate opportunities for Australian designer-makers.
F!NK challenges the notions that functional is boring, and that useful and visually exciting are mutually exclusive. Simultaneously supremely functional and totally elegant, no two F!NK pieces are exactly the same. Each article is created in small batches of 20 to 100 units and individually hand-finished in the Queanbeyan studio/workshop.
When commissioned to create a jug by a prominent Canberra restaurant in the 1990s, Robert took aluminium tubing, an everyday sustainable material, and fashioned it into a sleek economically viable product. The Water Jug was the first F!NK product and is still the mainstay of the company. It is a striking practical object and encapsulates the qualities of F!NK + Co.: distinctive design, function and technical innovation.
In 2010, Canberra electricity, gas and water supplier, ACTEWAGL, commissioned a major installation work from F!nk: ‘The Journey’, a dynamic lighting sculpture that covers 300 square metres in a city centre building foyer. 37 ossolites range in height from 1m to 3m; LEDs inside the plexiglas forms change colour with preprogramed sequences and interact to viewer’s movement using five motion sensors. It is stunningly beautiful and mesmerising work of art - a fitting tribute to F!Nk artistry.
Tragically, Robert Foster was killed in a car accident in July 2016. Today, F!NK + Co. is spearheaded by his partner Gretel Harrison. The company has continued to go from strength to strength as Gretel and the F!NK staff build on the legacy of Robert Foster.
Online resources:
2020 FINK Collaborative jug project exhibition