Josh Curtis from Ravensbourne University in London triumphed in the UK Packaging Design Impact Award (PIDA) and earned this year’s Gold Award. His entry ‘Ritini’ impressed the jury with its shape, branding and versatility.
Ritini is an eye-catching package, a branding tool and a clever dispenser all rolled into one. The word Ritini is Greek for resin and the tear-shaped package design is inspired by the drops of resin that are the key ingredient of the vegan chewing gum. “They are the Tears of Chios,” says Curtis. “The package is designed with a color palette that is typical of Greece. It’s user-friendly, easy to dispense the gum and fits perfectly in your hand.”
At PIDA, design students from universities and colleges from seven countries compete with their creative packaging designs. The competition is organized as five separate events – the USA, Sweden, France/Belgium, the UK, China, and Germany/Austria. The winners of the Gold Award at each event will meet in a Grand Finale at Luxe Pack Monaco in October.
Every year, the contestants get a new brief. At PIDA 2022 the title of the brief is ‘It’s a Wild Life,’ encouraging the students to find inspiration in nature for their packaging concepts. As for Curtis’s Ritini entry, the jury noted, “The complete package, sustainable product well branded & unique cartonboard packaging shape and product dispenser, a fully deserved winner.”
More awards
Besides the PIDA Gold Award, three other prizes were presented – for innovation, user-friendliness, and sustainability. The winners were selected by a jury of prominent industry professionals, who were amazed by the overall high-quality level of the entries.
The award for Highest Level of Innovation went to ‘Spirocious,’ designed by Kumaresan Sathiyamurthy from Sheffield Hallam University. The entry is a curious spiral-shaped pack of fruit-flavored chocolates. The jury was “very impressed with the quality of this innovative packaging shape and the cartonboard engineering used to produce the internal and external structural design.”
Aqib Mirza from Ravensbourne University won the Highest Level of User Friendliness award for his project ‘Dried Delights,’ a clever and intuitive packaging concept for dried fruit. The jury’s notes read, “Well branded and clever structural design solution, jury impressed with the sharing element when pack opens and displays dried fruit.”
The Highest Level of Sustainability prize was awarded to ‘Canción Coffee,’ a package design for coffee endorsing the protection of an endangered bird species. The jury said, “A good focus brand promoting Songbird habitat preservation packaged in a recyclable paper-lined bag with a promotional board base. Canción Coffee was designed by Kristian Owen from Ravensbourne University.
A creative arena for the packaging community
BillerudKorsnäs, the company behind PIDA, arranges the competition in cooperation with leading universities and design colleges in Austria, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Sweden, the UK, and the USA. The competition gives the students an opportunity to work on a real packaging design project under the same conditions as an authentic assignment. It’s also an opportunity for design students to show their talent to established professionals who attend PIDA for ideas and inspiration.
“No wonder that many industry professionals see PIDA as the highlight of the year,” says Anders Gathu, marketing manager cartonboard, BillerudKorsnäs. “It’s truly amazing to see so much thoughtful and creative packaging design and so much valuable talent. These are the designers of the future who will shape tomorrow’s brand perceptions, and we are proud of being part of the development of good packaging design. We are very much looking forward to the Grand Finale at Luxe Pack Monaco in October.”