[dropcaps style=’2′]The Pentawards, the most prestigious worldwide competition exclusively devoted to packaging design, has introduced the NXT-GEN Award—a new award specifically for students that has been created to recognize the future design leaders of tomorrow, today.[/dropcaps]

New for the 2018 edition of the Pentawards, the NXT-GEN Award provides a platform for the next generation of packaging design talent to showcase its skills on a global platform and to the biggest influencers in the design business. It also underlines the Pentawards’ commitment to champion the best new entrants to the global packaging design industry and their work and promote careers in the sector to future generations of students.

The winning student will receive an all-expenses paid trip to New York, an invitation to attend the Pentawards Gala Ceremony, which is taking place at the Guggenheim Museum on 6 September 2018, and the opportunity to collect their award live on stage. It will also give the winning student an unprecedented opportunity to meet many of the world’s top packaging designers at the event. In addition, their work will be published in The Package Design Book 5, a review of Pentawards winners that is issued every two years by Taschen.

All students entering any category of the 2018 competition will be eligible to receive the NXT-GEN award; and their entry will automatically be considered for the NXT-GEN Award as well as their original category.

Entries for the NXT-GEN Award will be judged on creativity, innovation, branding and the quality of execution. Each of the designs will be judged by a highly-esteemed panel of 12 industry experts, which includes, Mark van Interson, global design director at Heineken, Sam O’Donahue, creative director at Established and Mark Budden, managing director at Design. The judges bring with them years of experience, working across major brand accounts including Guinness, Marc Jacobs, Diageo, L’Oréal and Fenty by Rihanna, to name just a few.

Adam Ryan, project manager at The Pentawards, says, “Over the years, we have had some amazing student winners as part of the wider Pentawards, from right across the world. We have also seen the caliber of work increase year-on-year, which is superb and highlights how packaging is becoming a real magnet for great young designers. With this in mind, we felt that it was time to launch a Pentaward designed specifically for these students, providing them and their work with some much-deserved recognition and also a platform to be seen by today’s industry leaders.

“We are currently issuing a last call for entries, with the deadline closing on 23 March. We don’t want any young designers to miss out on the opportunity to win this new award or our Gala Ceremony in New York.”