2012

A Successful Relaunch

The relaunch of the International Pro Carton Design Award after a break of four years proved highly successful. Close to 70 entries from eight European countries demonstrated excellent quality and fantastic, well thought-out concepts.

For young designers, the International Pro Carton Design Award is all about the future of packaging design, future-oriented ideas and future-oriented designers.  Many of them are confronted with cartonboard as a packaging material and its design for the first time when entering this competition and see it as a creative stimulus.

All entries in 2012 focused on the needs of consumers – which is extremely important from my point of view.  The wishes and problems of customers have determined the creative output, all the young designers thought about their target groups in depth and certain situations where their ideas could prove useful.

This time I was especially impressed by the more professional approach of the entries. The young students are clearly up-to-date and think in overall concepts. Many of the submitted works include every stage of the supply chain in their concepts.

I was also positively surprised by the quality of the presentations and their display. Not only were the models beautifully put together, but nearly each entry was accompanied by several charts, some even with booklets including photos and texts which explained the concept and the idea behind it perfectly. All entries were really top level.

The International Pro Carton Design Award thus proved a successful relaunch in 2012:  until now only the winners of the national competitions were entered, and it is only now that entries from all of Europe can be entered for the 2012 Award. The Design Award has had a break of four years and it is extremely encouraging that designers from eight European countries have contributed so quickly.

From all the entries, the jury selected six finalists, and from these, two winners. The jury included leading European experts from different sectors of the supply chain: Satkar Gidda (SiebertHead, Chairman) for design, Wilfried Duivenvoorden (Unilever) on behalf of the branded goods industry,  and John de Somer (Van Genechten) for the converting industry.

The next competition will take place in two years, calls for entry will already start in early 2013. My vision is that one day the winner of the International Design Award will also win the Pro Carton/ECMA Award and receive the “Carton of the Year“ Award. Maybe even soon!

Suzanne E. Mc Ewen

Pro Carton

Head of Marketing and Communications

Presentation of the International Pro Carton Design Award:
International Pro Carton Congress 2012
18./19. April 2012, CCD Congress Center Düsseldorf