Packaging ideas “align” and “float” win the FFI/Pro Carton Young Designers Award 2022

The Pro Carton Young Designers Award honours young talents in packaging design. This is the fifth time it has been held in Germany in cooperation with the Fachverband Faltschachtel-Industrie e. V. (FFI) and the high response manifests its importance as one of Europe’s leading annual competitions for creative, innovative packaging solutions made of folding carton.

This year’s submissions were so convincing that the expert jury selected two winning teams at the same time: both the “align” team of Anna Grubing, Daria-Luna Sagurna and Sabrina Hofmann and the “float” team of Wilma Schulz and Jana Backer scored points with their submissions. The quality of their packaging ideas so impressed the jury that the submissions won both the European Creative Cartonboard Ideas Award and the German Pro Carton Young Designers Award 2022. Both teams are students of the course “Packaging Design” at the Department of Design at Münster University of Applied Sciences, Münster School of Design (MSD) led by Prof. Dipl.-Des. Steffen Schulz.

The packaging idea “align” offers an intelligent and sustainable solution to a relevant problem: the storage and organisation of cables. The amount of cables, USB cables, charging cables, power plugs and much more quickly leads to disorder and causes packaging material – mostly made of plastic – with each newly acquired cable, which usually only has a short lifespan. This is exactly where the concept of “align” comes in: By offering a more environmentally friendly, paper-based packaging alternative, added value could be created by reusing the tube mechanism for organising cables.  After opening the packaging, the tubes can be detached from cardboard, labelled and used separately or as a combination of several stacked tubes to organise additional cables, store them and also organise those in use.

The packaging idea “float”, an alternative packaging for bath salts, came about after a visit to the supermarket. The previous disposable plastic bags do not create any added value after use, usually end up directly in the rubbish and are additionally packed as gifts with a lot of plastic film. “float” expands this offer with a sustainable and playful alternative and also meets the spirit of the times. The well-known paper classic, the paper boat, served as inspiration and idea to combine sustainability, gift, play and added value. “float” is a sustainable packaging made of cardboard that does not reveal the paper ship at first glance and only surprises with its contents when the packaging is opened: a folding mechanism turns the packaging into a little ship that takes the bath salt in the tub on its journey. The result is a surprising packaging that is different from previous products and appeals to all age groups, thus breaking the strict separation of children’s and adult products on the market. The design picks up water colours and a playful language, inviting children to take a playful bath and letting adults reminisce on an aromatic journey.

“The competition and the associated task of the “Pro Carton Young Designers Award“, are a perfect basis and at the same time an ideal platform to talk to students about concrete packaging problems within the framework of a university seminar and to provide important impulses to the industry through design concepts”, comments Steffen Schulz, Prof. Dipl.-Des. at the Department of Design at Münster University of Applied Sciences.

The award ceremony took place on 28.09.2022 at Messe Nürnberg as part of the FFI and Pro Carton PackBox presentation and was moderated by Christian Schiffers, Managing Director of the FFI.

V.l.n.r. Roland Rex (WEIG Karton), Anna Grubing (align), Daria-Luna Sagurna (align), Horst Bittermann (Pro Carton), Sabrina Hofmann (align), Wilma Schulz (float), Jana Becker (float), Christian Schiffers (FFI).