All that hard work that goes into creating a great product is pointless if consumers don’t feel inclined to try it. Great packaging can improve a good product and ensure that a great product hits the jackpot. Here are the best Australian package designs for 2009 as awarded by the Australian Packaging Association.
PCA Best of Show Award
Award Criteria
The Best of Show is selected from the Gold winning entries. It is awarded to the entry that represents the greatest overall achievement in its category.
Entry Submitted By: O-I Australia
Package Title: Lean+GreenTM Light Weight Wine Bottle Range
Package Component Manufacturer: O-I Australia (Adelaide Plant)
Package Designer Functional: Julian Ditchburn, Craig Ross
Package Owner: O-I Australia
Comments
The Judges specifically applaud the impact of the lightweight wine bottle range as a supplier initiative that benefits both customers and the industry as a whole. This innovation comes at a time when there is a confluence of imperatives at play. Issues of sustainability, missions, energy and moderation of packaging and resources are paramount, but so are matters of domestic manufacturing, economic viability and exports, and all are addressed through this solution. The saving of almost 20,000 tonnes of glass packaging a year has a massive flow-on benefit for industry and the environment. The reduction in cost, weight, energy and water usage from each bottle is staggering. The advances can potentially be applied to other products and, due to the sheer volume of the application, this design solution has the capacity to impact on millions of products worldwide.
Amcor Innovation Award
Award Criteria
This Award recognises outstanding achievements in packaging innovation across the full range of materials, structures, components and developments. The packaging should be enhanced by innovative design and thinking, demonstrate a significant advance in technology or material usage and should deliver significant benefit to the market place.
Entry Submitted By: ZORK Pty Ltd
Package Title: ZORK SPK – Sparkling Wine Closure
Package Component Manufacturer: Scholle Packaging
Package Designer Functional: John Brooks
Package Owner: ZORK Pty Ltd
Comments
The ZORK SPK is the world’s first re-sealable top for sparkling wines. This radical design move will change forever the presentation and closure of sparkling wine. It allows easy open and re-seal, which encourages consumption in moderation and extends the life of the product. Containing an ingenious 4 piece construction, the ZORK SPK features a soft seal which holds the pressure, a foil gas barrier to prevent flatness and oxidation, and a collet and cap locking mechanism. The ZORK SPK has a 40% smaller carbon footprint than the cork muselet and foil alternative, becomes a reusable re-sealer for other bottles for the rest of its working lifetime and is 100% recyclable. Judges were keen to recognise this breakthrough for its application in the wine industry worldwide.
Carter Holt Harvey Sustainability Award
Award Criteria
This Award applauds packaging that has been reinvented or created to demonstrate a significant advance in environmental considerations and provides a benchmark for its product/market segment.
Entry Submitted By: O-I Australia
Package Title: Lean+GreenTM Light Weight Wine Bottle Range
Package Component Manufacturer: O-I Australia (Adelaide Plant)
Package Designer Functional: Julian Ditchburn, Craig Ross
Package Owner: O-I Australia
Comments
In a major breakthrough for bringing sustainable innovations to market, O-I Australia’s designers and manufacturing teams have overcome some formidable technical challenges. Although it will not seem noticeable to the consumer and indeed customers, the environmental and logistical impact of this development is massive. O-I has reduced the weight of selected wine bottles by 18-28% (saving almost 20,000 tonnes of glass packaging /annum). The flow-on effects include a 20% reduction in energy use and a carbon dioxide saving of over 11,130 tonnes per year. Equally impressive is a saving of 12% in water usage per container and overall water savings of 4,720kL per year. An additional achievement is the reduced carbon footprint in freight distribution to packers and customers around the world. The judges were eager to acknowledge the wholeof- industry impact of this lightweight glass.
Carter Holt Harvey Beverage Award
Award Criteria
This Award considers aesthetics and functionality in conjunction with print, image, graphics and overall presentation appropriate to the market segment. Due account was to be given to innovative technology associated with form, functional enhancements, labelling, product protection and other surface treatments.
Entry Submitted By: Graphic Packaging International Australia
Package Title: Ruski Lemon Range Multi Packs
Package Component Manufacturer: Graphic Packaging International Australia, Jaypak Cartons, Colorpak Limited, Foilmasters
Package Designer Functional: Graphic Packaging International Australia
Package Designer Graphic: Bicart- VOK Beverages
Package Owner: Diageo Australia, VOK Beverages
Comments
In a category that is increasingly cluttered and highly competitive, Ruski has carved an incisive visual niche. There is great design empathy in evidence here – the subtle colour palette is the perfect partner for the soft opalescent ‘wash’ of the liquid product that is visible within. The colour scheme of white and smoke-grey, on a silver metalised stock, is enhanced by a dash of red. The slim-line label is minimised in both colour and scale, yet has maximum impact and legibility. Emphasised by the repetition of the star in the circular neck label, the language is slick, credible and authentic. The vertical orientation of the logo and the star design works just as powerfully on the cardboard sleeve 4-pack.
Colorpak Export Award
Award Criteria
This Award recognises an Australian company achieving export business opportunities with the use of packaging specifically designed and developed for the export market.
Entry Submitted By: Instant Rockstar
Package Title: Instant Rockstar
Package Component Manufacturer: CBA Mouldings
Package Designer Functional: Phil Schlemme, Ignacios Ramirez
Package Designer Graphic: Phil Schlemme
Package Owner: IRS
Comments
Making an impact overseas can be a challenge, considering the breadth of product on offer in foreign markets. But Australian companies continue to break through with quality products and confident packaging. This range is assertive and engaging and the clear and consistent branding offers a tangible attraction to new buyers. Providing labelling text translations for no less than eight countries shows a clear determination to remove any barriers to acceptance, and allow the product itself to connect with new markets abroad. Meanwhile each label also proudly carries its very own icon of Australian origin. The novel moulded star-shape in the lid and base of the tubs, allows the products to be stacked, interlocking them with consistent label position to the front. All of the packs are made with 100% recycled post-industrial plastics.
Heidelberg Labelling Award
Award Criteria
This Award rewards excellence in the design, visual quality and technical execution of the label in conjunction with the other pack components as a finished product.
Entry Submitted By: Mollydooker Wines
Package Title: Velvet Glove
Package Component Manufacturer: Saverglass, Collotype, Impressiv
Package Designer Functional: Sarah Marquis
Package Designer Graphic: Mash Design
Package Owner: Mollydooker Wines
Comments
Technical excellence takes this exquisite product to the lead, but it was the imagination exhibited by the designers that really captivated the judging panel. The glove-shaped label is die-cut from real French black velvet to give a sensuous, tactile surface, then is printed with whimsical illustration and typographics in silver foil. The back label, also die cut, carries all the technical and mandatory product information brilliantly, despite the size of the type and the challenges of foil printing on such a difficult substrate. The success of this print technology shows great skill and mastery of print craft. A wax neck-seal offers the ideal complement to the design work below. A voluptuous bottle shape is unimpeded by this diminutive label that skims its hips, and the result is beautiful and individual.
Huhtamaki Brand Design Award
Award Criteria
This Award recognises the deliberate creation of brand value through its packaging. The winning entry was to be either an existing brand for which the packaging has been redesigned and enhanced to create new value or a new brand that is differentiated in its category, primarily through its packaging.
Entry Submitted By: Aperio Finewrap
Package Title: Leggo’s Authentico Fresh Pasta
Package Component Manufacturer: Aperio Finewrap
Package Designer Functional: Simplot Australia Pty Ltd
Package Designer Graphic: Cowan Design
Package Owner: Simplot Australia Pty Ltd
Comments
More than just the application of a logo, this category is about what the pack says about the brand. In a field offering some substantial and entrenched competition, Leggo’s has managed to eclipse them all with this clever example of brand communication. Invoking all the cues of ‘freshness’ – brown paper bags, clear plastic bags, matt surfaces, deli-style graphics, muted colours, uncluttered design – the designers have fashioned a wholesome and realistic version of the language of ‘fresh produce’ packaging. Here there is a narrative being communicated about the range, a subtext of credibility and a back-story of authenticity. The product is clearly visible through the clear section of the bag, as ultimate proof of its quality and freshness.
MWV Family of Packages Award
Award Criteria
This Award recognises the special association between a brand family. It was to be presented to two or more products designed to convey a common brand image over a range of products and or sizes.
Entry Submitted By: Kez’s Kitchen
Package Title: Kez’s Retail Range
Package Component Manufacturer: Mayor Packaging
Package Designer Functional: Brandism Pty Ltd
Package Designer Graphic: Brandism Pty Ltd
Package Owner: Kez’s Kitchen
Comments
Kez has achieved a remarkable feat – connection not only across different substrates, shapes, sizes but even across sub-ranges. The brevity and silhouette of the Kez logo makes it an instant link wherever it is placed across this diverse group of products, packs, sizes and substrates. The powerful use of red and white allows the brand to live clearly and yet be remarkably adaptable. Whether on a white background or red, on stripes or individual portion packs with clear windows, the family link is unmistakable and proves that slavish replication of all graphic elements is not the only way to link a brand and build a brand story across a family of packs.
NCI Packaging Fresh Food & Table Ready Award
Award Criteria
This Award rewards the effort that goes into the design and manufacture of packs of fresh and or pre-prepared food that is ready to eat without further preparation other than heating or dressing.
Entry Submitted By: Cryovac Australia Pty Ltd
Package Title: Leggo’s Authentico Fresh Pasta Sauce
Package Component Manufacturer: Cryovac Australia Pty Ltd
Package Designer Functional: Outerspace Design Group
Package Designer Graphic: Cowan Design
Package Owner: Simplot Australia Pty Ltd
Comments
The strength of this handsome little tub lies in its wholesome credibility. Through a clever use of ‘brown paper bag’ aesthetics and deli-style graphics, the designers have created an authentic ‘fresh food’ look for the brand. Coupled with the visible section of the tub that displays the product within, the fresh appeal of this microwave-ready pack is obvious. But it is functional too. Holes in the rounded lid allow steam to escape while in the microwave, and the fibreboard sleeve insulates the pack for easy handling after heating. Flavour variants are clearly marked by a casual splash of colour. Aesthetically superior to its current competition, this honest, open, unadulterated presentation speaks volumes for the brand itself.
Viscount Plastics Packaging for Industry Award
Award Criteria
This Award recognises entries that demonstrate the most outstanding development in industrial packaging through expert knowledge of systems, manufacturing and materials.
Entry Submitted By: PlasPak
Package Title: Disposable Telepac
Package Component Manufacturer: PlasPak
Package Designer Functional: Fairmont Medical
Package Designer Graphic: Fairmont Medical
Package Owner: Fairmont Medical
Comments
Fairmont Medical’s Disposable Telepac provides protective, sterilisation packaging for medical telescopes used in hospital operating theatres. This unique design has made a previously unproductive process, significantly efficient. The Telepac protects the difficult, irregular shapes of delicate, expensive medical telescopes that are ever-present in today’s hospitals. The tamper evident labelling ensures the sterilisation status, date and tracking of this equipment. The polypropylene (PP) construction withstands the high temperatures required during sterilisation and is 100% recyclable. The square end-section prevents rolling and breakages during use and allows for stacking. When required in theatre, the concertina storage tube can be retracted to expose the telescope for easy removal. The Telepac has provided a revolutionary change in the way telescopes are treated, transported, stored and used. It also saves time and money in an industry where these factors are incredibly important.
