Packaging concept for vegan chewing gum wins BillerudKorsnäs’ design competition PIDA UK
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 Josh Curtis. “The package is designed with a colour 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 Mr 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-flavoured chocolates. The jury were “very impressed with quality of this innovative packaging shape & 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 & clever structural design solution, jury impressed with the sharing element when pack opens & 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 commented: “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.”
For more imagery, please see: https://www.billerudkorsnas.com/pida/gallery
For more information about PIDA, please contact: Anders Gathu, Marketing Manager Cartonboard, BillerudKorsnäs: tel +46722433661, Email: anders.gathu@billerudkorsnas.com
Lena Dahlberg, Manager Application Development Paperboard, BillerudKorsnäs tel +4658137438, Email: lena.dahlberg@billerudkorsnas.com
Louise Wileen Bjarke, Head of Press BillerudKorsnäs, +4672 210 35 14, Email: louise.wileenbjarke@billerudkorsnas.com
Captions
The design project “Ritini” – a packaging concept for natural chewing gum–won the PIDA Gold Award at the UK PIDA 2022 event. The winner is Josh Curtis from Ravensbourne University in London.
The design project “Canción Coffee” won the Highest Level of Sustainability Award – a packaging solution for sustainability-themed coffee. The winning designer is Kristian Owen from Ravensbourne University in London.
“Spirocious” was awarded the Highest Level of Innovation Award. A unique packaging concept for fruit-flavoured chocolates. The entry was designed by Kumaresan Sathiyamurthy from Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield.
The Highest Level of User Friendliness Award went to “Dried Delights”, a clever packaging concept for dried fruit. Designed by Aqib Mirza from Ravensbourne University in London.
About BillerudKorsnäs
BillerudKorsnäs provides paper and packaging materials that challenge conventional packaging for a sustainable future. We are a world leading company in superior paper and packaging materials made of virgin fibre; passionately committed to sustainability, quality and customer value. The company has ten production units in Sweden, USA, and Finland with around 5,800 employees in over 13 countries and customers in over 100 countries. BillerudKorsnäs has an annualized turnover of around SEK 37.2 billion and is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.
http://www.billerudkorsnas.com/
About PIDA
For the 17th consecutive year the international packaging design competition PIDA (Packaging Impact Design Award) is arranged by BillerudKorsnäs. Around 350 design students from Sweden, the USA, the UK, Germany, Austria, China*, France, and Belgium will participate in the competition. Regional winners will be selected in the following categories: Highest Level of Sustainability, Highest Level of Innovation, Highest Level of User Friendliness, and PIDA Gold Award. The competition aims to highlight young packaging designers, show trends, inspire others, and to demonstrate the endless possibilities of creative packaging.
*Unfortunately PIDA China will be cancelled due to the Covid situation in Shanghai this year.
Read more about PIDA here: pida.billerudkorsnas.com/. And you can follow us in social media:
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