Paperboard Packaging Alliance presents 2020 awards for Student Design Challenge

The Paperboard Packaging Alliance, Washington, has announced winners of its 2020 Student Design Challenge, a competition designed to foster awareness and appreciation of paperboard packaging with university educators and the next generation of packaging design decision-makers.

Students were asked to design an innovative packaging toolkit for educators to use as part of the Trees into Cartons, Cartons into Trees (TICCIT) program, which engages third through fifth graders in an environmental and educational activity, highlighting the renewability and sustainability of paper and paperboard packaging. The Student Design Challenge is an annual competition for university students in leading packaging design programs to show off their talent, design skills and innovative approaches to meet customer needs and marketing scenarios.

According to a news release from the Paperboard Packaging Alliance, the following student teams won this year’s challenge:

• Ryerson University received first place;
• Rochester Institute of Technology received second place;
• Fashion Institute of Technology received third place; and
• a second team from the Rochester Institute of Technology received an honorable mention.

The work from winning teams can be viewed online.

“The Student Design Challenge is proof there is a vibrant and bright future ahead for an essential and sustainable industry, the paperboard packaging industry,” says Heidi Brock, president and CEO of the Washington-based American Forest & Paper Association. “Teams of students not only solved a challenge, but they also overcame obstacles presented by COVID-19 this year. They used virtual collaboration and technology tools to develop impressive designs, demonstrating the ability to be more adaptable and resilient.”

“The positive impact of this year’s Student Design Challenge on the future of our industry is twofold,” adds Ben Markens, president of the Paperboard Packaging Council. “First, it has engaged some of the brightest minds in the next generation of packaging designers, offering them hands-on experience with paperboard. Second, by designing for TICCIT, they’re helping to educate an even younger generation—school children who will one day have the opportunity to choose renewable, recyclable paperboard packaging.”

The Paperboard Packaging Alliance reports that the first-place design will be put into production and adapted for use in the TICCIT program. Winning student teams and their academic programs received monetary awards as well. First place received $5,500 for the team and $5,000 for the school; second place received $3,300 for the team and $3,000 for the school; and third place received $1,650 for the team and $1,500 for the school.

The alliance says its 2021 student design challenge is to design packaging for a hunger relief organization that enhances the recipients’ experience and can be used for storage. The deadline for submissions is June 4, 2021.