Pro Carton Young Designers Award celebrates the sustainable packaging solutions of the future
Entries are now open for Europe's leading annual packaging competition for young designers. Pro Carton is calling on students to put their carton design skills to work in the coming months for the chance to win the Pro Carton Young Designers Award - an award that allows anyone interested in a career in the thriving packaging industry to demonstrate their potential.
Since its inception in 2004, the Young Designers Award has promoted sustainable packaging ideas by challenging students from across Europe to develop and design their very own solutions made from carton materials. The competition continues to grow in popularity each year, and by all expectations 2021 will be no different. Despite the global pandemic, a record number of entries were received for the 2020 awards, with over 550 cardboard designs from 25 different European countries.
Students can submit entries for four different categories: Creative Cartonboard - Food & Drink Packaging (food and drink packaging), Creative Cartonboard - General Packaging, excluding food and drink (general packaging excluding food and drink packaging), Creative Cartonboard Ideas, non-packaging (innovative ideas for non-packaging) and Save the Planet - ideas on how to replace less sustainable materials with cartonboard material. A Newcomer's Award will also be given to students from a university that has not won before. Lecturers are welcome to make the Young Designers Award a course project for the academic year, and Pro Carton can provide free sheets of cardboard for the students.
The five winning participants will win a trip to Austria, where they will not only see the beautiful city of Vienna, but also visit one of Mayr-Melnhof's mills and complete an internship at Europe's largest cartonboard converter, Mayr-Melnhof Packaging. Last year's winners included Fulfil, an innovative tampon packaging, the "Zig Zag Zig" knife box, a flour box with an integrated sieve, and the winner of the "Save the Planet" category, cardboard cushioning inserts that eliminate the need for protective plastic materials - such as bubble wrap - for transporting goods by replacing this material with environmentally friendly cardboard.
Tony Hitchin, General Manager at Pro Carton, says: "The Young Designers Award plays an important role in raising awareness among the next generation of designers about the environmental benefits and versatility of carton. As a result, each year we receive entries that use carton in unprecedented scenarios and develop solutions to the problems of today. We are very excited to see what designs come our way in 2021!"
Competition details:
The competition is open to all full-time students from across Europe. All entries must first be submitted online no later than 21 May 2021.
www.procarton.com
