SUSTAINABILITY and creativity have been the key themes for the 2007 Australian Packaging Awards, with some remarkably innovative work amongst the 250 entries received. Derek Parker reports.
Increasingly, packaging is being incorporated into product development from an early stage.
A striking example of integrated thinking was the Dulux Easy Roll paint container from Orica Consumer Products; the container includes a reversible lid that doubles as a built-in roller tray.
The container won gold medals in the Amcor Design Innovation and the Packaging for the People categories, as well as the Best in Show award.
An award-winner which showed the link between packaging and product was from Quikstix Clever Beverages.
The product, which took the bronze medal in the Amcor Design Innovation category, was a paper tube which contains coffee or tea, as well as sugar and whitener if chosen; the tube is semi-perforated at one end, so it can be placed into a cup of boiling water. The product is aimed at the camping and traveller market.
From a manufacturing perspective, one of the most significant entrants was the customised cardboard box from Rebul Packaging, which won the Packaging for Industry section.
The box uses rigid cardboard tubes as both a frame and a hinge, resulting in an extremely sturdy package which can be laid flat for transport and storage.
“It is designed for high-value goods, from plasma televisions to works of art,” Brad Huggett, director of Rebul, said.
“We can make them to any size — even large enough to take a piano. They have also proved to be very good for exports, as they don’t require the fumigation or heat treatment that wooden crates need,” Huggett said.
Alex Doran, manager of the Awards for the Packaging Council of Australia, says more and more designers are considering environmental issues in their thinking.
This year the Sustainability Award was won by MeadWestvaco Beverage Grade Board. The laminated paperboard, which folds into a strong tray for transporting cans and bottles, includes 76% recycled content, up from 10% for the product it replaces.
“Consumers are beginning to look seriously at the environmental characteristics of products, from the material used, to the level of emissions in the manufacture process, to its capacity for recycling,” Doran said.
The biscuit trays manufactured by Arnott’s represented an example of new thinking about product life.
The company has converted almost 1000t of biscuit trays from non-recyclable polystyrene to recyclable PET. Arnott’s also now uses about 300t of post-consumer recyclate and 300t of post-industrial recyclate per year.
Its PET tray design was co-winner of the bronze metal in the Sustainability category.
But Doran emphasises that a concern for sustainability has not resulted in visually uninteresting products.
“If anything, the entrants this year are more eye-catching than ever,” he said.
“Every producer knows that the retail marketplace is very competitive, and you need to stand out from the crowd.”
As an example, the gold medal in the Heidelberg Australia Beauty Through Packaging category was won by the Easter 2007 range from chocolate-maker Hillier, which combined a number of presentational and technical effects.
Another striking example was Dandaragan Estate Ultra Premium Olive Oil, where the wine-bottle style and careful labelling reflects the market position of the product; it won the bronze medal in the category.
“Even with products where design was once not considered very important, we are seeing some remarkable developments,” Doran said.
“You can’t get a product much more prosaic than drain cleaner, for example, but here we have a package which not only has a pleasing, distinctive shape but incorporates a clear window so the user can get the right measurement every time, with safety and convenience.”
Doran also points out that the shift to more considered visual design is not restricted to large companies; entrepreneurial firms and SMEs are also picking up the trend.
He cited the silver medal winner in the Wadepack Premium Folding Carton Award, Puddings on the Ritz, as a small company that has created a vivid, highly attractive package.
“The healthy state of product design in Australia is reflected by the strength of the awards process.
“The main problem the Packaging Council has is separating the truly exceptional from the very good,” Doran said.