Condom packs raise sexual health awareness

A competition asking students to design new packaging for condoms has given insight into young people's awareness of sexual health.

One of the judges, Professor Scott Thompson-Whiteside, Dean of Swinburne’s School of Design, said the university-run competition would form the basis for further discussions about relevant branding.

“It gave our entire research team insight into how 18-25 year olds view condoms and sexual health from different social and cultural perspectives,” he said.

“This will help us develop our ideas further and assist us to design more appropriate and meaningful brands and packaging, and the ideas will ultimately assist us in developing better sexual health practices.”

Swinburne University of Technology received over 50 entries from Australia, the US, UK, South Africa, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Europe, and the winners for the Young Designer category were Jose Luis Pinzon and FBM Diseño.

The winners for the Design Student category were Xolisa Sibeko and Raquel Ribero.

The judges said the entrants submitted imaginative, clever, witty designs that showed a high level of consideration of the brief.

The entries also demonstrated an understanding for the issues and barriers associated with condom use as a preventative of STIs.

The brief challenged designers to share their ideas on innovative and culturally appropriate ways to communicate safe sex in South-East Asia and Africa.

The competition is part of Project Geldom, which is employing expertise in biomedical engineering, material science, industrial design and population health from the University of Wollongong and Swinburne University of Technology to revolutionise the condom.

Project Geldom is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Program, UOW Global Challenges Program, and Swinburne Centre for Design Innovation.