It was a laugh-a-minute as Rockwiz queen and popular Australian comedienne Julia Zemiro played hostess at the Australian Packaging Design Awards in Melbourne last week.
Brandishing a pair of scissors and declaring difficult-to-open packaging the enemy, Zemiro launched the event with high praise for any pack design innovation that makes her life easier.
The awards, staged by the Packaging Council of Australia (PCA) and judged by a high profile line-up of branding and design experts, were announced to a crowd of 150 people gathered at the Kooyong Tennis Club for the PCA's new cocktail-style event.
All finalists' entries were on display, giving Australian packaging design innovation justly deserved recognition and showcasing the scope of entries across the program's six categories – Food; Beverage; Health & Beauty; Household & Office; Industrial; and Seasonal & Promotional. All entrants were also eligible for gold awards in the four overall categories of: Design; Accessibility; Sustainability; and Innovation.
The general vibe of the evening was captured in a heartfelt statement by one of the gold award winners, general manager of Australian Inhibitor, Les Amy: "We should be proud to be Australian innovators; we need Australian manufacturing now more than ever."
Emerging as the big winner on the night was Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA), winning gold in the Innovation and Sustainability categories and taking home the top accolade – Best of Show – for its 600ml Powerade Sports Bottle.
The rationale behind the development was to design the world's lightest and most eco-friendly 600ml hotfill bottle with a 38mm-wide mouth neck finish.
CCA achieved this by reducing the bottle weight from 33g to 24g, removing the foil induction seal from the bottle and thus eliminating a major litter item and converting the filling process from hotfill to warmfill, reducing energy consumption.
In addition, all components of the pack are fully recyclable.
The full list of gold award winners is as follows:
- Food: Maggi Stir Fry Creations, entered by Nestlé Australia
- Beverage: Carlton Draught Keg Can, entered by Amcor
- Industrial: Preservation of Mona Lisa, entered by Australian Inhibitor
- Health & Beauty: Tommee Tippee Miomee Range, entered by Semcom Visual Communication
- Seasonal & Promotional: Taylors Wine-in-Tube, entered by Taylors Wines
- Accessibility (sponsored by Arthritis Australia): Maggi Stir Fry Creations, entered by Nestlé Australia
- Design: Adriano Zumbo Baking Range, entered by Greens General Foods and Loop Branding
- Sustainability (sponsored by Australian Packaging Covenant): 600ml Powerade Sports Bottle, entered by CCA
- Innovation: 600ml Powerade Sports Bottle, entered by CCA
(There was no gold award presented in the Household & Office category.)
All award winners are eligible for entry into the Worldstar awards, which next year will be staged at interpack 2014, in Düsseldorf, Germany.
For a full list of the awards, visit http://www.pca.org.au/results2013/apda/
PKN will be providing an in-depth report covering the stories behind the winning designs in the January-February print issue.
