A new pack concept for over-the-counter liquid medicine designed by a student from Victoria's Australian Academy of Design had judges wondering “why hasn't this been done before?” when awarding it the prize for Best of Show at the 2013 Southern Cross Design Awards.
The awards, organised by the Packaging Council of Australia (PCA), are presented each year to Australian tertiary design students as an adjunct to the Australian Packaging Design Awards.
The winning concept, Mipod, by Gisela Bell, is an innovative pack format that allows for individually packaged dosages, does not require any measuring of doses, is easy to store and travel with and produces little to no mess.
As well as the main prize, the design also was the Gold Award winner in the Society, Packaging and Consumers section of the awards.
Judges noted Gisela strengthened her design through considerable market and materials research for the concept, and described her final pack mock-up as “brilliant”.
NSW's University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Victoria's Swinburne University together shared the spoils in the gold awards in other categories.
Swinburne student Lauren Lopatko was the gold winner in the accessible packaging category, sponsored by Arthritis Australia, for d.tect, a pack designed to improve consumer accessibility of smoke detectors.
“The package looks good, the design and construction protects the product and enables the consumer to open it without using a tool,” judges noted of the submission.
Fellow Swinburne student Karina Eteng took up the challenge of re-designing the packaging of Procter & Gamble's (P&G) Duo Pearl To Go tampons, a task that won her gold in the 'redesign an existing product' category sponsored by P&G.
Alexandra Curtis completed Swinburne's winners' circle at the awards by taking out gold in the health and beauty category for Ashe, a colourful triangular pack design for a luxury soap brand.
UTS students Daniel Macks and Olivia Hunt shared gold honours in the premium carbonated beverage category, Macks for Pandora, a bottle design conceived to appeal to women in the 20-30 age group, and Hunt for Fox Ginger Ale, a pack format comprising three components – a glass bottle, a pop-off cup and an aluminium pressure-rated twist cap.
Student Jonathan Li also won honours for UTS in the change and innovation category for Ripple, a tinplate pack concept to provide a reusable, air-tight container to keep tea leaves fresher for longer.
Click on the images below to access the full gallery of category winners.
