Pack design wins inclusion for AIDA honours

The launch pad for some of the country's most iconic inventions and designs, including the Hills Hoist, the Ute and the Deepsea Challenger submersible vessel – the Australian International Design Awards (AIDA) – will include a category dedicated to the packaging and graphics field this year for the first time.

Citing the growing international reputation of the originality and vitality of the country's packaging design industry, organisers of this year's AIDA program say the establishment of the packaging and graphics category is designed to highlight the notion that design plays a role beyond mere visual presentation.

“People often assess design based on visual appearance and functionality, however, we measure design based on the parameters of form, function, quality, safety and sustainability,” the managing director of Good Design Australia and chair of the AIDA, Brandon Gien, said.

He said he believed the category expansion this year will raise the calibre of entries, give worthy businesses more opportunity to receive accreditation and revisit traditional beliefs about the role of design.

The new category will weigh submissions for the best primary, secondary and tertiary packaging, POS displays, structural graphics and print media from around the world.

A fixture in the design community for over five decades, the AIDA has helped create the reputation of some of Australia’s most well-known inventions and designs.

Just last year, the Deepsea Challenger, a submersible that allowed film director James Cameron to explore previously unreachable ocean depths, was handed the program's top award.

The AIDA has also this year cast a wider net for its judging panel, including some of the world’s most respected product designers from Sweden and the USA.

Submissions to the 2013 AIDA close on 28 March, with winners announced on 30 May.

More details and instructions for how to enter can be found at: www.gooddesignaustralia.com.