PACKLAB. » Finnish designs shine at Student Starpack

A novel and imaginative milk pack stole the show at Student Starpack 2009, winning Supreme Gold and a Gold Star for Roman Klementsov, of Finland’s Lahti Institute of Design. The second year student in product design’s innovative PET concept bottle features a stand-up base in the shape of cow’s udders.

Students from the Lahti Institute of Design led UK colleges a merry dance taking IOP: The Packaging Design Society’s Eric Dickens Memorial Award for the most successful college for the third year running. The awards ceremony was hosted by Dr Bernie Rickinson, Chief Executive, Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) and the awards were presented by Sanjay Patel, Euro Innovation, Packaging Innovation Manager, The Coca Cola Company at IOM3 offices in Central London on May 21.

Lahti students won 22 of the 46 awards out of 166 entries. These included Supreme Gold, two Gold Stars, five Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars and two commended certificates; plus nine sponsor awards.

Overall judge and Nestlé’s senior designer Ben Mortimer commented: “Starpack is doing something quite unique by combining graphic and structural packaging design and this is a good thing. But not all UK courses are set in this way and tend to focus on a particular area of expertise. For example, graphics-based courses do not always consider structure/function and vice-versa. “However, students will have to understand that if you want to succeed at Starpack, you need to consider complete packaging solutions”

However, UK students were not bereft of ideas with Narut Ruthiraphong of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design taking the Logoplaste Milk Pack Sponsor Award with a stunning portable and easy to use PET milk bottle and a silver star in the category.

Wow! I wish I’d though of that!

The Britvic Soft Drinks Sponsor Award called on students to pick any packaged product found on a supermarket shelf and improve its presentation. Lahti came out on top with Anni-Julia Tuomisto taking bot the Sponsor Award and the Gold Star with her Chubby muffin pack. The spirally wound container, opened by twisting the centre in opposite directions, contained beautifully presented individual muffins wrapped in ovenable board ready for the oven.

Little bits of fun

The Nestlé Sponsor Award for “Little bits of fun” asked students to create a new way to sell fun-sized confectionery that was different, interesting, creative and convenient. It was won by Lahti’s Yuki Miyagi, who also won a Silver Star, with a cleverly-linked Smarties’ Snake that demonstrated excellent structural design with the potential to be extended across a range of ‘animal’ designs. Individual small food grade cartonboards are linked by tags in the shape of a snake’s tongue to create a multiple strings of packs in the shape of a winding snake.

The Coffee Experience

Kraft Europe’s Sponsor Award asked students to consider packaging solutions to enchance the coffee experience by producing a creative and exciting pack to stimulate consumer purchase. Borut Kerzic from Lahti came up trumps with his idea to extend the Carte Noir range of coffees. The design featured four or more individual servings of coffee in elongated cartonboard packs, which were then packed in an oblong carton with an integrated easy-open device. The idea was described as a professional and “saleable” extension of the Carte Noir brand, by Jo-Ann Clark, industrial design engineer – global coffee technology, Kraft Foods.

Waste frozen out!

Students were challenged by Iceland to create an “environmentally friendly” lightweit pack for Frozen Ready Meals that considered every aspect of material structure, branding and shelf appeal. The sponsor award, which was also supported by Benson Group, Trident West and Paragon Print + Packaging, went to Lahti’s Tuomas Järvenpää for his novel unbleached microwaveable board pack with internal silicone coating. Dubbed “Open and Pan”, the pack unfolds to create a platform which can be used in direct contact with a frying pan. Iceland said, “This is an innovative idea with strong and striking graphics that create instant brand appeal.”

Concentrated effort for toiletries

The Tesco Sponsor Award which challenged students to create a recyclable toiletries pack combining three products seemed to stump most entrants, with no Gold or Silver Stars being awarded. However, Lahti’s Saana Hellsten caught Tesco’s eye with an innovative concept that linked three concentrated products in tablet format which were attached to a cartonboard sleeve housing a spray dispenser. Users simply place a concentrated tablet in a bottle, fill with water and insert the spray dispenser. Consumers can then purchase concentrated refill tablets separately for re-use.

Cereal killers for Pro Carton

Challenged to create an innovative, functional and eye-catching range of cereal packs, the Pro Carton Sponsor Award was won by Lahti’s Ilari Laitinen. The ‘Fitness’ multipack of four cereals offered real shelf stand out and demonstrated an understanding of functional design. Ilari also took a Silver Star. The pack was described as unique by Pro Carton’s Head of Public Affairs Jennifer Buhaenko who added: “The concept has been well thought through with the individual carton and multipack requirements working well together.”

The UK provided the Gold Star winner with Maria Elisabetta Bortolin, of Blackpool & The Fylde College taking the top award. Her innovative and environmentally-friendly multipack is created from four triangular cartonboard servings which fold together and are fixed by a tab to reproduce a clever display pack. A colourful paperboard band completes the pack.

Durable design for internet shopping

The Smurfit Kappa Sponsor Award focused on the rise of internet shopping asking students to create a durable pack made from corrugated board to house a small electrical item and a hard back book. The Winning pack, which had to survive three drop tests, once again went to a student from the Lahti Institute of Design. Markus Toivanen’s ‘Durable Design’ offered great product protection with minimal board usage and, said Smurfit Kappa, could be used easily in the current internet shopping market. The “first-rate” concept also won a Gold Star.

However, despite some very worthy winners a major disappointment this year was the love standard of entries to the Premium Meat Packaging brief sponsored by Marks & Spencer and Korsnäs which were so poor that no packs reached the second round.

Laura Fernandez Marks & Spencer’s Technical Packaging Developer – Grocery & Events said: “Surely UK students can be as imaginative and creative as Lahti students? The Lahti entries show pride and professionalism while some UK entries seemed to be last minute and poorly thought through.” Fernandez added, “Some of the school entries were fantastic and of a higher calibre than some student entries.”

Starpack is co-ordinated by IOP: The Packaging Society (a Division of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining and IOM Communications Ltd.

Presented May 21, 2009

[link] Starpack Student Awards