Packaging competitions honor design excellence
Taylor Box and Diamond Packaging claim top NPA awards
Taylor Box Co. and Diamond Packaging won the National Paperbox Association’s rigid box and folding carton best of show awards, respectively, in its 54th Annual Packaging Competition. The winners were announced during the NPA Spring Meeting in Palm Desert, Calif., in April. The companies were the top scorers of all rigid box and folding carton entries.
Taylor Box Co., Warren, R.I., won for its “Mandarin Boston Pre Sales Box,” made for Signature Impressions. The judges said the innovations of this slipcase in three-panel folder box are very apparent at first glance. The box is used to hold interior house plans for penthouse condominiums and are presented to clients in meetings with architects.
Magnets are embedded in the slipcase and folder board under the wrap to create a clean looking and smooth closure. The red tassel pull and debossed pattern help make an elegant presentation to important clients. The interior is offset printed with an exterior blind deboss. Materials include Strathmore Grander Ivory over chipboard.
“This set-up box demands attention; the colors are sophisticated and current, evocative of the personality of the contents. The box is extremely strong and efficient while presenting a new and refreshing look,” the judges wrote.
Diamond Packaging, Rochester, N.Y., won for its “Dunhill Cigars Cartons” created for Murray Sons & Co. Ltd. The judges said the innovative family of packages was designed for an internationally known premium cigar made in the Dominican Republic. The entire line consists of six different types of cigars, each packaged three per carton. Although all six cartons of this family share similar graphics, each carton specified different sizes for each of the components within. The outer sleeve is produced on an imported Colorplan paperboard, chosen for its beautiful finish as well as its excellent folding and scoring characteristics. The glued sleeve is designed with open and sealed ends that allow the attractive outer tray to partially extrude, thereby enhancing shelf appeal and maximizing the Dunhill brand identity.
The outer sleeve also features a multitude of graphic enhancements such as multi-color printing, UV satin coating, embossing, debossing, and hot foil stamping.
The outer tray and cigar tubes feature metallic inks and embossing, but are converted from .014 SBS paperboard. The structural design of the cigar tubes and inner cell allow them to open and close in a telescoping fashion. Since the products are cigars, the inside of the cigar tubes and inner cells are printed with red food-safe ink. The end result is a sophisticated package that stands out in the crowded retail environment and truly represents the quality of the product inside.
Fifty-two international rigid box and folding carton converters entered the 2003 Packaging Showcase Competition and 137 awards were bestowed. The 137 winners were selected from 39 classes and five judge’s categories. The judging panel designated a total of 46 gold and 91 excellence awards.
FTA presents best of show awards to flexo printers at Annual Forum in Dallas.
Georgia-Pacific, Lewisburg Container, Matthews International, and Temple-Inland won best of show awards at the Excellence in Flexography Awards Competition at the 2004 Foundation of Flexographic Technical Association (FFTA) Annual Forum in April in Dallas. There were 650 entries in this year’s competition.
The best-of-show award winners for corrugated and paperboard are:
* Tetra Pak for Imagine Broth–Wide Web (paperboard, process)
* Q.C. Packaging for Buick Rainier–Narrow Web (paperboard, process)
* Lewisburg Container for KitchenAid Pouring Shield[R]–Combined Corrugated (line)
* Temple-Inland Inc. for World Select–Preprinted Linerboard (process)
* Georgia-Pacific (printer) and Matthews International (designer) for Watermelon Box–Graphic Design (paper/paperboard)
There were 36 judges, all assigned to specific areas of expertise. In the combined corrugated category, Joe Rach of Chemence, who judged level of execution, referred to the KitchenAid Pouring Shield package as “head and shoulders above the average or typical results seen in the industry today.”
Temple-Inland’s World Select preprinted linerboard job earned high praise from Ken Green of Southern Graphic Systems, a degree-of-difficulty judge. “The classic design of that product made it stand out,” he wrote. “The design and ink laydown were just phenomenal. Register was a big issue. When you run vertical or horizontal lines, that’s one thing, but as soon as you run something that’s on an angle, then you have register issues. If you take a look at the register on that job, though, it was great.”
The graphic design portion of the Excellence in Flexography Awards saw presentation of the top prize to a watermelon bin, designed by Matthews International and printed by Georgia-Pacific. “As a piece of art, it was done well in terms of how things fell on certain panels, and it really was subdued enough and subtle enough that you weren’t getting beat over the head with a sales message,” wrote Tom Newmaster, William Fox Munroe, a judge for the graphic design category. “The function of the piece was to be viewed from a distance … The design firm knew exactly what it was doing. The designer kept it simple, kept it home-grown and Americana-looking.”
In other show-related news, Gallus Ferd. Ruesch AG, St. Gallen, Switzerland, a flexographic press manufacturer, won top honors in the 2004 Environmental Excellence Award competition. Southern Graphic Systems, Philadelphia, was awarded an honorable mention in FTA’s fourth annual contest.
In addition, Creo Inc.’s HyperFlex[R] plate resolution enhancement software was selected as the sole recipient of the 2004 Technical Innovation Award. HyperFlex software is a resolution enhancement technology that allows packaging trade shops, printers and converters to produce smaller, more stable dots on flexographic plates and presswork. PBP
COPYRIGHT 2004 Advanstar Communications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
