Metsä Board Corporation have announced the winners of ‘Better with Less – Design Challenge 2022-2023’. A jury of package design experts chose two submissions to share first place: ‘Kid’s Headphones Packaging,’ by designer Kitty Ching and the ‘Cardboard Protecting Filler,’ by designers, Marcin Michalski, Monika Klimpel and Adrian Olejnik.
The international packaging design competition Better with Less – Design Challenge was organised by Metsä Board, part of Metsä Group for the third time. The competition invited designers to create the zero-waste packaging of the future. 124 entrants from 27 countries joined the challenge with their creative ideas.
“Choosing the winner from such excellent entries was an incredibly difficult decision, so the jury decided to select two first-place winners,” says Ilkka Harju, Chairman of the jury and Packaging Services Director at Metsä Board.
The first winning design, ‘Kid’s Headphones Packaging’, focuses on consumer usability and recyclability. Through elegant design engineering, the packaging is easy to open and provides excellent protection of the product – showing how simple is often best. The packaging is easy to recycle and considers the reuse aspect, as the inner part of the packaging offers the possibility to store the headphones. The reuse is supported by the aesthetic presentation and pure and clean paperboard material used.
The joint first prize winner was ‘Cardboard Protecting Filler’, a TV or electronics transport protection solution. The solution creates a protective beam-like structure protecting the contents on each side of the package. The packaging, made of fresh fibre paperboard, is lightweight and durable, supporting the circular economy in terms of ease of recycling and minimising the amount of material used.
The first prize winners will share the prizes from first and second place and will receive 6,500 euros each.
The third prize, 2,000 euros, was awarded to, ‘RESHAPE’. Dawid Thiel’s packaging concept is designed to work for a wider range of products thanks to an innovative packaging format, which reduces the number of packaging items that need to be stored.
Metsä Board offered an additional prize of an internship for one student at its Paperboard and Packaging Excellence Centre in Finland. The winner was ‘Zero Waste Medication Blister Pack’, designed by Patrick Walby, a packaging for the pharma industry that aims to replace the plastic and aluminum often used in medication packaging with paperboard.
Two honorary mentions were also awarded to ‘Totally Bananas’ Packaging, designed by, Max Gubbins and ‘F’lover’, designed by, Mine Koca.