Every year we receive some incredible entries in the packaging categories of the World Beverage Innovation Awards. From improved functionality and convenience to eye-catching designs and eco-friendly materials, the entries in the packaging categories are some of the most innovative.
This year, lots of the entries focused on sustainable solutions, visually appealing designs and functional creations. Original designs with clean labelling certainly stood out to the judges.
The winner of the best packaging design or label was Ampac Flexibles with its WING DING stand-up pouch with pull tab label for cocktails.
The pouch is a great mixture of form, function and design. With the bold colourful images and stand out branding, the packaging is sure to stand out on shelf. The pouch is simple and convenient to use by tearing open the tab and then inserting a straw. The contents can also be poured into a glass by tearing open the pouch at the tear notches. Not only this, but given the pouch material, it can be used in locations where glass is not allowed and can be frozen.
Finalists of the category include CCL Label Meerane with Captain Morgan Cannon Blast, and Funde (Baishan) Maifan Springs Co with MaiAqua Springs. Both these entries showcased original shaped designs. The Captain Morgan cannon ball-shaped bottle showcased bold red letter branding and is said to reflect Henry Morgan’s adventurous life as a buccaneer. MaiAqua Springs’ bag-in-box packaging is designed to be beautiful and functional. The Kraft Paper BIB cartons and BPA-free EVOH bags are both more eco-friendly than traditional bag-in-box designs and safer.
The other finalists include La Fantana with Kafune Coffee, O-I Europe with The Bottle that Literally Rocks, The Tesalia Springs Company with Guitig limited editions, and Type and Signs Hamburg with Hot Rod Oil beer. Each of these entries showcased originality. Kafune Coffee stood out to judges for its colourful and exotic packaging. It depicts abstract shapes, which reflect various cultural symbols of Brazil, including the costumes seen at the Rio carnival.
O-I’s entry was something totally unique. The company worked with Rocker Spirits, a micro-distillery based in Colorado, to create a one-of-a-kind design that conveys Rocker’s distinctive identity. According to the brand, the bottle is a vessel for not only a new drink but a new drinking experience, and was based on a vintage oil can from the 1930s.
Both Tesalia Springs Company and Type and Signs Hamburg utilised traditionally shaped bottles for their entries. But both had a twist. By incorporating unique and stunning illustrations into their bottles, both of the entries showcased sophistication and character.
Moving away from design and onto materials, the winner of the best Bottle in PET was PET Engineering with LUX.
This entry combines the durability, light-weighting and low cost advantages of PET with the concept of elaborate elegance. The bottle’s 3D decorations and the use of vivid and intense colours produce an interesting refraction effect, making the bottle stand out.
The finalists of the category include Funde (Baishan) Maifan Springs Co with MaiAqua square bottle and Innocent Drinks with smoothie PET packaging. Both entries showcased the usability of PET and its relevance in the market. The bottles allowed consumers to see the beverage contents and showcased strong, appealing branding.
Funde (Baishan) Maifan utilised an original robust square design, which the brand said maximises storage space. Its food-grade (PC) outer cap and the non-colour added inner (PE) cap also prevents germs or dust around the mouth opening.
In other packaging materials, the winner of the best bottle in glass was Ardagh Group & The Absolut Company with Absolut Facet.
The new bottle design is something completely different for Ardagh Group and Absolut. Using Absolut’s traditional bottle, the teams worked closely to devise something that is in keeping with the vodka’s branding but that still pushes the limits. This unique blue bottle features an asymmetric design, with the edges of the Facet bottle being cut like a gem.
As the brand revealed, bringing such a complex design into volume production required painstaking and very detailed preparation, as did replicating the colour consistently across the design and to the required wall thickness. Ardagh successfully met these challenges for a bottle production of 2.5 million units.
The finalists of the category include Lavernia & Cienfuegos with Laudum wine bottle, Lofoten Arctic Water with Lofoten water and Vitbot with the Vitbot glass bottle.
Each of these finalists showcases glass at its best. Lavernia & Cienfuegos’s entry incorporates Roman architecture to reflect the drink’s heritage. LAUDUM is the genitive plural of Laus, the Latin word meaning praise, glory, fame.
Lofoten Water’s entry is simplistic but extremely effective. The only premium water not to be distilled or filtered, its brand concept is showcased in the clean and beautifully clear bottle, with colours and typesetting that express its Arctic provenance.
Vitbot also showcased what can be achieved with glass. Inspired by nature, Vitbot’s bottles have been designed with an oval shape and Phi proportion (golden ratio) in order to allow water to move in a vortex inside. Thanks to this vortex motion, the minerals and electrolytes in all beverages are kept in a uniform solution. The bottle is both beautiful and functional.
We also had some incredible entries in the best can or alubottle category. Each of them showcased the versatility of metal in the beverage industry. The winner of the category was Crown Packaging and The London Beer Factory with a can that is revolutionary.
London Beer Factory is the first UK brewer to use a new format that allows consumers to completely remove the lid. It is easy to open, fully removable and turns the can into a drinking cup. This not only enhances the consumer experience, but also the usability of the packaging. The branded can also features a playful, colourful design.
Finalists in the category include Ardagh Metal Beverage Holdings with Nitro Slim Can and Ardagh Group & Brewers and Union UG with And Union unfiltered lager matt can. Both these cans adopt a more simplistic but effective design.
The new Nitro Can by Ardagh Group is designed to deliver a creamy foam to a ready-to-drink black coffee – usually brewed cold. The main feature on the can is a widget that is fixed to its bottom. Upon opening, the capsule is activated, releasing nitrogen into the beverage and creating a cascading pour and foamy head. While the widget itself is not new, its application within the coffee segment is – as is its introduction into the 250ml can.
The Union’s unfiltered lager matt can breathes by the basic principles of modernism. The simplistic modern design showcases the unfiltered lager beautifully. Its white matt finish is a departure from traditional craft brewers who typically use strong, illustrative graphics to convey their brand proposition. It’s sophisticated and effortlessly cool, just like the brand.
To find out more about the World Food Innovation Awards 2017, click here.
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