Finat celebrates future label talents

The third edition of #LABELicious proved to be a continuous opportunity to strengthen the relationship between future talents for the label industry and the current active professionals in the field. 

The brief of the 2022 edition challenged young talents (between the age of 18 and 25) to design a label for the fictitious company Humandate. The company name is a contraction of the words human and mandate. The company uses the mandate given by people and the planet to develop beautiful and relevant brands. Its new brand Genergise aims to build health and wellness products to make consumers aged over 60 feel like being under 30.

The jury, all professionals actively working at national associations in Europe, trade media, and companies across the entire value chain of the label industry selected the following three winners from the nearly 100 completed registrations.

Jorge Casterad was announced as the overall winner. Jury comments for his design and solution mentioned: ‘a true innovation attempt, clever minimalistic design and innovative idea of building in thermal ink to check skin condition.’

In addition to the trophy for the overall winner, separate awards were announced for best performance in design, smart labeling, and sustainability:

• Design: Gwen Calvo Suárez (Spain)
• Smart Labels: Jorge Casterad (Spain)
• Sustainability: Alessandro Tomaghelli (Italy)

All three winners had the opportunity to attend the European Label Forum before returning home with their trophies and prizes. They all expressed how they appreciated both the conference program and the welcoming atmosphere during the conference. 

During the recent European Label Forum 2022 in Baveno, Italy, the theme of future workforce development was addressed on multiple occasions, concluding that the innovative label and packaging sector is a work environment that suits most, if not all, considerations of generations that enter the workforce in the near future.

As the industry innovates, the need for young generation professionals with both traditional graphic skills and new digital skills is growing. In the past editions of Finat’s Radar market report, respondents from the entire industry in all countries in Europe place future workforce challenges in their top five priorities.

‘Trade associations like Finat build a bridge between the past and future by tackling current challenges together. With the structural downturn of commercial printing, the market for young professionals graduating from dedicated printing and packaging schools and universities has become tight,’ commented Philippe Voet, president of Finat. ‘With the advancement of the digital technology sector, the competition in the talent search has increased. On the other hand, the label sector, with its heritage of purposeful family entrepreneurship, its track record of innovation, and rapid digitization, has a lot to offer to the next generation. The purpose of our #LABELicious campaign is to build the bridge with the education field around Europe to tap into that talent pool.’

Finat plans to intensify the project to build even stronger relationships between students, education networks and companies in the industry. The 2023 edition will be announced before the end of summer to allow schools across Europe to include it in their curriculum.