Benson picks up praise for structural design

UK folding carton converter Benson Group has been praised in the structural design category of the Starpack Awards 2013.

 

It was highly commended for the Willies Cacao Sea Salt Caramel Black Pearls luxury chocolate product, with the carton designed to create a one-piece erectable cube, with a top opening to allow for sharing and access.

 

Benson Group used Iggesund Paperboard’s Incada Excel, a virgin fiber board, to create the carton.

 

The design brief was to create a sense of gradually revealing, and peeling back layers to access the chocolates.

 

An intricate coating pattern has been used to achieve a detailed gloss effect; with varnish added in a single pass using the twin-coater on Benson Bardon’s Heidelberg XL 105 press. The pack uses a spot glue technique to create a double thickness lid.

 

Nikki Clark, Benson Group marketing manager, said: ‘We are delighted to receive a highly commended award for this packaging product.

 

‘We needed to work closely with the client and the artwork house to produce a carton that captured the vision from the first briefing. The end product exhibits, we believe, the best print finishes to compliment elegant and well-presented artwork created by BrandOpus.

 

‘How the product was packed was constantly kept under consideration. Our designers at Benson Group worked closely with the client to ensure the pack was easy to assemble and fill at the hand-packed production line. Adjustments made to the closures allowed for a more efficient packing line.

 

‘We believe that the constructional design produced creates a new style of pack for the premium chocolate market. The cube construction stands out on the shelf against competitive products. The combination of print varnish effects, internal printing and foil blocking against the dark brown base colour draws the consumer’s eye to the pack.’

 

The Starpack Awards celebrate excellence in packaging design and technology, alongside schools and student programs for packaging design.

 

Winners are then eligible for the World Packaging Organization WorldStar Awards.

 

WorldStar Awards are presented only to those packs which, having already won recognition in a national or regional competitions, are compared by an expert panel of judges to similar packs from around the world. Awards are based on the judges' consensus that a pack is superior in its category and market and better in its class in execution or innovation by comparison to others.

 

In 2013, 159 were selected as WorldStar winners from a total of 316 entries from 33 countries.

 

Categories in the Starpack Awards 2013 include: luxury and giftware, including seasonal packaging such as Christmas gifts or Easter Eggs, or high-end products like perfume or jewellery; non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages; food; health and beauty, including supplements, cosmetics, perfumes, hair-, body- and oralcare, pharmaceutical and over-the-counter medicines, healthcare and vitamins; other, for any product not captured in the specific categories; pack/product integration, for where graphic designers and product designers have been creatively inventing new forms of packaging to maximize the function of product packaging; graphic design and decoration, for graphic, and new or existing reproduction techniques that add outstanding value to the pack, aesthetic or other; retail-ready/PoS; structural design technical innovation; transit; and the Green Star Environment & Sustainability Award.

 

One of the category winners will also be named Packaging Superstar, and heralded as “best in show”.

 

The 2013 Starpack Awards winners will be presented with their prizes at a ceremony on July 11 in London.

 

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