ANTALIS, together with Brief Cases, has revealed the winners of the Smart Luxury Packaging: Drinks Sector’ competition, which challenged students to explore high-end brands and design packaging to promote their own brand concept.
Winning projects were selected from submissions by students at Norwich University of the Arts, by a panel of industry judges.
Entries were judged according to criteria including design, recognising opportunity, impact, commercial viability, brand strength, and presentation.
The judging panel comprised of Veronica Heaven (MD of The Heaven Company and founder of Brief Cases); Tan Mahal (head of creative services at Pollards); Jess Turner (head of brand and creative at Adnams); Jamie Pledger (retail merchandise buyer at Adnams); Brian Webb (director and designer at Webb & Webb); Susan Wright (editorial director and publisher at Earth Island Publishing); Eleanor Harris (head of sales and marketing at Beamglow); Jon Clark (general manager at BPIF Cartons and head of procurement at Medica Packaging); and Steve Chappell (graphical board development manager at Antalis).
After reviews of all shortlisted work, five students were recognised with awards. Joint gold winners were revealed as Bethany Hansford and Isabella Atkinson.
Bethany designed ‘Smith Sutton’ with inspiration from her librarian grandfather, with luxury, reusable brandy packaging in the form of an old book. Foiling and embossing is said to give a ‘premium and exclusive’ feel to the outer, while the inside is lined with a marble pattern, linking back to book cover linings of old and providing a ‘contrasting and contemporary’ feel upon opening. The bottle incorporates a label on which a name can be handwritten for personalised gifting, with the keepsake pencil provided. Bethany specified a selection of fully recyclable paper products from Antalis.
Joint gold winner Isabella Atkinson named her gin brand ‘Tinbeerwah’ after her childhood home, the suburb Tinbeerwah in Queensland, Australia, for which she uses a laser cut sunrise-style motif. The area is said to be characterised by its tropical rainforest and exotic plants and celebrates natural botanicals; both of which became the inspiration for Isabella’s design. The bottle label is laser cut to create light refraction for impact. Antalis said that through creating ‘luxurious sustainability’ with her packaging, with the balance of its paper-based construction and finishes including gold foil, Isabella’s design has ‘heightened luxury appeal’.
Olivia Kennedy was awarded silver for ‘Bryhtnoth’, a salted caramel vodka in recyclable packaging utilising foiling and laser cutting. Mia Jones’ concept ‘Mortimer’s’ received the bronze award. Creating giftable, boxed wine, Mia designed the outer box to become a lantern by placing a light inside, post-packaging use. Completing the awards, highly commended was given to Abigail Ballard-Lawrence for her ‘Sailmakers White Rum’ packaging, with each cut-out on the box reflecting the shape of sails.
Jess Turner, head of brand and creative at Adnams, said, “The thoroughness of the students’ work and their incredibly detailed and well-thought-out storytelling, alongside the detailed concepts and brands, were impressive. You could really tell that a huge amount of research went into their work, and it was an honour to be on the judging panel.”
