User experience the focus of packaging innovation awards

End-user experience was a key focus of the 2015 DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation, with 77% of the winners being honoured for design that enhances the user’s experience.

Canadian company IPL, Inc, for instance, won the Diamond Award - the program’s top honour - for its SkinnyPack Technology. The mono-material package is flexible and rigid and creates a thin, light, strong structure that uses less material, enables recycling and allows more message space.

IPL, Inc’s Diamond Award-winning salsa container, featuring SkinnyPack Technology.

“This year’s winners stand out as leaders in packaging innovation,” said William J Harvey, president, DuPont Packaging & Industrial Polymers. “They exemplify how collaboration, innovation and packaging excellence converge to generate game-changing solutions that positively impact our lives.”

Nearly 140 entries from more than 25 countries were assessed by an independent panel of packaging experts and one diamond, five gold and seven silver winners were selected based on excellence in several categories: technological advancement, responsible packaging and enhanced user experience.

“The winners demonstrated the power of integrating precision engineering, design and technology in a way that brings multisensorial yet functional packaging to delight consumers,” said Yasmin Siddiqi, DuPont Packaging Awards program leader.

“The novelty this year lies in the fact that we saw packaging designs that added intuitive functionality in a way that was both simple and meaningful for the user,” said David Luttenberger, CPP, global packaging director, Mintel Group, USA and lead judge. “There’s frequently a lot of technology behind seemingly simple designs, but when you can design packaging in a way that resolves an issue and is intuitive to use, that’s value.”

The full list of winners is available from the DuPont website.