Award-Winning Boxmakers Think Outside the Box
- Published: May 01, 2001, By Claudia Hine, Senior Editor
A total of 27 rigid box and folding carton converters shared 133 awards from the National Paperbox Assn. (NPA) in its 2000 Packaging Showcase Competition. Liz Hirschey, chairman of the fifty-first annual competition committee, announced the winners in April at the association's 83rd annual meeting in Palm Desert, CA.
The nearly 300 entries, which are judged in 3 categories and 21 end-use classes, are “some of the most outstanding and well-designed packages in recent years,” notes Hirschey. She adds the competition “showcases a splendid variety and combination of unique construction and excellent graphics…each year the marketplace sees better and better packaging.”
A total of 39 Gold Awards and 94 Excellence Awards were designated. The top scorer of all rigid box entries and the top scorer of all folding carton entries earned Best of Show awards.
Rigid Box Best of Show
O.E. Clark Paper Box, Vernon, CA, took the best of show award in the rigid box category for “The Power of Innovation,” which packages insurance promotional material and a cassette for Pacific Life.
Unique structural and graphic innovations include a laptop computer design with internal embossed keyboard that activates a whale sound chip when the box is opened. A hologram of a whale rising in and out of the ocean is displayed on the “screen” of the laptop box.
The package also is designed as a storage box for materials that will be sent to the customer in the future.
Materials include recycled chipboard and a vacuum formed tray with offset printing and embossing.
Folding Carton Best of Show
House of Packaging, City of Industry, CA, won the folding carton best of show award for “Uptown Fall 2000,” a women's cosmetic sampler for Jafra Cosmetics. The package, designed for maximum product visibility and exposure for consumer examination, brings a “high-end” department store look to the direct sales cosmetic marketplace. Exceptional graphics and four-color printing on 0.024 solid bleached sulfate highlight the fall color promotion of the product.
Judges Citation Awards
Each member of the judging panel selected one entry for special recognition. Rigid Box Best of Show winner O.E. Clark Paper Box earned a Judges Citation award, as did the following:
- Mebane Packaging of Westvaco for Westvaco's Dosepak carton;
- Taylor Box Co. for Advanced Graphic Services' Genesis Eyewear Sales Presenter box;
- DeRidder Inc. for Sigma Marketing's Citizens Basketball Court carton;
- Diamond Packaging for Gillette's Holiday Gift Set carton;
- All Packaging Co. for Crown Media's Hallmark Entertainment Network's Video 3-Pack carton.
For more information contact NPA, Alexandria, VA 22314; ph: 703/684-2212; fax: 703/683-6920; e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; web site: www.paperbox.org.
Judges for this year's competition were:
Jim Thurston, executive director, Canadian Paper Box Mfrs. Assn.
Mary Byrd, president, Mary Byrd Productions
Barbara Corrigan and Jim Corrigan, past president of Mebane Packaging Group
Derek Whitney, professor, Mohawk College
Leonard Wyss, past president, Colbert Packaging
