Auckland-based brand & packaging design agency Brother Design has been awarded Silver at the Pentawards, held this year in London.
Although the agency were advised of their win in June, the Brother team have had to keep the news under wraps until the award ceremony took place. “It was quite a long time to keep it quiet,” says Jenny McMillan, Brother’s business development Director. “Luckily, we had plenty else to celebrate. It’s been a big year for the agency.”
The Pentawards is a worldwide packaging design competition, founded in 2007, attracting entries from design groups across the globe. Every two years the winning designs are compiled into The Package Design Book, by publishers, Taschen, which becomes an international ‘bible’ for packaging designers and creatives.
Brother Design’s latest success is for their work on Pams Feminine Hygiene range, which was entered in the Body – Private Label category, against the numerous designs for shampoos, moisturizers and deodorants. This year’s Pentawards received 1668 entries from five continents and 52 countries.
It’s Brother’s second win at the Pentawards. In 2014, in Tokyo, their designs for Pams Flour scooped Gold. This year’s awards, announced at the sold-out prize-giving event in London, was judged by a panel of 12 respected design professionals from 10 countries.
The winning work was designed by Justine Rankine, senior creative at Brother. “It’s really pleasing to win such a prestigious award for a project that had to overcome many design challenges,” she said.
“It had to work across a variety of pack sizes and formats, yet still be a strong family of products. Printing was on both card and plastic, ruling out tight colour registration. Perhaps the biggest challenge was the competitiveness of the market, dominated by trusted international brands synonymous with the feminine hygiene category.”
As well as gaining stand-out and credibility, the Pams range had to appeal to women of all demographics, demanding wide appeal. The result is a modern and elegantly simple design that avoids information overload, yet has a human, personal quality through handwritten copy. The packs are easy to navigate, too, with colour coding and information in a simple circle device.
Jocelyn McCallum, Foodstuffs’ national private label manager, said the award is another sign of the strength of Pams as a brand. “The fresh design approach you’ll find across the Pams range is an important aspect of its appeal to consumers, so we’re gratified to see that rewarded. It’s part of the mix that has made Pams the most-trusted own brand in New Zealand for three consecutive years, and the country’s single largest grocery brand.”
The Pentawards win follows Brother’s international success for their Pams work in the shape of four Vertex awards and a First Place in the Dieline competition.
PROJECT CREDITS
Client: Foodstuffs
Agency: Brother Design Auckland
Creative Director: Paula Bunny
Senior Designer: Justine Rankine
Copywriter: Justine Rankine / Annette Roper
Typographer: Jynell St James
Illustrator: Ashley Goldberg
About the Pentawards
Each year the Pentawards honour the best packaging designs from around the world. The packaging designs are grouped into 5 major markets (Beverages – Food – Body Products – All other markets – Luxury market) and no less than 55 sub-categories so that each competing design is judged alongside similar creations.
A jury composed of 12 packaging design professionals and their chairman, from different countries and cultures, all recognised by the industry as the best there is, award trophies on the basis of creativity, impact-branding and quality of workmanship of the works presented.
Five prize levels are attributed: one and only one Diamond Pentaward (Best of the Show) rewards the creation with the most votes across all categories. 5 Platinum Pentawards go to the best packaging of each of the five major markets. In the 55 categories, a maximum of one Gold, two Silver and two Bronze Pentawards can be attributed.
A truly international competition, each year the awards ceremony takes place in a different city where designers and brand managers gather from around the world. For them, it is the only opportunity of the year to be able to meet in such numbers to exchange ideas about packaging design.
Since their inception in 2007, the Pentawards have seen the number of participants increasing steadily and are now recognised as the most important award in the world of packaging design.
Every other year, the famous Taschen publishing house produces a book with more than 400 pages which include the winning designs over two years.
In addition to the awarding of prizes, the mission of Pentawards is to promote packaging design among the business community, the media, the economic and political authorities and the general public around the world.
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