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Paperboard Packaging Alliance Announces 2020 Student Design Challenge Winners

WASHINGTON – The Paperboard Packaging Alliance (PPA) today announced winners of its 2020 Student Design Challenge, a competition designed to foster awareness and appreciation of paperboard packaging with university educators and the next generation of packaging design decision-makers.

A team of student designers from Ryerson University won first place; Rochester Institute of Technology took home second place; the Fashion Institute of Technology received third place; and an honorable mention was given to an additional team from Rochester Institute of Technology.

Students were asked to design an innovative packaging toolkit for educators to use as part of the Trees into Cartons, Cartons into Trees (TICCIT®) program, which engages third through fifth graders in an environmental and educational activity, highlighting the renewability and sustainability of paper and paperboard packaging. All submitted designs can be viewed on the PPA Website.

The Student Design Challenge is an annual competition for university students in leading packaging design programs to show off their creative talent, design skills and innovative approaches to meet real-world customer needs and marketing scenarios.

“The Student Design Challenge is proof there is a vibrant and bright future ahead for an essential and sustainable industry, the paperboard packaging industry,” says Heidi Brock, AF&PA President & CEO. “Teams of students not only solved a challenge, but they also overcame obstacles presented by COVID-19 this year. They used virtual collaboration and technology tools to develop impressive designs, demonstrating an ability to be more adaptable and resilient.”

“The positive impact of this year’s Student Design Challenge on the future of our industry is twofold,” says Ben Markens, President of the Paperboard Packaging Council. “First, it has engaged some of the brightest minds in the next generation of packaging designers, offering them hands-on experience with paperboard. Second, by designing for TICCIT, they’re helping to educate an even younger generation—schoolchildren who will one day have the opportunity to choose renewable, recyclable paperboard packaging.”

2020 Students Design Challenge Winners

1st Place: Ryerson University

Team: Dorotea Bajic and Laura Rendell-Dean

Advisors: Natalia Lumby and Jay Park