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RIT Team Member Shares Insights from PPA Student Design Challenge

Arin Fogarty from RIT Reflects on Inspiration and Teamwork

The Paperboard Packaging Alliance’s annual Student Design Challenge invites college students across North America to create innovative, paper-based packaging solutions.  

Students in design, graphic arts, and engineering programs gain experience through creating real, recyclable packaging solutions.

In 2025, students were tasked with creating a packaging line for a pet care company, PPA Pets. They were required to include a DNA testing system or a similar lab-dependent item.

One of the finalist projects was Protection Prevention & Awareness for Pets, entered by a team of students from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). We asked a team member about their experience.

Who You'll Hear From:

Arin Fogarty — Graphic Design major and Advertising and Public Relations minor

What inspired your design concept for the challenge? Where did you go or look to seek inspiration?

Our group did a lot of field research before doing any sketches or concept work. We looked at the pet toy packaging market, what we liked and didn’t like about certain packaging designs, trends, and what was missing in the current market.

We also looked at other packaging that wasn’t for pet toys, like children’s toys, dental products, makeup, and food packaging. We wanted to get a wide breadth of ideas and see what already worked well for those types of products.

We knew that we wanted our products to be a system. It was important for us to design the packaging to have similar profiles and styles so customers can easily recognize our products on the shelf and know they are made by the same brand.

What was the most challenging aspect of designing a packaging solution that also needed to be widely accepted for recycling?

We had a lot of conversations and revised concepts due to the actual logistics of the designs.

What did you find most rewarding about participating in the PPA Student Design Challenge?

Collaborating with other students in different fields of study. In school, it’s not every day that you are able to collaborate with a team made up of graphic designers, packaging designers, and industrial designers.

We were able to share ideas based on our personal expertise and hear from other members why our idea may not logistically work.

About the Paperboard Packaging Alliance

The Paperboard Packaging Alliance (PPA) is a joint initiative of the American Forest & Paper Association and the Paperboard Packaging Council. The mission is to promote the benefits of paperboard packaging to influence preference for these materials in packaging design and selection. PPA is a proud supporter of collegiate packaging and design programs across the U.S. and Canada, donating thousands of dollars in scholarships, materials, and classroom resources each year. Alliance membership includes companies representing the full range of mills and converters engaged in the production of paperboard packaging. Additional information about PPA can be found at www.paperboardpackaging.org.

About the American Forest & Paper Association

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) serves to advance public policies that foster economic growth, job creation and global competitiveness for a vital sector that makes the essential paper and packaging products Americans use every day. The U.S. forest products industry employs more than 925,000 people, largely in rural America, and is among the top 10 manufacturing sector employers in 44 states. Our industry accounts for approximately 4.7% of the total U.S. manufacturing GDP, manufacturing more than $435 billion in products annually. AF&PA member companies are significant producers and users of renewable biomass energy and are committed to making sustainable products for a sustainable future through the industry’s decades-long initiative — Better Practices, Better Planet 2030. For more information, visit www.afandpa.org. 

About the Paperboard Packaging Council

For 95 years, the Paperboard Packaging Council (PPC) has served as the premier North American association for converters of paperboard packaging and their suppliers. PPC works to grow, promote, and protect the paperboard packaging industry while providing its members with resources and tools to compete successfully in the marketplace. For more information, visit www.paperbox.org.