Some may assume packaging is without doubt one of the least glamorous corners of design. It is purposeful and controlled, and if it isn’t one thing you specialize in, it is most likely an afterthought while you’re designing for manufacturers.
However should you’ve spent any time trying on the previous 20 years of award-winning packaging, a unique image emerges. Packaging has arguably grow to be one of the vital emotionally charged, culturally revealing and ethically scrutinised areas in design right this moment.
With Pentawards marking its twentieth anniversary this yr, it appears like time to take inventory and look nearer at what’s developed and why. In line with Adam Ryan, head of Pentawards, the largest change hasn’t been about aesthetics alone.
“Packaging has shifted from trying good, to being seen, to really doing good,” he explains. What was as soon as handled as a advertising floor is now understood as a model expertise in its personal proper, and it is one of many final bodily touchpoints the place values, intent and worldview might be meaningfully expressed.
In an more and more digital world, physicality issues. Packaging is not simply what holds the product anymore; it is the place manufacturers display who they’re when nobody’s scrolling.
From extra to intention
When you rewind twenty years, notably in luxurious, premium packaging usually equated worth with abundance. Creatives and companies alike favoured weighty supplies, gloss finishes, and elaborate building. In the present day, that language feels a bit tone deaf and outdated. Premium has been redefined not by how a lot you utilize, however by how thoughtfully you select.
What’s notable, Ryan says, is that craft hasn’t disappeared. It is merely moved. Designers at the moment are fixing a tougher temporary, grappling with easy methods to categorical worth via restraint, ethics and readability somewhat than extra. The technical problem stays, however the cultural stakes are larger.
This evolution mirrors broader artistic cycles. Maximalism gave approach to minimalism, which is now giving approach to one thing extra nuanced: daring, expressive design that also understands duty. Color, playfulness and visible pleasure are again, however not only for the sake of indulgence.
Packaging has grow to be a barometer for the way tradition itself is shifting away from surface-level signalling and in direction of which means that holds up underneath scrutiny.
Designing for cabinets and screens
The introduction of Pentawards’ new PR & Influencer Gifting class displays one other main shift: packaging is now not skilled solely in-store.
Social media hasn’t modified what good packaging is, Ryan argues, however it has expanded what designers should think about. In the present day, packaging usually has to work in movement and sequence, via reveals and unboxings, and throughout a number of moments somewhat than a single look.
Designers are basically choreographing experiences. A field opening turns into a story, all hinged round this concept of the reveal.
Alongside this newfound relevance, the basics nonetheless matter. Shelf impression, readability and instantaneous recognition have not gone anyplace. What’s modified is that packaging now exists in time in addition to area, equally at house in a hand, on a shelf, or inside a six-second video.
What juries reward has modified
If packaging as soon as felt like a “magnificence parade”, that period is firmly over. Throughout Pentawards’ historical past, Ryan has seen juries more and more reward work that demonstrates function, technique and cultural relevance alongside visible craft.
Latest Diamond winners make that shift clear. Tilt, an accessible magnificence model designed by Established, grew to become the primary make-up line to obtain the Arthritis Basis’s Ease of Use Certificates. One Good Factor, designed by This Method Up, eliminated wrappers completely, utilizing an edible beeswax-based coating to scale back waste.
These are examples of systemic adjustments, and show the broader level that packaging design is now judged not simply by the way it seems, however by what it adjustments.
The subsequent period: human, accessible, experiential
Wanting forward, Ryan believes a mixture of technological stress and human response will form the following decade of packaging. AI will inevitably affect how designers work, however as automation accelerates, audiences are already exhibiting indicators of fatigue.
Packaging, against this, stays stubbornly bodily. It is one of many few artistic codecs the place materials selection, craftsmanship and intention can nonetheless be felt. That physicality offers packaging a novel position within the years forward, notably as designers shift from creating static containers to designing moments, experiences and emotional connections.
Accessibility will likely be central to that shift. As populations age and wishes diversify, inclusive design will transfer from specialist consideration to baseline expectation. Very similar to sustainability, it will not be a distinct segment. It’ll merely be a part of doing good work correctly.
What makes this second genuinely thrilling, Ryan says, is risk. New supplies, new manufacturing strategies and new methods of pondering are increasing the artistic scope of packaging somewhat than limiting it.
So no, should you had been ever in any doubt, packaging is not boring. If something, it is one of many clearest reflections of the place design, tradition and duty are heading subsequent. As manufacturers proceed to speak about their values, packaging often is the place the place these values are lastly examined.
