PPC Gives Behind The Scenes Look At Packaging Competition Judging At first glance, judging the best paperboard packaging in the industry might seem like a matter of choosing the most beautiful box in the room. Spend a little time with the judg- es of PPC’s Paperboard Packaging Competition, though, and it quickly becomes clear that there is much more to it. This year’s judging panel, Jon Cammarata, Creative Director of FutureBrand; James Rutt, President (Retired) of Keystone Paper & Box Co.; Sandy Krasovec, Professor of Packaging Design at the Fashion Institute of Technol- ogy; Robin Matusik, Asst. Principal Package Engineer of Hasbro; Fred Foushee, Sr. Structural Designer (retired) of Smurfit Westrock; Tom Newmaster, Partner at FORCEpkg; Winnie Muehling, Marketing & Communication Director at Pro Carton; and Brad Walling, Sr. Manager, Packaging De- sign and Innovation at Amazon, brought together perspec- tives spanning design, branding, manufacturing, consum- er products, retail, and paperboard packaging. Throughout the judging process, boxes were opened, folded, pulled apart, turned over, and examined from ev- ery angle. The judges debated structures, finishing tech- niques, material choices, manufacturing realities, shipping efficiency, shelf presence, and the experience a consumer has when the package finally reaches their hands. And while the opinions around the table did not always match, a clear picture began to emerge of what makes an entry rise above the rest. The Best Solutions Often Feel Simple Some of the packages that generated the most inter- est were not the most complicated. They were the ones that solved a difficult challenge so elegantly that, once the judges understood the structure, the answer seemed al- most obvious. One judge described an entry as a “pretty darn simple structure,” adding, “That’s the neatness of it.” The judges were drawn to cartons that made them want to take the structure apart and understand how the designer had arrived at the solution. One remarked that the strongest designs were the ones that “made me want to deconstruct and learn how they were made.” Those moments reveal an important part of the compe- tition. A successful carton is not judged only on whether it looks different. The structure needs to have a reason for being different. In some cases, the judges even debat- CONTINUED ON PAGE 38
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