Eleven package design firms took part in Strategy’s Package Designer of the Year competition.

They were provided the following brief:

Strategy will be selecting a Package Designer of the Year, to be announced in our July 11 issue.

The selection will be made on the basis of a package design company’s work over the past year, as judged by a panel of marketers.

We are treating this as an Olympics-style contest.

Strategy has invited a field of leading package design companies into the competition, and you are one of them.

These are design firms, which, we feel, on the basis of a poll of peers and clients and our own observations, deserve to be in the running.

A simple numerical scoring system will be used to determine the winners.

There is no entry fee. However, you will be asked to put some effort into the preparation of your submission.

The criteria

The work must have appeared for the first time in the marketplace between June 1, 1993 and May 31, 1994.

It must be work originated in your Canadian-based shop, but it does not matter where the design appeared.

The work

You are being asked to submit three design concepts that you have done for three clients.

It is up to you to select the work.

The submission

You are being asked to submit one design in each of three categories:

1. Food and beverage

2. Cosmetic and drug

3. Household goods

If you do not have an entry for all three categories, submit your best three designs. However, the judges will be looking for diversity of work.

The package design should be represented by one photograph.

In the case of a redesign, the photograph should include a sample of the packaging as it appeared before your design, as well as your own work.

In the case of a series of packages that represent one brand design but a variety of flavors, you may submit up to three examples from the series.

Each design should be accompanied by no more than a 250-word rationale that explains the design challenge at the outset and how your design resolved that challenge.

We are looking for examples of packaging that helped solve business problems. This is not a contest of package aesthetics. These criteria will be stressed with each judge.

The judging

perspective

The judges will be asked to look at your designs as ‘a body of work.’

They will be asked to vote as though they were judges at an Olympic event and awarding points for best overall performance.

They will be asked to score each company’s performance on a scale of 0-to-10.

The purpose of the competition is to assess the packaging design on the basis of demonstrated strengths in marketing thinking and creative execution.

They will also be asked to make their judgments on the basis of your ability to work in different product categories.

The judging

We are inviting six judges.

The submissions will be delivered to the judges individually. They will make their assessments based on photographs of your work and your written rationale.

Individual responses will remain confidential.

See THE COVERAGE, p. 40

Continued from p. 39

The coverage

The winning design company will be displayed on the front cover of the July 11 issue with a four-color photograph commissioned by Strategy.

We will also give prominent coverage to the second- and third-place design companies.

However, all of the design companies invited into the competition will be included in an editorial spread on the inside pages, along with at least one example of their work.