The international jury of Pentawards®, the first worldwide competition devoted exclusively to Packaging Design, chaired by Gérard Caron, is announcing its 2016 winners.

This year, which celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Pentawards, the winners received the following global awards in Shanghai’s design hotel Hyatt on the Bund in front of more than 250 designers and brand owners from all around the world (24 countries represented).

Best of the Show - Diamond Pentaward 2016
Domino's pizza created by the London agency Jones Knowles Ritchie. 

When the packaging and the brand are one. The Domino effect.

Don't order a pizza. Order Domino's.

Over the years, Domino’s pizza packaging had become overloaded with generic information which had lost impact with consumers, while the brand mark had become relegated to a small endorsement. Redesigning its delivery boxes in the UK would enable it to become the definitive article again, and this meant taking a bold and simple approach to replace the clutter on the boxes and focus instead only on the brand’s distinctive two-color logo. Since 96% of all Domino’s pizzas are sold in pairs, the brand’s pizza combo deal was used as the basis for the new design, with one red box and one blue. The result? An open invitation for sharing and fun, as if to say "don’t order a pizza, order Domino’s."

One thing is certain, looking at this tenth Diamond Pentaward and the nine others that have preceded it since 2007, we notice that each time the Pentawards international jury has crowned a packaging design that stands out for its simplicity. These 12 remarkable packaging design professionals and their President joined Mies van der Rohe and his motto "less is more" as well as Antoine de St Exupéry who wrote: "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing to add, but when there is nothing to withdraw."

These pizza boxes for home delivery are characterized by their absolute simplicity, distinctively representing the Domino's brand itself. A remarkable creativity in simplicity from the London agency Jones Knowles Ritchie.

In addition to the Diamond Pentaward trophy, Jones Knowles Ritchie received a copy of the Esko Suite 14 software worth €5,000, an amazing programme for design and visualization, specially created for high performance packaging.

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PENTAWARDS 2016:
5 Platinum Pentawards, the Best in each Category

Besides the Diamond Pentaward, the best of the show (Domino’s Pizza) the international jury chaired by Gérard Caron also awarded the 5 "Best of the Category" prizes.

The BEVERAGES Platinum
...went to the superb bottle of Imayotsukasa Sake created by Bullet agency (Japan)

This special sake is named after the carp, a famous ornamental fish and a symbol of Japan, which has been bred for decades in the same Niigata prefecture where this Nishikigoi sake is manufactured. Considered a living jewel, the carp has beautiful red patterns on a white body and this scheme has been adopted in the bottle design where the red is printed directly on to the white bottle. Japanese brush-work was used to create the red elements, while the outer box features a window in the shape of a fish. The combining of white, red and gold gives a luxurious impression and makes it an excellent gift, while the packaging helps Nishikigoi stand out from other sake brands in the Japanese and overseas markets.

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The FOOD Platinum
...was won by CBX (USA) for the packaging of meat from Man Cave Meats.

The founders of Man Cave Craft Meats, Nick and Josh Beste, were university students when they launched their business, by crafting innovative flavor combos with an obsessive focus on quality. Moving from the stall at the Minneapolis Farmers Market out into grocery stores required the creation of a punchy packaging design for Man Cave Craft Meats to proclaim the makers’ innovative flavor combinations and obsessive pursuit of quality. This was a product with a bold and authentic identity, and a strong measure of individuality, reminiscent of the artisanal world of craft beer with its small-batch production and straightforward, masculine irreverence. So for the unpretentious foodie core customer, the new design uses hand-crafted typography on a strong black background, and images of burly, bearded men with tattoos, alongside taglines such as: “Long live the butcher!”

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The BODY Platinum
...is awarded to Mousegraphics (Greece) for a series of packaging for the BIC brand socks.

BIC is a company with a strong brand known worldwide. A fresh packaging idea here brings a number of Bic products together by the use of a smart but simple concept and its variations: if socks dress the feet, shoes complete the process, then socks for sale on the shelf can also be ‘dressed’ in shoes in a playful manner that catches the eye immediately. The packaging for each style features the image of a type of shoe (women’s, men’s, sports, casual) to match the sock. Within the brand’s range this creates a discrete category that is easy to identify (shoes) while also providing a unifying principle.

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The OTHER MARKETS Platinum
...is awarded to The Partners (UK) for a range of packaging designs for Argos 'Simple Value' household appliances.

Argos is the UK's leading digital retailer - 33,000 products 53,000 lines, 130 million customers, 840 UK stores. Consisting of 140 basic household items, the Argos 'Simple Value' range offers solid quality at low prices. It was this combination of simplicity with value that led to the name, and the packaging also reflects the fact that these products speak for themselves. But simple need not mean dull, and while the product descriptions communicate the basic values there are unexpected twists that lift the copy into something that engages more personally with customers. Different designs have also been created for all these items, and with several hundred thousand units produced per year the simplicity of the print production makes it easier for international suppliers to contribute to the range..

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The LUXURY Platinum
...goes to Coley Porter Bell (United Kingdom) for the luxurious Chivas Regal bottle, The Icon, and its superb packaging.

Chivas Regal is considered the world's first luxury whisky. It was the first Scotch to be exported to the rest of the world in 1909 and became the iconic whisky of its time, drunk by the global elite. Fast forward just over one hundred years and Coley Porter Bell were tasked with developing the positioning, visual identity and packaging for a new ultra-prestige product that would serve to enhance Chivas Regal's luxury credentials. As a permanent expression representing the pinnacle of the range (retailing at US$3,500), their challenge was to get to the very essence of the brand's visual DNA. To deconstruct its qualities and re-imagine them in the purest, most sublime form. They needed to look backwards in order to look forwards and in doing so, they struck upon their inspiration - the original 1909 bottle - an icon of its day. The design pays tribute to the brand's illustrious past - the green crystal decanter in particular, but also the touches of red throughout the packaging, the reference to the ship on the badge and the presentation case pay homage to the iconic green bottle of 1909 and the brand's export story. The agency worked closely with a leading luxury cabinet-maker and the master craftsmen at Dartington Crystal. Each decanter is mouth-blown and hand finished.

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The 10th edition of the Pentawards in figures.

This tenth edition of the Pentawards received 1,843 entries from 5 continents and 54 countries. This shows an increase of nearly 10% in enrolment over the previous year. In addition to the Diamond Pentaward and the 5 Platinum Pentawards, the international jury also awarded 47 Gold Pentawards among the 55 categories competing this year. Silver and Bronze Pentawards were also presented. In total, 34 countries are represented among the winners. These most beautiful packaging designs in the world can all be seen at www.pentawards.org.

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A fourth book on the Pentawards!

TASCHEN, known around the world for the quality of its art books, will publish a fourth volume on the Pentawards in 2016. After the resounding success of the first three books entitled "The Package Design Book" which were the top sellers for several weeks at TASCHEN's, this fourth edition, which will include the winners of Pentawards 2015 and 2016, is a recognition of the quality of the international competition. Above all, it is a wonderful showcase for the winners of Pentawards, which gives them a means of broadcasting their expertise in packaging design globally, in addition to the claim of having won an international trophy. This reference book will be available from November 2016 in all the beautiful TASCHEN stores, in London, Paris, New York, Berlin, Copenhagen, Cologne, Hollywood, Miami, Brussels, and also in many quality bookshops around the world as well as on the web.

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The 2017 PENTAWARDS will be presented in Spain

Registrations for the 11th Pentawards will be open from 20th February to 7th April 2017. All relevant information to register for this international competition dedicated solely to packaging design is available on the following website: www.pentawards.org Next year, the 11th Ceremony of the Pentawards will be take place in Barcelona.