Cleveland-based packaging manufacturer Tap Packaging Solutions (tap-usa.com) was awarded Rigid Box of the Year and two Excellence Awards in the 2016 Paperboard Packaging Council (PPC) competition.

The winning rigid box, the Leitmotiv Eau De Parfum Set, features a telescoping, angled and hinged rigid structural design, which leverages a wide range of capabilities offered by the 110 year-old domestic manufacturer of paperboard packaging. Client Benevolent Beauty (formerly known as Epic Beauty) had the boxes previously made overseas, but Tap engineered a near exact match using high-quality materials and hand assembly in its Cleveland plant.

“I’m thrilled this rigid box won such a distinguished award,” says Mike Willis, senior design engineer at Tap Packaging Solutions. “When Benevolent Beauty came to us with this rigid box design, we had to deconstruct the structure and determine the most efficient means of reproducing this unique design. It was a team effort and I’m especially proud of the outcome.”

The Leitmotiv Eau De Parfum Box is made of 80pt and 50pt chipboard and features hot foil stamping, printed litho wrap, a unique slanted hinged opening, and a protective false bottom for the two fragrance components inside, which are packaged in folding carton sleeves. The boxes were completely hand assembled and inspected by a team in Tap’s manufacturing plant, and the litho wrap was printed on Tap’s Heidelberg Press.

“This package took me a little bit by surprise,” says Dick DePaul, owner of DePaul Associates and 2016 PPC Competition panel member. “I just absolutely love this set-up box… The detailing is excellent. I think it really sets the product up beautifully. Even down through the detailing in the insert, everything is very well thought out.”

The two Excellence Award winners, Fleurir Chocolates – Taste the Nation, Bar by Bar and the Happ & Stahns Hand Cream, are both folding carton projects that were manufactured by Tap and printed on Tap’s HP Indigo 30000 Digital Press.

With illustrations provided by client Fleurir Chocolates, six versions of Fleurir’s “regional” chocolate bar boxes were custom designed to contain a chocolate bar with ingredients sourced from different regions of the United States. Portraying scenes from particular regions, each unique version was united by similar hot foil stamping. Each version was printed in different quantities – a feature specific to the HP Indigo Digital Press, known by Tap as Versioning Controls.

The Happ & Stahns Hand Cream folding carton was another project manufactured for client Benevolent Beauty. The client benefited from printing on the HP Indigo 30000 Digital Press because she needed a quick turn. The ornate gold foil stamping, “twinkle” accents on the flower artwork, pastel colors, and precise print quality of the Digital Press emphasizes the high-end Parisian theme of the Fleurs de Giverny hand cream. The cartons were printed on 18pt C2S Tango, and inside the cartons is an N-flute insert to hold the hand cream in place.