The Spearhead Group has announced the winners of the third annual Physical Brand Enhancement (PBE) Awards™, a luxury packaging design challenge for university students. Inspired by Spearhead’s commitment to global sustainability and innovation, undergraduates at Istituto Europeo di Design in Turin, Italy had two months to create a Value-Added Gift Pack. The 2022 PBE Awards design theme is “Less is More.” The brief challenged students to use the least amount of CrownBoard Prestige™ paper, generously donated by strategic material Pioneer Billerud.
Congratulations to the first-place winners of the 2022 PBE Awards: Morena DiMolfetta, Alessandra Pinto, and Massimo Piovano, with their project “Travel Bag”. The second-place winners were Paolo Bosetti, Francesco Falvio Noli, and Lorenzo Ravarino with their project “HUG”. To view the winning designs click here.
“We are proud to nurture emerging talent through global development programs like the PBE Awards. The result is a tremendous amount of new and unique ideas that help define the future of packaging,” said Robert Catalano, Chief Innovation Officer of The Spearhead Group. “For years, the packaging space has become static, and we pride ourselves as being market disrupters by constantly pushing for change. We believe that this can only come from placing sustainability first and offering clients the most innovative design and environmentally responsible options.”
The 2022 panel of judges included global experts from in beverage, cosmetics, fragrance and packaging, namely: Sebba Alqetrani, Director, Package Development Sustainability at MAC Cosmetics; Patricia Burguete, Head of Global Sustainability Strategies at The Spearhead Group; Humberto Ibarra, Co-Founder, CMO, and Owner at Tequila Mandala; Sarita Gonzalez, Project Leader, Luxury at Coty; Daniella Kohler, Brand Owner Manager, USA Cartonboard at Billerud; and Luis Carlos Vega, R&D Lead at The Spearhead Group.
“We have been extremely impressed by the creativity and professional ability of the IED Torino students who took part in this challenging project,” shared Giovanna Pinna, CEO of Spearhead Italy, responsible for direct management of the PBE Awards. Pinna worked in collaboration with Natale Bauducco (Advisor to The Spearhead Group), Paola Zini (IED Turin), Valeria Spada (Partnership and Special Projects, Italy), Marco Cassino (IED Professor, Italy), and Motoki Yoshio (IED Professor, Italy) to make the 2022 PBE Awards a success for everyone involved.
To receive more information about The Spearhead Group and to request interviews, please reach out to Samantha Rissling (samantha@gregoryvine.com) or Claire Martin (claire@gregoryvine.com).