There were 27 winners, including six student award winners, selected as recipients of a 2020 AmeriStar Package Award, one of the packaging industry’s most prestigious design awards programs,produced by IoPP, The Institute of Packaging Professionals.

A roster of 15 judges from various segments of the packaging industry evaluated this year’s entries virtually, examining package innovation, product protection, economics, performance, marketing and environmental impact. Judges considered package entries across 15 categories for both professional and student awards, as well as AmeriStar’s prestigious top three awards—the Sustainable Package Award, the Design Excellence Award and the Best of Show Award.
 

The 2020 Top Three Winners
 

Best of Show Award
Structural Design for Gorilla Super Glue Micro Precise by Product Ventures
Gorilla Glue Micro Precise contains a metal cyanoacrylate tube of glue inside a black plastic shroud and orange-winged buttons that delivers an easy-to-use, precise, controlled-dispensing tool that fits comfortably in the hand. The package opens by twisting the cap and nozzle assembly down onto the threads of the tube, thereby breaking the seal. The nozzle is then captured by the ratchet mechanism, allowing just the cap to open and close without unthreading the nozzle from the inner tube. With the cap on, the package can be stored in any orientation. When removing the cap, the tube of glue stays secure in the pack without rotating and allows glue to be dispensed fully.


Design Excellence Award

Mtn Dew AMP Game Fuel Re-Sealable Can by PepsiCo

Can suppliers have launched re-sealable packaging in the past, but with limited production capabilities and functionality. PepsiCo, in partnership with Xolution, strived to set the bar higher with a national-scale, re-sealable aluminum can for PepsiCo’s new mid-calorie, lower-sugar beverage offering multiple flavors and functional benefits. A prominent feature of the re-sealable can is its tactile ink, which provides a no-slip grip. Mountain Dew AMP Game Fuel can uses a re-sealable can end to reduce the opening force and better communicate to consumers how to operate the mechanism. A key design aspect lets consumers see that when the feature is completely covered and the end is full re-sealed, thus preventing spills and protecting the re-sealing mechanism from damage.


Sustainable Packaging Award

KeelClip™; Multi-Can Packaging System by Graphic Packaging International

KeelClip is a forward-thinking paperboard package developed in response to growing brand and consumer desire for beverage can multipacks that eliminate plastic, minimize board usage, are easy to carry and provide maximum visibility of the beverage cans. The concept combines an efficient paperboard clip with the benefits of a “keel” structure, strengthening the top panel and optimizing clip performance. KeelClip is sourced from sustainably managed forests and is a fully recyclable alternative to the shrink films and plastic rings common in beverage cans.

 

AmeriStar Award Winners by Category

Beverages (Alcoholic)

KeelClip™; Multi-Can Packaging System by Graphic Packaging International

KeelClip is a forward-thinking paperboard package developed in response to growing brand and consumer desire for beverage can multipacks that eliminate plastic, minimize board usage, are easy to carry and provide maximum visibility of the beverage cans. The concept combines an efficient paperboard clip with the benefits of a “keel” structure, strengthening the top panel and optimizing clip performance. KeelClip is sourced from sustainably managed forests and is a fully recyclable alternative to the shrink films and plastic rings common in beverage cans.

 

Beverages (Non-Alcoholic)

Mother Parkers’ Improved Polypropylene (PP) EcoCup® Pods by Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee

This highly functioning package enables easier preparation of the recycling of pods and higher yield through the polypropylene reclaiming process. This package responds to the significant shift in public focus on waste, especially single-use plastic waste. This package is an evolutionary polypropylene coffee and tea pod with a mono material—a polypropylene cup and a polypropylene filter—in the design. The pod’s peel-able tab lid makes it easy to separate the used coffee or tea grounds from the pod. As a result, more material is diverted from landfills and plastic recycling contamination is reduced.

 

Mtn Dew AMP Game Fuel Re-Sealable Can by PepsiCo

Can suppliers have launched re-sealable packaging in the past, but with limited production capabilities and functionality. PepsiCo, in partnership with Xolution, strived to set the bar higher with a national-scale, re-sealable aluminum can for PepsiCo’s new mid-calorie, lower-sugar beverage offering multiple flavors and functional benefits. A prominent feature of the re-sealable can is its tactile ink, which provides a no-slip grip. Mountain Dew AMP Game Fuel can uses a re-sealable can end to reduce the opening force and better communicate to consumers how to operate the mechanism. A key design aspect lets consumers see that when the feature is completely covered and the end is full re-sealed, thus preventing spills and protecting the re-sealing mechanism from damage.

 

Cosmetics 

Sei Bella Lipstick by TricorBraun

Reimaging for this lipstick package from standard plastic to 100 percent recyclable board stock material applies a creative reworking of traditional cosmetic packaging. It innovatively transfers special effects principles from the unit carton industry, such as video game boxes. The Sei Bella package features silk screening to achieve a high-end look with a lot of decoration space for the brand. The package easily integrated into the existing production and distribution system and saw a 36 percent decrease in materials cost. The use of paper addresses lifecycle and environmental concerns, including a decrease in the shipping carton carbon footprint resulting from the package’s lighter weight.

 

Maybelline’s FitMe® Matte + Poreless Foundation by ProAmpac

Maybelline’s creative packaging reimagines their traditional rigid glass bottle into a minimally packaged, on-the-go flexible pouch with custom spout suited for ecommerce retailers, and it requires no pre-shipping wrap. It is also tailored for professional use and is travel-proof. The new pouch is 41 percent lighter than the glass bottle it replaces and adds up to 1.3 ounces of additional product while reducing the packaging materials. The new spout was designed to run on a current filling machine without any modifications. This package also features one of the first applications of digital print for a spouted pouch in a clear, high-barrier pouch.

 

Refillable Top Secret Compact by FusionPKG

Compacts traditionally include brushes, but they’re placed loosely inside the compact and can fall out, creating mess. This sleek, patented compact features a brush integrated in the top of a refillable color compact package for minimal hassle and ease-of-use. The brush slides out so the product may be applied, and snaps back into place on magnets. In addition, most refillable compacts use expensive rare earth magnets to attach the pans to the compact. The Refillable Top Secret Compact’s design uses the same adhesive that keeps the pane secure within the refill package. This change helps reduce costs and package bulk. And, because the brush is separated from the formula, users can clean the brush after each use and house the brush separate from the makeup, thereby keeping their compact cleaner.

 

Drug and Pharmaceutical 

NIp® Solution Bags for Pharmaceuticals/Non-leaching Low-elution Soft Bag for Injectable Drugs by Zacros (Fujimori Kogyo Co., Ltd.)

NIp® Solution Bags were designed to make improvements to the challenges often faced by medical professionals when packaging products. The bag incorporates cyclic olefin polymer into a flexible, multilayered IV bag that has glass-like properties. Previously, cyclic olefin polymer was typically seen only in hard plastic containers. This key advancement enables more sensitive medications to be shipped premixed within the bag and allows for virtually instant administration. Beyond that, the bag application lowers both transport costs and the packaging food print when disposing materials, and it has met all relevant testing criteria.

 

Food (Refrigerated) 

PaperSeal™ Tray Packaging System by Graphic Packaging International

PaperSeal™ is a new paperboard option to replace standard modified atmosphere packaging and vacuum sealed packaging, reduce plastic and increase recyclability. Its structural design features a one-piece continuous sealing flange, giving the product additional integrity while preventing potential leaks. The film is easily separated for recycling. This package is an upgrade from alternatives on the market, which have tray flanges with breaks in the sealing surface and that can potentially cause leaks.

 

Food (Shelf Stable) 

FUNacho: Building a Better Food Delivery System by TricorBraun

This new delivery system draws inspiration from design principles seen in household products. It consists of 75-ounce bottles, which replace awkward and unwieldy bags. The standard cap is replaced with a valve assembly before the bottle is secured in a FUNacho dispensing machine. One bottle of each sauce is inserted into the bottom chamber for use and a second set of filled bottles preheats in the top chamber until the bottle below it is empty and needs replacing. The vent cap is loosened to facilitate pouring. The bottle’s two openings—something not widely seen in the food delivery industry—are a top vent and a bottom heat-seal-lined “lift and peel” opening onto which the user assembles a custom, five-piece dispensing valve.

 

Health and Beauty Aids

Pantene PRO-V Nutrient Blends Conditioner by Viva

Pantene PRO-V Nutrient Blends Conditioner tubes include 6 formulas featuring continuous colorful artwork that extends from shoulder to crimp. The tubes play spot gloss bubbles off a matte background with warm gold accents for a look that is both polished and offers savings on environmental impacts. These tubes certainly ooze shelf appeal, but there’s more. An independent lifecycle analysis found that the injection-molded tubes have up to a 36 percent lower impact on global warming than extruded tubes and up to a 41 percent lower impact than laminate tubes.

 

Household Products 

Structural Design for ArmorAll by Product Ventures

Armor All wanted a signature spray bottle that would convey their brand’s strong and protective character to the next generation of car owners. Product Ventures partnered with Armor All to help their packaging design capture the spirit of automobile performance. The design’s centerpiece is an improved HDPE spray bottle featuring a ratcheting collar trigger sprayer. This collar prevents the trigger sprayer from rotating and unscrewing itself, thereby protecting against leakage in ecommerce shipping. When the bottle tips over, product doesn’t leak out.

 

Green Gobbler Drain Cleaner: Proudly Made in the USA by TricorBraun

The hourglass-shaped bottle of EcoClean Solutions’ Green Gobbler Drain Cleaner has dual 16-ounce chambers, steam shrink-wrapped artwork and a puck system at the lip of the bottle’s bottom. After molding, the bottles are fed downstream and placed onto a fixture where the sleeve flows over the bottle and is shrunk onto it. The new bottle design contrasts with the typical application of shrink-wrapping standard square or round bottles. The sleek design of this bottle was so successful that the brand owner significantly exceeded sales projections, cut lead times of 60 to 90 days from 1 to 2 days and avoided the production shipping bottlenecks that followed the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Truman’s: A Refillable Bottle for a Line of Household Cleaning Products by TricorBraun

A refillable bottle that evokes a beaker in a science lab, right down to the water fill line falling exactly where the bottle begins to angle outward, this bottle was designed so the customer’s signature chemical cartridges, which contain the actual chemical product, suspend slightly above the fill line. Once the water mixes with the product, the user can still clearly see the cartridge sitting above it. The refillable and reusable bottles result in significant cost savings since fewer bottles need to be manufactured. And those that are manufactured are shipped empty—bringing a variety of economic benefits. The result is a simple package that is highly functional. [Read this article about Truman's.] 

 

Branch Basics by Berlin Packaging

Branch Basics needed a bottle for their home cleaning line that fit with their environmentally friendly brand mission and was suitable for their high-quality products. The solution is an eye-popping, 400mL Boston round refillable glass spray bottle. The thick bottle and all-natural trigger sprayer are durable enough to hold up under everyday cleaning. Ceramic printing on the bottle communicates the different usage occasions and a color-coded silicone neck ring makes the different products in the line easy to identify. An embossed silicone sleeve at the base provides a unique, premium feature that gives the package visual appeal at home while protecting the glass from breaking in bathrooms or on other hard surfaces.

 

Structural Design for Gorilla Super Glue Micro Precise by Product Ventures
Gorilla Glue Micro Precise contains a metal cyanoacrylate tube of glue inside a black plastic shroud and orange-winged buttons that delivers an easy-to-use, precise, controlled-dispensing tool that fits comfortably in the hand. The package opens by twisting the cap and nozzle assembly down onto the threads of the tube, thereby breaking the seal. The nozzle is then captured by the ratchet mechanism, allowing just the cap to open and close without unthreading the nozzle from the inner tube. With the cap on, the package can be stored in any orientation. When removing the cap, the tube of glue stays secure in the pack without rotating and allows glue to be dispensed fully.

 

Industrial/Commercial 

15-Gal Closed System Mixing Container by Taylor-Cain Corporation

Existing 15-gallon mixing containers typically use a nearly flat bottom. Taylor-Cain’s new, container features an innovative deep sump, which facilitates maximum extraction at initial vacuum break and does not require additional wait time and re-pump. The company says its container extracts 31 ounces more than competing containers at initial vacuum break, providing more product while preventing extensive chemical rinsate from being dumped into the environment. This 100 percent recyclable container’s construction utilizes a pioneering combination of blow molding and injection molding, which greatly reduces the plastic footprint.

 

Lock-and-Drop Delivery System by Ecolab

The Lock-and-Drop Delivery System package design allows for better ergonomics and does not require any equipment for transport within a facility. This patented technology is color-coded to match the corresponding feeder as a quick visual indicator. The blue design houses solids and the tan design holds powders. A lock-out feature on the “slider” portion of the canister prevents the wrong chemistry from being dispensed into the wrong feeder. As an added bonus, it is 100 percent recyclable.

 

Medical Device 

Arthrex Custom Medical Package by Placon

An improvement on existing sterile tubes on the market, this package uses polyurethane and is sterilized for medical-grade usage. It creates a different way of aseptic presentation within a small-footprint, double-sterile barrier blister, and it allows the implant or instrument to be used surgically without having been touched prior to use. The overall 50 percent smaller package from a previous design combines easy opening of a PETG blister and Tyvek sterile barrier with the benefits of aseptic presentation from a polyurethane tube. The modular design allows users to keep the same end-panel size and have a variety of product lengths included and allow future products to be easily added to the sterile barrier system.

 

Collections Clamshell Tray by Prent Corporation

The Collection Clamshell Tray’s double-hinged design is distinctive and enables the distal end to remain snapped in place while the proximal end has a hinge and large lid to aid users in opening only the handle end to easily insert and remove the medical device. Finger tabs intuitively identify the opening. The clamshell organizes and stores the device for easily handling and protects the device and dilator so the device or tips aren’t damaged. The package is recycled APET material and enables the re-sterilizing of devices for another use.

 

Other

Crisp Food Technologies® Containers by Anchor Packaging

Keeps fried food hot and crispy for 30-minute delivery. Patented convection cross-flow design relieves moisture and condensation. Through-the-closure ventilation, with raised airflow channels in the base of the container, combined with venting in the anti-fog lid ensure that fried foods retain their temperature and texture, even when packages are stacked. The container construction includes a mineral additive to reduce the use of polypropylene by 40 percent. The containers are dishwasher safe, reusable and recyclable.

 

Saves Food (Foodservice)

EZ Flo Packaging/Dispensing System by EZ Flo, LLC

The EZ Flo system is a sanitary, environmentally friendly dispensing alternative to traditional squeeze bottles. The innovative system uses patented technology to dispense products without the assistance of gravity. EZ Flo is cost effective, reduces waste, labor, and improves overall productivity. EZ Flo’s, prefilled, thin-walled, deep-draw thermoformed liner inserts into an airtight squeeze bottle, storing the product in a vacuum. The liner’s inversion technology enables the system to significantly reduce food waste, evacuating more than 98 percent of the product, thus eliminating the unsanitary, labor-intensive practice of transfilling and topping off products in a squeeze bottle.

 

Student

  • First Place: Centauri by California Polytechnic State University
     
  • Second Place: Coconut Cubes by University of Wisconsin–Stout
     
  • Third Place: Beakies by California Polytechnic State University


Honorable Mentions:

  • Logistic and Ergonomic Workstation (L.E.W.) by Michigan State University
     
  • K&K Cookie Packaging by San Jose State University
     
  • Self-Sanitizing Gravity Propelled Dispenser by Indian Institute of Packaging

Information about each of the 2020 AmeriStar Package Award Winners is available online.