Microsoft has won the Diamond award in the pentawards of this year for his Adaptive Controller for Xbox, a packaging designed to be accessible to players with limited mobility. It defeated the stiff competition of more than two thousand participants to win the prize for the best of the exhibition.
The gala ceremony, which was attended by 350 of the world's top leaders in creativity and packaging design, took place at 8 Northumberland Avenue in London on 12 September. In addition to the Diamond Award, Pentawards awarded five Platinum awards, 58 Gold, 118 Silver, and 113 Bronze. It also recognized Agency of the Year, Brand of the Year and the NXT-GEN award, which is given to the best student project.
The Adaptive Controller has been designed to unfold to reveal what's inside. Microsoft integrated air cells into the shipper's packaging to protect the product, while maintaining a small package size and clean design. An open cavity area below the controller allows multiple ways to remove the controller from the box, including pulling through a loop or sliding it straight out. Lastly, the box has a low center of gravity, grounding the unboxing experience and creating a sense of stability for the end user.
The Pentawards also recognized five companies for their commitment and creative influence in packaging design, awarding them the Platinum Awards. In the drinks section, contagious received the Platinum Award for his design from Lind & Lime for Leith Distillery. The concept is drawn from the historical histories of Leith's people and industries, which are represented by the unique complexities of the custom-made bottle, label and name.
The Platinum Food Award went to Backbone Branding for its Riceman concept, designed to honor farmers who work in rice fields. The idea of the brand is based on humanizing the process of growing rice, whose name symbolizes human work. To support sustainability, a high-density sackcloth fabric was chosen for the rice bag and a paper conical hat as the lid cover.
established picked up the Platinum award in the Body category for its new Stonebrick makeup line for Korea's largest retailer, Emart. The idea is to allow consumers to purchase fully customizable makeup products, with individual components that are magnetized together to create personalized collections.
The investment company Charioteer received the Platinum Other Markets award for XMAS Data Self Promotion. Auriga designed a set of four chocolate boxes, which the confectionery uses to represent data sets, pie charts and tables, which in turn show the company's performance.
The Platinum Award for Luxury Design went to Roberto Nunez by Perfectionist - their limited edition wine concept. In order to connect emotionally with the consumer and position the product as a distinctive premium wine, a packaging design was created that values the idea of imperfection. Each of the 697 units produced are made to be different from each other, with the wood for each cut manually, without a die cutter, and numbered with an ink stamp.
For the Special Awards, the Agency of the Year Award went to Backbone Branding; the Visionary & People's Choice Awards went to the Pepsico Design & Innovation Center and the NXT-GEN Award went to Natalia Radnaeva and Anna Kondratova from the HSE School of Art and Design, for Wash & Play.
Pentawards is sponsored by UPM Raflatac, PCD, Lemens Search, Tapi & Shenzhen Baixinglong Creative Packaging Co.
