More than 30 products and 32 product series (more than 170 SKUs in total) applied for the competition CROPAK where the awards have been given in 11 categories, while 64 products applied for the prestigious REGPAK, award for the best packaging in the region, and the awards were given in two categories.
The award ceremony was a part of the FEST.A CROPAK 2011, the central event for the regional packaging industry which was held on May 5th and 6th together with the international conference "Trends in the packaging industry", commercial exhibition, Student Creative Workshop CROPAK 2011 and a fashion show "Buttoned With a Scotch Tape" which presented dresses made of packaging materials. On the first day of the festival, the participants visited glass factory Vetropack Straža d.d., the partner of the festival, in Hum na Sutli. FEST.A CROPAK gathered numerous businessmen and packaging professionals and thus for the eight consecutive year confirmed the quality and relevance of the packaging festival.
FEST.A CROPAK 2011 was held under the general patronage of World Packaging Organization (WPO) together with other patrons – European Packaging Institutes Consortium (EPIC), Croatian Ministry of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship, Croatian Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, Directorate for Island and Coastal Development, Croatian Chamber of Economy and Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund. Student Creative Workshop CROPAK was held under the patronage of Rijeka, Split and Zagreb University and the sponsor was Suban d.o.o. from Strmec, the owner of the brand for which the students redesigned the packaging.
The aim of the competition is to promote and reward users, designers and producers of packaging as a means of protection, identification, marketing and promotion of a product. Another goal is the motivation of packaging producers and users, designers and printers to expand the technical and qualitative scopes of packaging and the graphic arts industry, stimulate student creativity, emphasize the need for qualitative shifts in the conception and recognition of Croatia’s visual identity, graphic and industrial design, ecological characteristics of Croatian goods/series packaging and domestic development of machinery, devices and equipment for packaging and packaging waste management.
All CROPAK and REGPAK winners automatically qualify to nominate their packaging for WorldStar, award for the best packaging in the world organized by WPO.
Media partners of this year's packaging festival were Zagrebačka televizija Z1, Croatian Radio Programme II, Soundset – national network of radio stations, Javno.hr, Business.hr, Poslovni savjetnik, Poslovni dnevnik and T-portal.
"The participants evidently once again recognized the packaging festival as an opportunity to get informed about the latest industry trends, exchange experiences and communicate with colleagues. Regarding the competitions for the best packaging in Croatia and the region CROPAK and REGPAK, we are satisfied with the number of nominated packages. The best got the awards and the judging panel took a comprehensive approach, strict criteria and accepted standards for judging the nominees. We expect consumers to recognize why CROPAK and REGPAK are signs of quality, i.e. to perceive that the rewarded packaging raises standards in protection, identification and promotion of the product along with significant efforts towards the environmental protection. Once again, our congratulations to all the winners and we can proudly announce FEST.A CROPAK 2012", said Drena Milijević, Managing Director of the Institute of Packaging and Graphic Arts and creator of the projects.
LIST OF WINNERS
