Tree-Inspired Design Wins Student Glass Packaging Competition

Left to right: Alex Shuert, Evan Klug, Sarah Waterson, Dean Rigoni, with Rich Crawford, GPI Chairman, at O-I University.

The first place winner of GPI’s 2010/2011 Glass Packaging Design Competition at Michigan State University School of Packaging is the student team of Evan Klug, Dean Rigoni, Alex Shuert, and Sarah Waterson for their Nature’s Sun glass beverage packaging.

The winning team incorporated a tree design to create a unique glass package for an organic apple or orange juice. The competition among nearly 50 student teams of four is the 5^th glass bottle design competition at MSU. According to their entry, “the most important feature of this product is the glass itself. Choosing glass allows us to design a product that has more options.” The clear glass bottle, 100% recyclability, and custom shape give the brand shelf advantage. “Overall, we believe our product will excite the consumer as soon as they see it on the shelf. It’s fun, innovative, and eco-friendly.”

“The great thing about this competition is that we had close to 200 students thinking about the positive attributes of glass as a packaging material,” Says Rick Bayer, GPI’s Academic Subcommittee Chair. The students spent well over a month, three lectures a week, talking about glass, so they became very familiar with all aspects of glass packaging during the competition.

The top five entries from each of the two semesters were included in the final judging. The top ten were then judged by representatives from Anchor Glass, Verallia, O-I, Vitro, and Diageo. “The winning design goes a long way towards communicating by structure what the product was all about,” says Dennis Young, MSU Instructor. “We emphasize creativity and innovation, and they did a really good job.”

A model of the winning design was created by Anchor Glass, and will be displayed at the MSU packaging building alongside the other winning designs. “As we point out,” says Young, “it’s a wonderful thing to put on their resume. The competition is beginning to be recognized in the industry because a lot of people come through here and see the models. And also the packaging graduates that participated in the competition are now working with companies that use glass.”

First place winners receive enrollment at O-I’s Glass University, an engraved glass plaque, and a Best Buy gift card. “Glass University is a great experience for the students to be around glass producers and users, a great learning experience and opportunity for them to make contacts for the future,” says Rick Bayer.

“We appreciate so much getting the support and interest from GPI,” says Young. “Anything we can do to connect the classroom with what happens in the glass packaging industry is critically important to the education process and for the students and their future careers.”