The winning design was submitted by Kyle Dawney, a Product Design Engineering student from Brunel University, who wins one week of work experience in the Benson Group Design Studio, a £250 cash prize, and a visit to Butterkist’s Pontefract head office, which will include a tour of the famous popcorn factory.
Highly commended awards were also presented to Laura Whiteread from Bishop Burton College, Beverley, and Alex Heatley from the University of South Wales, who both win a day with the design team at Benson Bardon.
Benson Group and Butterkist challenged ambitious packaging students with a brief to design a new, constructively striking sharing carton for the popcorn supplier’s microwave range. Students were required to create a new pack format to bring both excitement and intrigue to a family movie night in. The carton needed to increase shelf presence for the product and improve customer engagement, while still being instantly recognisable as part of the Butterkist family of products.
Judging of entries was conducted by Benson Group’s Nikki Clark; Helena Blincow, Brand Manager at Butterkist; and Dean Parkin, Packaging Development Team Leader at Butterkist.
Commenting on the results, Nikki Clark, Marketing Manager at Benson Group, said: “It was a great delight to see so many fresh and exciting ideas coming in. Deciding on a winner was a tough task, but all three judges just loved the way that Kyle had tackled the problem and had thought through various options before coming deciding on his final design.”
Speaking on behalf of Butterkist, Helena Blincow, said: “We were looking to today’s design students to bring something different to the world of popcorn. I am delighted to say that the entries gave us a lot to think about during the judging process.”
