Did you hear? Cal Poly just cleaned house at a packaging design competition. But the crazy thing is, we aren’t just talking about a fantastic first place finish. No. Four separate teams from Cal Poly each entered the Institute of Packaging Professionals Ameristar Student Packaging Awards Competition, and respectively took first, second, third, and special honors. 

This is a massive victory for the university, to say the least. But let’s hear about some of these clever packages, shall we? The interdisciplinary teams combined industrial technology and packaging students with art and design students to create packaging solutions for a variety of consumer needs. Each team developed a physical prototype of their product complete with branded graphics. 

The first-place team created Jimmy Hats, a new approach to traditional condom packaging. Jimmy Hats feature a new design of the condom wrapper itself, and a sleek, branded box that differentiates it from competitors on the store shelf. 

Another Cal Poly team took second place for The Merry Seedsters. The product featured seeds embedded in compostable paper strips to make planting easier. The design also doubled as garden labels to identify the planted vegetables. 

A third Cal Poly team earned third place for its sushi packaging concept, Oishi. Made of low-cost, biodegradable materials such as paper-molded pulp, Oishi is a convenient and sustainable package that protects the sushi roll and doubles as a stackable tray with compartments for sauces and chopsticks. 

Cal Poly students also received an honorable mention for their product, Cowler, which provides a convenient and easy way to spread cream cheese on the go with single-serving packages of different flavors. The lid of the package doubled as a disposable spreading tool. By visiting iopp.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageID=4160, you can find out even more information about these designs and students who won this year’s competition. Needless to say, we are very proud of them for the excellent work.

Contributor Lola White-Sanborn is the complete package. Of nuts. Send her your collegiate news via [email protected].