PIDA first started in 2005 with the aim to put young talent and their ideas at center stage to shape the future of packaging design. The competition has since then been held every year and in several countries.
At Billerud we take the development of packaging seriously. PIDA is the stage we have set for young talent to show what they can do and give new ideas, inspiration and fresh impulses to the established packaging community. This way, bonds are forged between schools and the industry. And that’s why we look forward to PIDA 2022.
At PIDA, design students from colleges in France, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Austria, China*, the UK and USA compete with their packaging design projects. Participation in PIDA is part of many students’ educational programmes, and an award in any category is an achievement to include in the portfolio. PIDA gives students an opportunity to get to know cartonboard properly. Get acquainted with the material, see its possibilities and limitations. For most students, cartonboard will play a significant part in their professional lives. It’s a material they will have to know inside-out.
The culmination of PIDA is the Grand Finale – when an all-European winner is selected among the respective PIDA Gold Award winners. The Grand Finale event will take place at Luxe Pack in Monaco, the world’s leading trade show for creative luxury packaging. A festive award ceremony will be held at the Billerud stand.
Besides this big final, the regular PIDA events are held locally in each country; and feature very ambitious seminars, keynotes and panel discussions. At the events, professionals of the trade meet. Converters, printers, brand owners, designers, bloggers and journalists gather to watch the prize ceremony, meet the design students and join the seminars, this year in a digital format.
*Unfortunately PIDA China will be cancelled due to the Covid situation in Shanghai this year.
When you invite the students of a few of the best European colleges for packaging design to a competition – that’s how you challenge conventional packaging.
PIDA has become a recognised and respected hub for new ideas, impulses and inspiration. Billerud arranges PIDA in order to knit the packaging community tighter together, to charge it with young talent and energy and to take responsibility for driving the development of packaging design.
At PIDA, conventional packaging is challenged with every contesting entry
Sustainability is a central topic at PIDA. Smart packaging means using low grammages, avoiding over-packing and taking the whole service life of the packaging into consideration – from sourcing to waste reduction and easy recycling. The cartonboard material in itself represents a very small footprint; derived from a renewable source, recyclable up to five or six times, and ends up as energy generation.
The PIDA jury likes to be surprised. They award innovativeness, new perspectives and creative thinking. They are not on the jury to award conventional and commonplace stuff. And the jury takes environmental impact into consideration when assessing and rating the contesting design projects.