Whenever the topic of how to attract talent comes up, the answer is usually the same: companies find it extremely hard to find the right person for the job. This is especially true for packaging designers and engineers.

It is hard to believe, that large numbers of talented package professionals choose to settle in the North or out West when there are many consumer goods companies based right here in Atlanta.

This is partly due to the absence of a specialized packaging school, but schools like Portfolio Center, Georgia Tech, Georgia State University and schools in Florida do offer great packaging-related programs.

The annual “48 Hour Re-Pack” Student Competition brought to you by the IoPP Southeastern Chapter (Institute of Packaging Professionals) has the ultimate goal to change this. For the past three years, unitOne has committed time and effort to help bring together students and packaging professionals.

The competition takes place each year on the last weekend in February. Students choose from 4 categories – this year it was all about camping necessities such as charcoal, matches, S’mores, and toilet paper – and then in teams  they design new and smarter packaging or packaging that promotes recycling and the use of sustainable materials.

The designs are then evaluated by our panel of judges, this year we have:

- Jenni Heerink, Creative Director – DYMO, Newell Rubbermaid
– Barry Markwick, Design Manager, Kimberly-Clark
– April Crow, Global Sustainability Director – Packaging, The Coca-Cola Company
– Greg Fornasiero, Sr. Manager Packaging, The Home Depot

Students submit not only their designs and rationale, but also a 1-2 minute video that “sells” their idea.

Take a minute an check out the design entries from previous years at www.48hrrepack.com/past-contests/. The 2012 entries will be listed there shortly.

The Top 10 will be announced and the Winners will present their ideas on April 10^th, 2012 during the annual IoPP Southeastern Chapter’s NextPack – The Summit on the Future of Packaging , at Coca-Cola Headquarters. Participating students are invited at no charge. This is not only a great platform to present ideas, but also a great opportunity to connect with packaging professionals. We expect over 20 exhibitors and 250 attendees from local and regional companies.

Speakers include Eric Ryan, Founder of Method, Peter Borowski, Design Director Kraft Foods, and Jennifer Acevedo, Editor-in-Chief at Brand Packaging Magazine.

Register for NextPack as a “Friend of unitOne”, and receive a discounted friend’s rate: click here to register

Register Here

I was reading a book about design and creativity. The author suggested that a serious product designer should always carry a notebook and keep an eye out for the product that is designed badly. You make a note, take it home and improve it. And then you are supposed to send the design idea to the company so they can make the improvement.

Wouldn’t that be lovely.

Now my first question would be why the company should care. Obviously they don’t or they are not aware of the product flaw or otherwise we have to assume they would not try to sell us the inferior product. But if they are and have just been waiting for me to send in my idea – will they be paying me? (Well in a scenario where they have been waiting just for me they probably do send me a check right away when they get the idea).

At the 2011 summit of the IoPP Chris Mau, brand design director of family care brands at Kimberly-Clark, talked about her experiences and achievements – and how hard it was to convince her company to believe in and execute design ideas.

Her mantra is that we can make an impact through package design. Because the design also includes functionality. And she has proven it with her work – Kotex and Kleenex Tissues just to name a few. The re-packaged products sell more at a higher price – good for them – and the consumers love it.

We read daily about innovation of products that consumers seem to have been waiting for (even if they didn’t know it yet) in the technological arena. It would be great if this innovative mindset that believes that we can achieve more and get our consumer more excited with better offerings would play out in many other aspects of our lives.

That would be lovely.

“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.” – Steve Jobs

— Ines Kuhn

Here are some of the events we will be attending this month:

January 19^th PDMA – Habits: How Your Customers Really Make Decisions by Dr. Neale Martinis, www.pdma.org

January 26^th IoPP – Sealed Air: Think outside the dots, www.iopp.org/southeastern

— Sylvia Kay