At the Croatian design Exhibition 1516 in the category of packaging design, Studio Sonda was awarded for its work ‘Piquentum St. Vital – a label that speaks out through nature’. The award was delivered by the German product-designer duo Osko + Deichmann (Blasius Osko and Oliver Deichmann).

As far as packaging is concerned, we would like to highlight part of a very interesting interview with a jury member Iva Babaja, graphic designer, who is also the Past President  ico-D.

“The design exhibitions are a wonderful thing, but very often they’re light years away from the average design that we see outside of the exhibition. This is partly due to customers’ lack of confidence in the designer’s evaluation/proposals/assessment, sometimes it’s the customer’s personal (dis) taste, or it is a lack of understanding the importance of design in a wider economic context – it does not therefore surprise that most of the work registered for the exhibition belongs to the segment of design for culture and cultural institutions (…) What made me sad is that there are very few works registered in the category of packaging. There were some great things, but again only for boutique clients, mainly winemakers. Unfortunately, the average packaging that is produced here is still bad enough so that the designers themselves self-censor in registering these works to the exhibition.”

We would add that, should even all the problems cited by Iva get solved, the most critical still remains: the actual production. Moulds for 3D “drops” for our Piquentum were made, unfortunately, in Germany, not in Croatia, and problems concerning the implementation of prototypes for each packaging which includes that one step more than the classic marmalade jar, or already established stamping for carton boxes, is our everyday life. Furthermore, due to the financial demands of non-typical solutions, to talk a customer into something unusual, represents the exception, not the rule.

This is, however, what motivates us even more and the reason why we are extremely proud of having received the award exactly in this category.

Congratulations to our colleagues as well!

Photo: Nina Đurđević