Winners Announced for 4th Plastic and Metal Packaging Design Awards

Under the coordination of İKMİB (Istanbul Chemical Substances and Products Exporters Association) and in cooperation with İDDMİB (Istanbul Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metals Exporters Association), the fourth edition of the "Plastic and Metal Packaging Design Competition," organized to promote creative and applicable designs in the plastic and metal packaging sectors, found its winners at a ceremony held on 8 November at the Lütfü Kırdar Congress Center. A total of 17 projects were deemed worthy of awards in the competition and TRY 110,000 in prize money was distributed. The "Plastic and Metal Packaging Design Competition," held for the fourth time this year under İKMİB coordination and in cooperation with İDDMİB, awarded prizes in two main categories—metal packaging and plastic packaging—with professional and student subcategories.

The awards ceremony was held on 8 November 2017 Wednesday at the Lütfü Kırdar Congress Center in parallel with "Turkey Design Week."

In both categories, professionals received TRY 15,000 for first place, TRY 10,000 for second, TRY 7,000 for third, and TRY 4,000 for honorable mention, while students received TRY 7,000 for first place, TRY 5,000 for second, TRY 3,000 for third, and TRY 2,000 for honorable mention. In the plastic packaging category, professional Elif Üregün won first place with the "Soset" project, professional Mustafa Yılmaz came second with the "Sürafa" project, professional Ayça Güntürkün came third with the "Rende Tereyağı" project, and professional Efkan Çetin received honorable mention with the "Hem" project. In the student subcategory, Aydın Algan won first place with the "Süt Şişesi" project, Nida Cin came second with the "Kaşerr" project, and Asude Nur Sancaktutan came third with the "Mico Milk&Cookies" project, while Bartu Mesirci received honorable mention with the "LessPack" project. In the metal packaging category, among professionals, Edizalp Akın won first place with the "Vinaggio" project, Ahmet Osman Peker came second with the "Sucuk Keyfi" project, Ayçal Çağrı Özen came third with the "Easy" project, Zeynep Özge Aydın and Ezgi Elvan received honorable mention with the "Kaymak" and "Terayağı Kılıcı" projects respectively, while among students, Batu Sözen won first place with the "Cızz" project, Ezgi Kızıl came second with the "Pillpack" project, Seher Naz Ayhan came third with the "İri Göz" project, and Emre Kulaberoğlu received honorable mention with the "Çona" project. The competition, first held in 2014, focused this year on design work for meat, dairy and dairy product packaging. In 2014, 197 projects participated, in 2015, 201 projects, last year 260 projects, and this year 290 projects took part in the competition. In the plastic packaging design category, a total of 208 projects competed—114 professional and 94 student—while in the metal packaging category, a total of 82 projects competed—50 professional and 32 student. The schools that submitted the most projects to the competition were Anadolu University, Middle East Technical University, Istanbul Technical University, Marmara University, Gazi University and Mimar Sinan University, respectively.

First Place Winners to Be Hosted at Prestigious Packaging Trade Fairs Abroad

The 2017 first place winners will be hosted at the Maison Objet fair in Paris in January 2018. Additionally, award-winning competitors will benefit from the overseas education scholarship, within the quota provided by the Ministry of Economy for the competition, which was utilized by two first-place winners each in 2014 and 2015, and one person in 2016.

"Turkey's Packaging Sector Generates Trade Surplus"

Stating that they organize the "Plastic and Metal Packaging Design Competition" to introduce new designs to the packaging sector and to encourage companies to increase their investments in design, İKMİB Executive Board Member Murat Akyüz noted that they host not only professional designers but also future designers. Making assessments regarding the packaging sector, Akyüz said, "Approximately 3,000 companies operate in the packaging sector. Turkey's packaging sector, which does not run a trade deficit, generated a trade surplus of USD 647 million in 2016. While exports reached USD 3.85 billion in 2016, in the first six months of 2017, exports reached USD 1.97 billion, the same amount as the corresponding period of the previous year. Last year, plastic packaging accounted for the largest share of sector exports at 68%, followed by cardboard packaging at 23% and metal packaging at 8%. In the first six months of 2017, the top 10 countries with the highest exports were Germany, Iraq, United Kingdom, Israel, Iran, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Egypt and the United States, respectively. Packaging industry production consists of 50% daily necessities from food and beverage products, 20-30% non-food consumer goods, and the remaining 20-30% from industrial packaging," he said.