University of Technology Sydney (UTS) industrial design student Jose Navarro's design for a rice dispenser box walked off with the coveted top prize at the annual Cormack Innovation Awards in Sydney this month.
Navarro received a $2500 cash prize and a paid internship at Cormack Packaging.
The design was in response to this year's brief which asked students from tertiary institutions in NSW, to develop a design concept that would allow products of similar consistency, but from different market sectors, to be packaged in the same container.
Navarro's design of the rice carton box incorporates a plastic dispensing cup at the base of the container, that is tugged out of the side panel, dispensing the product as it is pulled out. The winning design can be used for other dry foods, such as dog food.
Winner of the APC Sustainability Award, as well as a highly commended award in the overall competition, was the eye-catching 'Grippy All round' design by Mathhew Doyle of Western Sydney University, which can have the dual application in the health care and food markets.
Not only do industrial design students compete for the top prize, the three tertiary institutions involved – University of Technology Sydney, University of New South Wales and Western Sydney University – vie for the annual floating trophy. This is UTS's 8th win in the 14 years the awards have been running.
Judges in this year's competition were Todd Beck, senior packaging engineer at Colgate Palmolive, Satyen Desai, packaging engineer at Selleys, and Brent du Preez, NSW chairman of the Australian Institute of Packaging.
