Art of Packaging Award Gala honors Jean Madar of Inter Parfums

27-Jun-2016 - Last updated on 28-Jun-2016 at 15:03 GMT

Marc Rosen of Pratt Institute (left) and Jean Madar CEO of Inter Parfums at the Art of Packaging Award Gala 2016

Last week at New York City’s University Club, hundreds of fragrance and beauty industry leaders, student honorees, and allies gathered for the annual fund-raising celebration put on by the Pratt Institute.

The funds in question (an estimated $350,000) go to Pratt’s Mark Rosen Scholarship and Education Fund for Packaging by Design. Rosen himself studied and now teaches at the New York City college, which is home to the world’s only graduate degree program in cosmetic and fragrance packaging design.

Celebratory gala

The fashionable event celebrated Jean Madar, CEO and chairman of the board at Inter Parfums. After being introduced by Gilbert Harrison, founder and chairman of the M&A advisory services group Financo, Madar spoke at length about the nuanced business of fragrance packaging design. “Packaging design,” he says, “is at the crossroads of art and commerce.”

It is the work of true artisans and often takes more time than blending the fragrance itself, says Madar. “Bottles,” he believes, “know how to tell stories.” And, it’s important for designers to recognize that brand DNA is never a formula but, rather, that’s it is more like alchemy, manipulating a vocabulary of colors, shapes, and more.

Designing the future

Six students were also recognized for their fragrance packaging design achievements at this year’s event: Paula Ip, Talia Douaidy, Xinlu Liu, Fang Yi Chu, Brielle Wilson, and Eugene Kim. Each created a complete fragrance packaging prototype, comprising a bottle, scent card, shopping bag, and advertisement.

As the evening neared its conclusion, Damini Singh was awarded the Rosen Scholarship. And starting this fall, she will begin courses to earn her Masters in Communications Design from Pratt.

In conversation with Simran Pabla of theknockturnal.com, Singh explained her background, “I’m an architect. I did my masters from the UK. After that I worked three years as an architect. I realized that architecture isn’t creatively fulfilling; It’s something I can do but on a smaller level. So I looked at all my options and the University that stood out to me the most was Pratt. After that I taught myself the basics of graphic design and created my portfolio.”