Packaging breakthroughs recognized in FiFi awards

The awards are organized annually by the Fragrance Foundation and recognize the creative achievements of the industry.

This year the Technological Breakthrough category, which was always open to submissions for new fragrance ingredients, creation techniques as well as packaging innovations, has been split into two segments one focusing on formulation and the other on packaging.

Executive Director of the Fragrance Foundation, Theresa Molnar, explained that the move was an attempt to make the process fairer for all applicants.

“This year we decided to break that overall category down to two sub-categories…to level the playing field, so that the judges would be comparing the entries to similar technologies.”​

Unique technical challenges​

According to Molnar, the sector is one that presents unique technical challenges to designers, such as avoiding materials that could interact with the fragrance and designing pumps that spray a fine measured mist.

In addition, new regulations such as those for airline carry-on products force companies to come up with new sizes and formats, she said.

In order to enter for the award a technology must be entirely new and original, and winners can include anything from a new spray pump to computerized sampling technology used at the retail counter, Molnar explained.

Packaging companies have featured among the winners of the technological breakthrough award in the past ten years, including Valois Group, Risdon and TechPack.

In 2000, TechPack won the award for Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fragile packaging that resembled a snow globe with gold glitter. The breakthrough was TechPack’s design that stopped the glitter from blocking the pump.

Risdon won the award in 2003 for its side activated spray and Valois Group for its single-use atomizer for sample products called Imagin.

Click here to find out more about the award. Closing date for applications is February 1 2010.