Paper, Film & Foil Converter

Variations on a FluteAICC Honors the Best in Corrugated

Published: Monday, 01 May 2000 07:00, Written by Claudia Hine, Senior Editor

Roaring into the Future!" was the theme of the 9th International Corrugated Packaging Design Competition sponsored by the Assn. of Independent Corrugated Converters (AICC). AICC presented the awards at its annual meeting in Chicago, IL, November 6, as part of the joint AICC/TAPPI Corrugated Week '99.

The competition was a roaring success-a total of 70 awards were presented in 16 categories. Following is a sampling of the winning entries.

Judges' Choice went to Badger Packaging Corp., West Bend, WI, for "Snowshoe," for Sherpa Snowshoe Co. As Paul Ballard, Badger's marketing and design manager, explains, "The art house wanted an earthy feel, so we steered them toward printing on kraft, and it does have that earthy, recycled feel to it. It's a C-flute, printed three-color-white, black, and blue-on a two-color press. It was judged on registration and print quality, and it beat out some pretty impressive stuff."

People's Choice, a new award chosen by registered attendees, was presented to Mack Packaging Group, Chicago, IL, for WaveCycle, a full size, three-dimensional replica of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The self-promotional piece, created for last fall's West Pack Show, was designed by the company's Wave Flute Products Div., Chino, CA.

Project coordinator Ann Swisshelm notes, "The motorcycle is made up of more than 3,700 individual pieces of wave flute that were hand laminated. To create a metallic sheen on certain parts, we used a polyester film that looks like silver holographic paper that's corrugated. We made two motorcycles, and it took a team of six people more than 300 man-hours and more than two months to construct them. They each weigh approximately 150 pounds."

Schiffenhaus Packaging Corp., Newark, NJ, won in the Best Application of Preprinted Linerboard category for the Double H Boot Box. The box was printed by Schiffenhaus Canada, Toronto, in a roll-to-roll flexographic printing process. The rolls were then shipped to Schiffenhaus Packaging Corp. where they were converted into E-flute boxes.

According to L.C. Schiffenhaus Jr., office of the president, "The printed substrate is a 0.010 clay-coated, solid bleached sulfate (SBS) grade. It is the combination of the high-end substrate allowing for a deep, dense, and glossy black and precise color-to-color registration that made this box an award winner."

In the category Best Use of Corrugated Replacing Other Packaging and/or Best Demonstration of its Environmental Advantages, Orange County Container, City of Industry, CA, was honored for the Lucky Brand's Pajama Pack.

David Capanash, VP of sales at Orange Country, explains, "Instead of putting the pajamas in a cellophane bag, the customer wanted to come up with something really catchy, and we suggested a corrugated box. This box was done in 200-pound test E-flute. It's flexographically printed in two colors on four panels. The customer was willing to take a bit of risk in changing his entire marketing strategy. We got together with their graphic artist, made sure the design was printable on corrugated, and we ran it."

The next International Corrugated Packaging Design Competition will be held in 2001; however, AICC will hold its Student Packaging Design Competition, which has been converted to an annual event, at the fall annual meeting October 25-28. The categories for the student competition are as follows:

• Design to Fit a Problem—students design a structure to accomplish a given task while accounting for converting challenges; does not need to be printed;
• Design to an Existing Die—students can design anything but must use an existing die and must print the job;
• Open Design—students can design anything, must design the die line and graphics, and must print the job;
• Corrugated as Art—students can design anything out of corrugated, does not have to be printed, and can be a one-of-a-kind, nonproduction run.

AICC's fall annual meeting will coincide with SuperCorr Expo 2000; AICC and TAPPI will cosponsor the expo October 23-27 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA.

For more information contact AICC, 113 S. West St., Alexandria, VA 22313; 703/836-2422; aiccbox.org, or TAPPI, Box 105113; Atlanta, GA 30348; 770/446-1400l; tappi.org