Student Starpack

STUDENT STARPACK AWARDS 

£600 top cash prize plus runners-up awards

Design students looking to expand their design portfolio can enter the MPMA ‘Metal Pack for a Luxury Fragrance‘ category with a chance to win the £600 top prize.

Established in 1964, the Student Starpack competition is organised by the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (ioM3).  

The competition challenges students to submit design solutions to problems set by brand-leading FMCG companies, design agencies and manufacturers. Each year, MPMA sponsors a dedicated brief celebrating the creativity and versatility of metal packaging.  

The competition is open to students studying a wide range of Higher Education courses from those with an emphasis on graphics to courses concerned with structural and product design as well as materials and technology students.

This year MPMA has tasked students to design and develop a luxury promotional metal pack to hold a 100ml bottle of perfume, aftershave, or cologne.

Students will also need to develop the name and branding, but the key focus must be on the secondary metal pack. The pack should showcase what can be achieved with metal, have real shelf appeal, and look just as good on the dressing table or shelf at home.

The winning design will receive a £600 cash prize, courtesy of MPMA. Prizes may also be awarded to runner-up designs at the judges’ discretion.

The Starpack Students 2024 competition is now open to enter.

For more details of this year’s MPMA brief visit Brief C: Metal Pack for a Luxury Fragrance.

To find out more about last year’s brief and award-winning pack read on …

2023 –  Clever shaping and intricate graphics produced standout entries

Tasked to create a metal speciality gift pack for a fictitious Champagne or sparkling wine, a showstopping entry which brilliantly combined elegance with innovation, landed Loughborough University student, Matthew Noon, the £600 top prize.

Matthew created an unusually shaped pack under the brand name ‘The Crewman Wine Company’ and described as “based on a cylinder, but angled outwards at the centre to create a more bold and luxury appearance”. A dramatic matt purple finish with a perforated peacock logo gives instant shelf appeal, while a gold finish inside designed to reflect light through the perforations creates additional impact.

Samuel Palmer from Nottingham Trent University, was one of two runners-up with ‘Mirage’, a dramatic black and white pack with an encased cylinder beautifully designed for maximum impact.

Alison Smith-Paul from Teeside University, was the second runner-up with ‘Chevalier’, which incorporates a clever hinged opening in the shape of a knight to emphasis the brand name.

MPMA judges, Robert Fell and Debbie Clements from MPMA; Nicola Jones from Tata Steel; Corrina Korrubel, Eviosys; and Graham Smith, Twelve PR; examined thirty entries in what they considered a very good year with a very high standard of entries and a wealth of clever and well thought through ideas.

Robert Fell commented:

“Speciality packaging should stop people in their tracks, and Matthew’s ‘The Crewman Wine Company’ pack was the absolute standout entry in this respect, wowing the judges with its clever shaping, and a tactile, upmarket finish which was a key component of the brief.

“Similarly, ‘Mirage’ by Samuel Parker incorporated dramatic and striking graphics and had a a clever ‘second cylinder’ which gave added shelf appeal, while Alison’s ‘Chevalier’ design was quirky and unusual and really did turn heads. All in all, an impressive year.”