Since its founding in 2007, Dieline has celebrated the best in packaging design, raising awareness to the enormous value of consumer product packaging design and branding.
Dieline Awards, now in its 13th year, is one of the world’s largest global packaging design competitions. Sponsored by Neenah, Designalytics, and Manter, Dieline Awards 2022 recognizes the absolute best and brightest designers and agencies creating product packaging throughout the world, raising awareness of the enormous value of brand packaging design.
Today, Dieline announced its 2022 Dieline Awards winners, presenting trophies to 141 recipients across a wide range of categories. The awards were presented at HOW Design Live for the first time since 2019, as COVID derailed previous Dieline ceremonies.
This year, Dieline received nearly 1,700 entries—the most ever submitted in the competition’s history—with winners hailing from 27 countries. Taken together, the prize-winning recipients offer a snapshot of where the packaging industry is heading, not only with bold and innovative designs but with many brands committing to plastic-free materials. Here, you’ll find some of the best design agencies, studios, in-house teams, and independent designers in the game today.
So without further ado, here are all of the 2022 Dieline Awards winners.
The awards’ jury featured a who’s who from the world of design—luminaries like Debbie Millman of the Design Matters podcast, Design Army co-founder and CCO Pum Lefebure, A Plastic Planet co-founder Sian Sutherland, Center founder Alex Center, Vice President of Design at Coca-Cola Rapha Abreu, Superunion Brazil Executive Creative Director Heitor Piffer, Hybrid Design co-founder and Creative Director Dora Drimalas, and Sway CEO and co-founder Julia Marsh. For the first time, entries were judged by a panel of jurors that are experts in their given field. Additionally, awards were judged across five categories—creativity, marketability, innovation, execution, and on-pack branding, going through two rounds of rigorous critique and appraisal.
BEST OF SHOW
Bite
Creative Agency: Bite, In-house
United States
Changing a learned behavior is hard work. And it doesn’t make it any easier to break certain habits when you aren’t presented with viable options.
That is true in tackling the single-use plastic crisis, especially when we think about the sheer volume of packaging waste that our armpits generate because of our reliance on deodorant. We’ve grown accustomed to ugly, plastic tubes that don’t offer much beyond their use, so it’s no wonder that Bite’s plant-based and plastic-free deodorant won over our judges this year.
Expanding beyond their original offering of toothpaste bits, Bite released a refillable plastic-free deodorant brand last September that comes in a beautiful mirrored aluminum case designed by the brand’s in-house team. Consumers can sign up for a subscription where they choose one of four different scents that come as compostable refills. Better still, it could be the last piece of deodorant packaging a consumer ever buys, which means no more stocking up on Secret or Old Spice at Target.
The brand’s mission is to make a critical dent in the millions of pounds of deodorant packaging waste bound for landfills, oceans, or incinerators every year, replacing an everyday bathroom staple in favor of something that actually looks beautiful sitting next to your bathroom sink. It’s the kind of gamble and game-changing piece of product packaging we love to celebrate.
STUDIO OF THE YEAR
Auge Design
Italy
Every year, Dieline awards Studio of the Year to the agency that garners the most honors across the competition, and 2022’s winner is no stranger to our readers as they won Best of Show back in 2018.
Now, with four wins under their belt in 2022, Auge Design is our Studio of the Year.
The studio pulled up big wins, with THREE first-place finishes for The Perfect Pop (in Ready to Eat, Fast Food, Meal Kit Category) and the Bahlsen Global Relaunch (in Confectionary Desserts and Sweet Snacks in addition to Food Brand Identity Systems). They also pulled third place for Ginori LCDC in the Luxury category.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Plus
Creative Agency: Someone & Others
United States
It’s not much fun hosting an awards competition if your esteemed jury of experts gets to pick every winner.
Well, it’s our party, and we’ll cry if we want to, and that means choosing our own favorite piece of packaging from the overwhelming number of incredible entries. That’s why we now have the Editor’s Choice Award. This year’s winner asked two of our most nagging, pressing questions for any piece of product packaging released in the last year—and they’re two pretty big questions every packaging designer should ask themselves when working on any project.
What if we got rid of the water in the product, and can we make the packaging disappear?
Those are two pretty bold ideas to tackle in the CPG landscape, and they’re not easy to pull off. But that’s exactly what you get with Plus, the waste and plastic-free body wash brand that comes in dissolvable packaging. Just rip it open, apply some water to a dehydrated foaming sheet, get your suds on, and toss the packaging in the shower—the water will take care of the rest.
With a beautiful brand world and packaging from the design agency Someone & Others, Plus illustrates how a more sustainable and plastic-free world can function. And if you’re worried about the accessibility of products like these for consumers, well, you can now find Plus at Target.
PLASTIC-FREE INNOVATION OF THE YEAR
Bite
Creative Agency: Bite, In-house
United States
Now in its fourth year, Dieline’s Plastic Free Innovation of the Year, given alongside non-profit advocacy group A Plastic Planet, also goes to the plastic-free deodorant brand, Bite.
“You may say there’s nothing sexy about deodorant,” said A Plastic Planet co-founder Sian Sutherland. “Or that only niche products can benefit from good design. This innovation from Bite takes yet another everyday product and proves otherwise. It is the ultimate in design excellence, changing behavior with zero guilt and elevating the entire experience of personal care. Imagine if your entire bathroom cabinet came filled with permanent packaging of such beauty? Bring it on, Bite. We want more.”
REBRAND OF THE YEAR
Two Drifters Carbon Negative Rum
Creative Agency: Here Design
United Kingdom
This year’s best rebrand of 2022 went to Here Design for their work on Two Drifters.
While the rum brand’s original design certainly had a craft distillery vibe when it launched in 2019, the husband and wife founders felt it didn’t live up to the passion and fun they found within the world of rum.
The brand name steals the “two drifters” from the Henry Mancini tune “Moon River” that was written for the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s (and sung by Audrey Hepburn). That romantic aesthetic, i.e., “two drifters off to see the world,” takes the form of two sailboats on the label with the sun going down and gently rippling on the water, inspiring a sense of wanderlust and intrigue.
While Here Design still celebrated the Devon coastline from the original bottle and the brand’s distinct provenance, they managed to highlight the distillery’s love of the environment. For starters, the rum is carbon negative, and since it first opened its doors, Two Drifters has removed 16.724 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere. It’s a figure that they proudly display on each bottle, and with every future label run for the distillery, that number will continue to be updated.
DESIGN FOR GOOD AWARD
TOASTea Lager
Designer: Tsan Yu Yin
Taiwan
Now in its second year, The Dieline Design For Good Awards honors the agencies and creatives taking up the issues and necessary causes meaningful to them, creating work that gives back to humankind while emphasizing kindness and promoting a higher quality of life.
With design and creative direction from Tsan Yu Yin and illustration by Hai-Hsin Huang, this year’s winner is TOASTea Lager, a beer whose mission is to stamp out food waste. Inspired by Toast Ale, the brewery utilizes unused toast crusts that would otherwise go to waste to brew the black tea-fueled lager. The beer’s design comes from the many oil-proof sandwich wrapper bags one finds throughout Taiwan that feature illustrations of zany characters. Working with Huang, they reinterpret a handful of those figures and make them the star of the show on the bottles.
NEENAH BEST USE OF PAPER AWARD
Glorious Cannabis
Creative Agency: Pavement
United States
We don’t know a single packaging designer that isn’t a sucker for paper, and that’s why we like to celebrate the best of that glorious, pulpy tree stuff in packaging alongside our sponsor, Neenah.
And this year, we get to celebrate Glorious Cannabis.
Hailing from Detroit, Glorious Cannabis sought out design from San Francisco’s Pavement, and the studio didn’t disappoint when it came to creating a distinctive cannabis brand that represents the craftsmanship and artistry of the city they call home—Detroit. With a deep red, simple type, and a bold shelf presence, Pavement helped develop a brand for the modern millennial.
“Pavement Creative Director Michael Hester has demonstrated his understanding of the important role colored, premium paper brings to a brand as a design element,” said Vanessa Crow-Murff, Neenah’s creative director. “Not only does the beater dyed Neenah Classic Imperial Red Smooth 130DTC bring an element of luxury to the Glorious Cannabis experience, but it becomes an integral part of the overall brand identity. The unique dieline of the packaging gets elevated with clean, no-white, score lines and edges.”
“Micheal Hester has allowed the tactile uncoated paper to be the hero of the package with the minimal combination of the bold black ink and floral blind emboss,” Vanessa added. “These two techniques combined with the striking paper balances feminine and masculine elements in an exciting design and is a great example of how impactful, thoughtful consideration of substrates can elevate your packaging.”
MANTER BEST USE OF LABEL AWARD
Turmeon
Creative Agency: Símil Design
Spain
An exceptionally produced label is a thing of beauty, and Simil Design gets it.
For the second year in a row, Simil Design has conquered the art of the label, winning the Manter Best Use of Label Award. With Turmeon, a Spanish artisanal vermouth, the Mallorca design duo creates a dizzying affair of colors and patterns with intricate details and plenty of foil. From a design perspective, it has a playful aesthetic, but it never feels over the top, giving it premium top-shelf appeal.
And not to take away from the label, but take a gander at that black and white multi-patterned cap—you’ll want a martini shaken and stirred.
DESIGNALYTICS DESIGN EFFECTIVENESS AWARD
GoodPop
Creative Agency: Interact
United States
The Designalytics Effectiveness Award was created to help elevate the role of package design by spotlighting the immense financial impact that it can have on consumer brands. Winner selection was entirely data-driven, based on sales performance in the marketplace, as well as rigorous quantitative consumer testing. This year’s winner was Boulder-based agency Interact for their redesign of frozen treat brand GoodPop.
During the year following the redesign, sales increased by 40% compared to the prior year.
“Designalytics evaluates thousands of package designs every year, and this is what we’ve learned: Design is a powerful driver of brand growth—that’s an incontrovertible fact. One such example is GoodPop, whose redesign bolstered the sales performance of this relative newcomer in a highly competitive category. Any brand, whether a long-standing leader or a scrappy challenger, who recognizes the business value of design—and designs for growth—has a serious competitive edge,” said Steve Lamoureux, CEO and founder of Designalytics.
Best of Food
Sitko Pizza
Creative Agency: Werklig
Finland
This ain’t your grandpappy’s pizza box.
From Helsinki-based Werklig, the packaging for this Finland pizza parlor looks more like a decadent boxset from an extremely German noise band but instead is a sharp 180-degree turn from the usual branding you’d see from a slice slinger.
“A dough ball is Sitko’s heart and soul, a living ecosystem of life forms, organic and constantly transforming,” said the studio. “A perfect symbol for a sourdough pizza company. We reduced it to an extremely simplistic and recognizable emblem—an irregular rounded shape. Combined with collagesque, black-and-white aesthetics, and raw, handmade style, the visual style is a tribute to the DIY subcultures.”
Also, not gonna lie, all that white space is the perfect canvas for your kid’s wild imagination and a box of crayons.
Best of Beverage
Ruinart Second Skin
Creative Agency: COLOURFORM™ from James Cropper
United Kingdom
Maison Ruinart wishes to encourage brands to adopt innovative sustainable packaging solutions, and the packaging for the luxury brand’s 100% recyclable eco-designed casing will surely inspire. The case acts as a sleek, innovative gifting packaging, showcasing the bottle’s form and identity elegantly.
Additionally, the “second skin” on the bottle (from James Cropper) protects the champagne from light waves, elegantly wrapping itself around the memorable Maison Ruinart bottle for an unforgettable unboxing (without the box).
Best of Health, Beauty, & Personal Care
Love Ocean
Creative Agency: Pearlfisher
United Kingdom & United States
In the health and beauty sector, none stood taller this year than Pearlfisher’s work on Love Ocean, a natural bath line for kids. Not only is the bottle made from 100% recycled HDPE, but consumers can purchase refills with reusable product pouches.
“Gabi [Jennings, the founder] created the concept of Love Ocean in response to a lack of truly sustainable choices in the kids’ bath sector. We were privileged to play a part in visually and playfully telling one of the most important stories of our time about the power of ocean conservation and why we need to recycle and reuse. We wanted to create a structure that celebrated one of the wonderful creatures from our ocean, and this inspired the whale tail bottle structure and illustration—a positive call to action of what we are set to lose if we don’t act now and educate all ages on the importance of protecting our oceans,” said David Ramskov Hansen, Pearlfisher managing director, of the project.
Best of Home, Shopping, & Other Markets
Noopii
Creative Agency: Ima Creative
New Zealand
In the Best of Home and Shopping category, Ima Creative wowed the judges with their unisex nappy packaging that features gorgeous illustrations of animals and celebrates native habitats and animal recovery organizations.
“Choosing the right color palette was a crucial and early step to setting this brand and package design apart,” said Ima Creative of the project. “The colors are chosen for their gender-neutral quality—a clear depart from gender-stereotyped pink and blue pastels—and to clearly communicate Noopii’s New Zealand heritage without the predictable and overused wash of white and green usually associated with eco products. The elegant palette promotes the premium quality of the brand, appealing to the purchasers—the parents and caregivers—many of which are becoming more educated and ever conscious consumers.”
Also, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand call diapers nappies? Who knew!
Best of Brand Identity
Bowl Grabber
Creative Agency: Casual Business
Malta
Crafting a brand identity system that creates instant recognition across a wide array of products isn’t exactly the easiest thing to achieve for a designer, especially if you’re working in the beer or wine category. Often you’re juggling multiple SKUs and limited-edition releases that all need to stand out on their own—it can likely make you want to work on Campbell’s soup cans for the rest of your career.
This year’s winner, Casual Business, created a clearly identifiable brand identity system for the new wine brand Bowl Grabber, across a range of bottles, cans, and our moms’ favorite—boxes. It’s proudly unfussy, approachable, and oodles of fun.
Best of Sustainability
MOB Beauty
Creative Agency: Concrete
Canada
A trip to Sephora can be equal parts electrifying and horrifying. On the one hand, there are literally ALL of the beauty products you could ever want under one roof.
On the other hand, most of it comes packaged in plastic.
This year’s Best Sustainability Award goes to design agency Concrete and beauty brand MOB’s in-house packaging team for developing a minimal-waste, refillable packaging platform for a line of customizable and refillable color palettes. Each offering uses 50% recycled PET with an overall goal of reaching 100% in the future. Additionally, secondary packaging is comprised of compact clamshells made from bamboo and repurposed corrugated cartons.
Food
1a: Bread, Cereals, and Pasta
1b. Dairy and Dairy Alternative Products
1c. Spices, Oils, Sauces
1d. Fruits, Vegetables, Fish, Meat & Alternatives
1e. Ready to Eat, Fast Food, Meal Kits
1f. Confectionary Desserts and Sweet Snacks
1g. Savory Snacks
Beverage
2a. Water
2b. Soft drinks, Juices
2c. Tea and Coffee
2d. Functional Beverages
2e. Beers, Ciders, & Malt
2f. Low-alcohol and no-alcohol drinks
2g. Wine & Champagne
2h. Clear Spirits
2i. Dark Spirits
Health, Beauty, & Personal Care
3a. Clothing & Fashion
3b. Health Care
3c. Body Care
3d. Beauty & Cosmetics
Home, Shopping, & Other Markets
4a. Household Maintenance And Home Improvement
4b. E-Commerce Packaging
4c. Electronics, Office, E-Commerce, Entertainment, and Self-Promo
4d. Baby, Kids, and Pets
4e. Tobacco and Cannabis
Sustainable
5a. Food
5b. Beverage
5c. Health, Body, & Beauty
5d. Home, Shopping, & Other Markets
Plastic Free
7a. Food Brand Identity Systems
Branding
7b. Beverage Brand Identity Systems
7c. Health, Body, And Beauty Identity Systems
7d. Home, Shopping, and Other Markets Brand and Identity Systems
In-House All Categories
Student
3rd
OUCH! First Aid Kit
McKenzie Shelton, Wesley Ford, Alexandra Beckley, and Huei-Hsin Wang
Limited Editions
Private Label All Categories
Conceptual All Categories
Luxury All Categories
