epda AWARD FUTURE PACKAGING: 1st Prize 2023/2024 - NABA
Interview with Pietro Cosimo Cappellini and Rebecca Casati, 2 of 3 students of NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, who worked as team to create their award-winning entry to the epda Award Future Packaging 2023 / 2024.
On May 29th, we visited drupa touchpoint packaging and had the pleasure of talking to two members of the SAWCE design team, Pietro and Rebecca, about their innovative project and the creative journey behind it.
SAWCE is a zero-waste packaging concept. The team aimed to create packaging that essentially disappears upon opening, reimagining the user experience around a commonly used household product. They developed a ready-made sauce brand that is revolutionary in its market—completely vegan, user-friendly, and, most importantly, waste-free when used.
Q. How did you approach sustainability in your design and what solutions did you implement to ensure that your packaging is environmentally friendly?
A. We carried out extensive research, focusing particularly on materials. Our idea was to create a material that could be washed away. For the inner and outer parts of the product, we used different materials. The inner part, which is the actual product (sauce), is made of ISOMALT—a hard material that can be melted and eaten. The outer packaging is made of PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) and cellulose, which can be printed on and dissolves quickly in water, allowing consumers to wash the label away from the product, similar to washing a vegetable.
Q. What impact do you hope your packaging design will have on the market and how do you think it will benefit Fair Trade brands?
A. We hope that companies will invest more in packaging research. Innovative solutions require exploring different approaches. We aim to see more unique and specialized packaging designed specifically for the products they contain, rather than using standard packaging for everything.
Q. Looking to the future, how do you plan to apply what you have learned from this project to your future design work?
A. The environmental sustainability aspect of packaging design is a major challenge today and will become even more critical in the future. As students, facing these challenges is beneficial. I am interested in continuing to study design ethics and sustainability, as I believe they will be significant challenges in my professional future.
Q. What did it mean to you to take part in the epda Award Future Packaging and to present your work at drupa touchpoint packaging?
A. We are very grateful to be here after working tirelessly on this project. Despite the tough challenge, our ultimate goal was to create aesthetically pleasing and completely waste-free packaging. We believe we have achieved this goal and are thrilled to share it with others. We hope this is the beginning of a more sustainable future, particularly in packaging. We want to reinvent packaging in a way that is environmentally friendly, not just in terms of zero waste, but overall sustainability.
Q. What was the biggest learning or lesson you took away from this experience?
A. The biggest lesson was to think creatively about solving specific challenges. The solution may not already exist, so it's important to explore different areas, packaging, and cultures to create something new and unexpected in the field. This was the biggest challenge, but also something we really enjoyed.
Congratulations to the entire team Rebecca Casati, Pietro Cappellini and Mattia Carabella for this brilliant and innovative and zero-waste design. Special thanks to professor Luca Ferrecchio for his outstanding commitment to this project.
drupa touchpoint packaging runs until June 7. The students of NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, apart from participating in the Future Packaging Award, have collaborated with industrial leaders to create three innovative projects showcased at drupa Touchpoint Packaging 2024.
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