Advertising, Baltic, Forum, Lithuania

This year, the first place prizes went to an edible beer label, created by Aurimas Kadzevičius, the Christmas-themed sweets line packaging for Kalev Classic, designed by KOOR, an Estonian design agency, the BUKLI haircare product packaging design solution, made by the agency CRITICAL. The packaging for Stumbro Starka Darkside by studio CREATA, Burių burtai and IPA Diena series by Not Perfect | Y&R, as well as Hiiumaa Kitchen and Bakery, created by Alina Luther, Andres Siem and Piret Lauri, have also won first-place prizes.

Švyturys - Utenos alus has won a record-breaking five awards as a contractor, with all three prizes in the low-alcohol beverage category, as well as the 1st and 3rd places in the Limited Edition Product category.

“The jury was more active than ever before, the submission evaluation provoked lengthy discussions. Aside from the visual solution, the jury paid attention to and rated the context of the sale, the materials used and the moment of unpacking. We are happy that NAPA Baltic is seeing growth in the number of self-submitted winners, though we are a little surprised that the region is lagging behind when it comes to sustainable and ecological packaging solutions,” comments Algirdas Orantas, the Chairman at LGDA.

The NAPA Baltic submissions were evaluated by seven jury members from the UK, Germany, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This year, the jury featured design and branding stars like the former Head of Design at PepsiCo, Silke Bochat and Darren Brown, a Partner at Re branding consulting agency. Rounding out the jury, we also had Mikelis Bastiks, Head of Design at the Asketic studio from Latvia, Estonian designer and long-standing former Creative Director at DDB, Meelis Mikker. From Lithuania, the jury featured Mantas Velykis, the Creative Director at the Truth agency, Tomas Karpavičius, the Creative Director of Ogilvy Vilnius, as well as designer Aurimas Kadzevičius.

In total, the NAPA Baltic Awards received 121 submissions this year. The jury selected 60 finalists in nine categories, awarded 22, including the previously mentioned winners. Lithuanian designers and agencies submitted 80 packaging designs, 29 came from Estonia, and 12 from Latvia.

Concurrent with the NAPA Baltic Awards, the annual packaging design trends and realities conference NAPA Talks also took place, with 250 participants, including creators, contractors, manufacturers and other representatives from the food and beverage industries.

The awards are organised by the Lithuanian Graphic Design Association (LGDA), in partnership with the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre (LITEXPO).