Gold Pack Awards honour student as second overall winner

Commencing in 1973, the Gold Pack Awards are issued by the Institute of Packaging South Africa (IPSA) and are the showcase for the South African packaging industry.

Vorster, a second year IIE BA Graphic Design student at The Design School Southern Africa, selected the Whole Earth Farms brand from the US to improve and redesign. Its grain-free product line includes six dry dog foods. Voster noticed a design flaw in the brand’s name and logo, which did not reflect that it catered for dogs. She endeavoured to design a logo which would better reflect what the company was about and who they catered for.

“I redesigned it with a photo of a dog wearing a farm cap, linking the two themes of pets and farms. I added in some additional features such as the dog carrying a pole with his paws and a little door on the packaging that the food comes out of,” says Vorster.

An additional theme in the redesign was to make the packaging both reusable and recyclable. The packaging came with a sticker explaining the new features. “The design is clean, indicating no fuss, no mess and no dog food smell.”

She entered her design with the encouragement of Whole Earth Farm director Bill Marshall. “He believed my design had a chance of winning and now wants to send it on to the World Packaging Organisation’s World Star Student Awards.”

Pretoria campus graphic design lecturer, Jeanne Muller, was one of Vorster’s biggest supporters. “My lecturer was an enormous motivation to me throughout the entire project and especially with my design work. That’s the thing when you study at The Design School SA, they have a hands-on approach and they want their students to succeed,” concludes Vorster.

For more information, go to www.designschoolsa.co.za.