Southern Cross Packaging Awards

Billy Blue third-year Communication and Design students were victorious at the 2011 Southern Cross Packaging Awards, winning three gold, one bronze and a commendation.

The Awards are in their 26^th year and are open to Australian tertiary design students, who are given valuable insights into the packaging and design industry.

Billy Blue winners include:

Holly Doran who took gold for both her rationale and packaging for headache tablets;

Jiaxi Huang who won gold for her work on chocolate tins,

Bonnie Nguyen who won bronze for her rationale on clumsy chums, and

Yanni Chen whose yummy tummy rationale received a commendation.

Head of Academic Studies for Communication Design Neil Barnett guided Billy Blue students as they developed their rationales and final work.

Neil, who teaches Independent Design Practice - a subject dedicated to live projects and competitions - chose the Southern Cross Packaging awards with his class and entered nine students in this year's competition.

Entrants were provided with a selection of industry set briefs that reflect current issues within the trade and allow creative and innovative solutions. After selecting a brief, they produce a rationale and final pack, made from materials usually supplied from companies that sponsor each brief.

To assist the students, Neil ran workshops in typography and model making, and also invited experts from packaging studios to provide feedback to the students over the semester.

"The winning students worked consistently and diligently throughout the semester, refining their work each week," says Neil, "I am very pleased and proud of their achievements."

As part of their prize, gold winning students Holly and Jiaxi will be flown down to the award ceremony in Melbourne on October 13, and provided with hotel accommodation for the evening. Mr Barnett will also attend the awards along with Head of College Andrew Barnum.

All gold, silver and bronze winners are eligible to win a scholarship form the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) to complete their 'Certificate in Packaging' Course.