Imagine this: you have a great idea for a new widget. It will revolutionize the whole world of widgets! You drain your savings, beg your parents for just one more loan (you promise you’ll pay them back, with dividends!), and you manufacture a small batch. Now, what about packaging? Just a few years ago...

Each year, PPC’s North American Paperboard Packaging Competition is a bellwether of major folding carton design trends to come. The judging of the 2016 competition took place in mid July, and although the winners will be revealed at our upcoming Fall Meeting in San Antonio, TX, here are a few of the overall trends that punctuated this year’s competition.

By Brian Westerlind, PPC Communications Manager

I recently had the privilege of representing PPC at the judging of the Paperboard Packaging Alliance’s (PPA) annual Student Design Challenge. With 70+ folding carton entries—all designed by college students from across the country—the competition saw the next generation of packaging designers not only exploring the vast possibilities of paperboard, but also honing their own voices and points of view as designers.

It is true that the future starts now. No matter how daunting your end goals may seem, there are always steps you can take today in order to prepare for and even shape tomorrow. This sentiment rang loud and clear at PPC’s recent Spring Meeting in Miami. After hearing from a futurologist, a generational expert, and an economist, PPC members left the conference with a formula for succeeding in the days ahead.

Spring has just about sprung, and that means one thing here at PPC: time for TICCIT! Short for “Trees Into Cartons, Cartons Into Trees,” TICCIT is our annual community outreach initiative in honor of Earth Day, and it gives you all the resources you need to teach kids about trees, paper, and the environment. Here are just ten reasons why you should get involved.