Diamond Packaging Takes Home Third Place in Best of Show in the 2019 Packaging Impressions Excellence Awards

The vibrant, turquoise gradient may be a subtle feature of the packaging for Fantasia Mermaid, a fragrance from fashion designer Anna Sui, but according to Dennis Bacchetta, director of marketing at Diamond Packaging, the Rochester, N.Y.-based company that produced the folding carton, it’s one of the carton’s most significant attributes.

“The custom, turquoise ombré design blends from dark to light, creating a beautiful, luxurious, gradient background for the glossed and embossed accents,” Bacchetta says.

Diamond Packaging, a full-service packaging provider, received third place in Best of Show in the 2019 Packaging Impressions Excellence Awards. The packaging also received first place in the Folding Cartons: Offset category and second place in the Sustainability: Folding Cartons category.

While the gradient was one of Bacchetta’s favorite features, it also presented one of the biggest challenges.

“We had to ensure a seamless transition of the vignette between the custom dark and light green colors,” Bacchetta says. “That’s always a challenge because vignettes are prone to banding. This carton does not show any banding, because of how we processed the artwork through our prepress workflow and our screening techniques.”

The package design features a gradient turquoise background; multi-level embossed mermaid, shells, seahorses, starfish, and plants; and custom champagne rose gold ink.

Although the visual design and tactile appeal enabled the package to stand out, Bacchetta says the company’s sustainability efforts are also worthy of recognition. The winning entry was converted with FSC-certified, 100% recyclable paperboard, and features more sustainable in-line decorative processes, including cold foiling and soft-touch coating.

“Cold foil is a key component of our Green Chic packaging model, which captures the essence of upscale brands through more sustainable converting methods,” Bacchetta says. “Green Chic incorporates multiple in-line technologies — TruCOLOR expanded color gamut (ECG) printing, cold foiling, specialty coatings, Liquid Metal metallic UV coating, and cast and cure holographic effects — all of which can be recycled. Furthermore, the in-line methods help to conserve raw materials and energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and minimize discards.”