Winners of 2025 Brief Cases’ Smart Luxury Packaging competition announced

For the fifth consecutive year, Antalis has partnered with Brief Cases for the Smart Luxury Packaging competition. This year, for the first time, the competition has been run in collaboration with Staffordshire University. 

The competition forms part of the university’s graphic design and illustration courses, aiming to put the students’ skills to the test with a challenging brief. This year, the students were tasked with creating standout luxury packaging for the cosmetics sector, using materials from the supplier’s paper and paperboard ranges.

The Smart Luxury Packaging – Cosmetics brief required students to imagine themselves to be the creative lead within a fictitious high end start up UK cosmetics company driven by ethical and environmental issues. Their task was to create a packaging concept that would ‘surprise and delight’ customers, whether buying in store or online. From the entries, the projects which best met the brief were awarded gold, silver and bronze, with three others achieving highly commended status.

‘Highland’, submitted by student Harry Jones, was chosen as the winning entry from a selection of 12 shortlisted entries. Silver was awarded to Erin Hurcombe with her tattoo vibrancy serum, ‘Vivid’. Awarded joint bronze were Benjamin Griffiths for men’s self-care brand Strux, and Klaudia Kiernoziak for Washi, a Japanese inspired skincare brand for Generation Alpha.

Gold winner, Highland, is a packaging concept for a luxury beard care range inspired by the rugged beauty of the Scottish Highlands. The products, crafted using 100% natural ingredients sourced from the highlands’ rich botanical landscape, are all presented in packaging boxes constructed from Eska Greyboard wrapped in Olin Origins 120 g/m2 paper.

Graphical board development manager Steve Chappell commented, ‘It was exciting to see what the students at Staffordshire University would come up with, and we weren’t disappointed. They showed wonderful design talent and a strong understanding of the role of substrate choice in packaging design.’

Veronica Heaven, managing director of The Heaven Company and founder of Brief Cases, said: ‘Every year, without fail, I am impressed by the enthusiasm, originality and skill the students show in researching and creating their entries for this competition. The hands-on experience it gives them of each stage of the packaging design and production experience, from specifying substrates to incorporating embellishments such as foiling and embossing, is invaluable in helping them transition from education to work.’