Assessing the first installment of a competition for young designers twelve years ago, the jury then characterized it as exceptionally successful. The reason was that the competition attracted 65 designers who submitted an unbelievable total of 75 entries. The jury also considered it a success that the Young Package Competition involved designers from two countries, i.e. the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.
When at the very beginning the competition organizers met with the representatives of the DESIGN CENTRE OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC and the MODEL OBALY Company, which since then has been the general sponsor of the Young Package competition, they set themselves one objective, namely to provide support to young designers in their professional career. To hold a competition seemed the best way to achieve that. At the same time, however, they all realized that the competition quality would only grow with a more broad-based participation of designers from more countries. Their wish came true in 2001, when the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA) endorsed the Young Package Competition. In the year 2000, i.e. a year before ICOGRADA became a partner of the Competition, the organizers received entries from 176 designers from three countries. In 2005, the jury evaluated works by 314 designers from ten countries. In 2007, in the 12th year of the competition, the organizers received entry applications from 425 designers from 18 countries.
Is a formidable achievement, which unambiguously attests to the rapid growth in interest in this most prestigious international competition for young designers. There has been a similar increase in the quality of presentation and the quality of the entries themselves. There has also been a marked increase in number of university student entrants. In recent years, their number increased from 150 to 216.
Changes are also apparent in the structure of awarded designers. In the first years, designers from the Slovak Republic reigned supreme. Then came a period when the highest awards were won by designers from Poland. Nowadays, designers from the Czech and the Slovak Republics regularly appear among the winners. Their dominant position has so far been attacked very timidly by the „rest of the world“. Asian designers have on several occasions pushed their way among the world‘s designer elite. In the past two years, young Canadian designers have made systematic efforts to do likewise. It would very desirable to see, in the next years, the rest of the world becoming a substantially stronger opponent of, for the time being, the supremely reigning center of Europe.
Link to catalogue of competition.
