This year, Neha Tulsian, our Founder and Executive Creative Director, had the honour of serving as Jury President for the Packaging Design category at D&AD. Alongside an incredible jury team, she reviewed 333 entries, shortlisted 29, and awarded one Yellow Pencil.

Somewhere between London and Delhi, at 38,000 feet, she found herself reflecting on what they had truly judged. It wasn’t just boxes or labels or clever ideas. It was memory. Ritual. Intention. And what packaging says about who we are and what we value.

1. Packs should reflect culture or perhaps even shape it.

A packaging design of a brand gives an indication of both its origin and authenticity. While many entries drew from their cultural roots, the one that stood out most to me was Samsung’s Packed Full of History.

The unboxing experience of The Galaxy S24 Ultra took us back to the company's beginnings – a grocery store in Korea. It challenged every convention of tech packaging and that's precisely what made it work.

Samsung leaned into its history, connecting the brand to its humble beginnings while still highlighting the product's futuristic features. The impact was even stronger because the entire pack was in Korean made for the Australian market, so one had to use the product to decode the packaging. That’s when packaging stops being designed and starts becoming a story.

I was eager to see this packaging first-hand, but sadly, no physical entry was submitted.

Avamposto Gin caught my attention for a completely different reason. The label drew inspiration from 18th-century French paper prayer cards – intricately perforated, lace-like sheets. The detailing was beautiful: delicate die-cuts, multi-level embossing, fine foiling. Everything from the perforated label and fox symbolism to the engraved glass bottle, spoke about the handcrafted gin. It didn’t shout for attention. It whispered craft, care and local symbolism.

Cheetos reminded me that even something as simple as how you eat can become a shared ritual. The 'Other Hand' limited edition pack was based on a simple human insight: people get so engrossed in eating Cheetos and licking that orange dust off their fingers, they end up doing everything else with their other hand. Even the idea of designing the pack with your non-dominant hand became part of the story. What I loved most was how a small observation about behaviour turned into a full campaign. It made people relate to one another. That’s how you build consumer tribes. As a limited edition, it didn’t just celebrate consumption, it decoded human behaviour and turned it into a sense of belonging.

2. Design that solves, not just sells.

When design starts with a strong insight, even the smallest surface becomes a canvas for change.

PENNY Packs, the Yellow Pencil winner, addresses rising inflation with radical transparency by committing to clear pricing on the pack. Coming from India, a very price sensitive market, people are constantly on the lookout for value deals. Putting the price front and centre on the pack was, to me, a very brave move. At a first glance, I found myself wondering if it was nutritional information. Then I realised it was the price and that made me smile. Nothing complicated, just a big commitment to price stability on a small package. That’s bang on. A small detail which I loved of the craft was in the pricing strategy. The brand mark 'Penny' ends with a full stop and all the packs have that decimal. This small visual connection between the brand mark and the packs, was a smart and thought through touch.

In Italy, where book readership is declining, Bennet’s Good to Read packs brought literature back through food packaging quoting classics on everyday products to reignite a love for reading. When we used google translation we learned the words latte and riso belonged to the stories.

Even Dairy Milk found a playful way to answer the age-old question of how to share chocolate fairly. The redesigned pack assigned different chunk sizes based on who ‘deserved’ more of the bar—because sometimes, a fair share of sweets is sweeter with a little strategy.

3. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗺𝗮.

Many entries, especially in luxury, leaned into excess. Boxes within boxes. It made us pause and ask: Do we need this much? Or just the illusion of 'premium'? Designers must remember: Sustainability is not a style. It’s a responsibility. Here, we need to question the real cost of overpackaging.

Packaging is a mirror to society and a manifesto of our desires. It reflects what we crave, what we value, and what we choose to believe in.

1. We love the culture we belong to, so let’s leverage it.

2. Let’s use packaging to solve bigger narratives.

3. Let’s ask: are we over-packaging?

Thank you my fellow judges for the discussions, debates and drinks – Listya Amelia, (Tya), Leigh Chandler, Paolo Insinga, Mark Paton, Ellena Mills, Xiaowei Zhang & Greg Quinton.

Johanna Roca, Johanna Neurath, Pum Lefebure, Charlotte Marmion, Gail Bichler, Vaishnavi Murthy Yerkadithaya, Kinya Tagawa, Fred Gelli & akae wang, thank you to all presidents of the different design categories for the insightful discussions during the black pencil voting.

And thank you D&AD team Jack Renwick, Liza Enebeis, Tim Lindsay, Donal Keenan, Kwame Taylor-Hayford, Dara Lynch and Yvette Chan.