Pro Carton Young Designers Award 2026

The Pro Carton Young Designers Award is Europe’s leading annual talent competition for aspiring packaging design. Focusing exclusively on cartonboard, the award plays an important role in promoting sustainable packaging and innovation amongst students across Europe. The design competition is free to enter and open to all students enrolled at a European school or university. The Pro Carton Young Designers Award is set to reveal exceptional ideas, whilst allowing Pro Carton to attract the next generation into our industry by showing them the benefits of cartonboard and rewarding their creative thinking. Entering the awards is the perfect platform to network directly with industry experts and kick-start graduate job opportunities. For the purpose of the award, Pro Carton has partnered with Metsä Board, RDM Group and MM Board & Paper to supply cartonboard sheets for practical design work, free of charge. This process runs in cycles from October to April.

The design competition is free to enter and open to all students enrolled at a European school or university.

Entries can be submitted across these categories:

• Creative Cartonboard Packaging | Food & Drink
• Creative Cartonboard Packaging | All Other
• Sustainability Award
• Public Award

What can I enter?

Entries can be submitted in 3 categories:

• Creative Cartonboard Packaging | Food & Drink: The focus lies on cartonboard as the most sustainable food and beverages packaging material and its recyclability. Give us a taste of great design!
• Creative Cartonboard Packaging | All Other – excluding Food & Drink: This category focuses on using the most sustainable packaging material for non-food packaging. Everything needs packaging, have a look around yourself and get inspired!
• Sustainability: Show us your ideas as to how cartonboard can reduce or replace plastic and help us protect nature!

What are Cartons and Cartonboard?

Folding cartons are small to medium-sized boxes made of cartonboard. They are used to package a wide range of products, from food – such as cereals, frozen and chilled foods, confectionery, baked goods, tea, coffee and other dry foods – to pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and more.

Many different types of cartonboard are produced, all of which can be manufactured in different weights (grammages) and thicknesses.  The type of cartonboard and fibre composition depend on the intended use and the specific requirements.  Cartonboard is made up of several plies to make the best possible use of the different types of raw materials and optimise product performance. 

Cartonboard is made from wood chippings (from trees) or from recycled paper and board. The wood raw material comes from sustainably managed forests. Not only are they a renewable resource, but in Europe more trees are grown than are harvested.  European forests are grown and harvested in a carefully controlled and sustainable way – so successfully that European forests, where most of the raw material comes from, have grown by an area the size of Switzerland in just 10 years! Trees play an essential role in reducing climate change as they absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen.

Cartonboard is renewable, recyclable and biodegradable. It is a truly sustainable packaging material and a perfect example of the circular economy.

It is also extremely flexible and versatile. It can be folded and creased into many different shapes and its print and special effects capabilities are almost infinite, from embossing and gold foiling through to 3D holographic effects.