Nine Parre wins the first Smurfit Kappa Design Challenge

This was announced by Arco Berkenbosch, VP Innovation & Development at Smurfit Kappa, during a celebratory award ceremony in the Sensory Experience Pavilion at the Dutch Design Week.

The Smurfit Kappa Design Challenge asked art and design graduates from the ArtEZ University of the Arts to find creative and pioneering uses for paper and cardboard. After a preliminary round, five finalists were selected to take their work to the next level under the supervision of the Het Instituut Foundation in Amsterdam.

In the winning project, called ‘Table screen’, the inflexible cardboard is transformed into a portable table screen with flowing lines and colourful prints, that provides privacy in a café, open office or public workspace. 

Jury report
"The winner of the Smurfit Kappa Design Challenge Award is a woman who is at the heart of society, has great interaction with her surroundings and takes new roads from there. Broad research provides her with a solid basis, but she definitely dares to face new paths, diverting from her basis and continuously discovering and persevering.
She made use of the possibilities around her, co-operated well with the Smurfit Kappa design studios and pushed the technical boundaries of cardboard.
The final form of her product is still under development, but with the help of Smurfit Kappa there is true potential to bring her design tot he market and establish her name."

Arco Berkenbosch says about the winner: “At Smurfit Kappa we often focus on the combination of functionality and design. Nine’s strength is that she has a creative and artistic approach. Real innovation.”

Nine Parre not only takes home an impressive award, but over the next six months she will also be assisted in developing her product for the market with full support from Smurfit Kappa.