Sunday 16 / June / 2024
Muscat: With the participation of 602 projects from university students in Arab countries, Female students of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Nizwa branch, won first places in the international packaging competition which was held in Lebanon.
Female students of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Nizwa branch, won first place in the packaging competition organised by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization(UNIDO) and in cooperation with the Lebanese Center for Packaging (LibanPack) in its third edition, which was held in Lebanon with the participation of 602 projects from university students in Arab countries to engage young people and provide them with a valuable opportunity by unleashing their creativity and developing packaging for their national products.
Aisha bint Abdullah Al-Abri, supervisor of the competition, said that the University of Technology and Applied Sciences participates annually in this competition starting in 2017 and achieves advanced positions at the level of Arab countries, obtaining five advanced positions last year. The winning works and the names of the winning students are displayed on the competition’s website.
The university's branch in Nizwa is represented in this competition due to its graphic design major and a course specializing in product box design. The content and conditions of the competition will be presented at the beginning of the semester.
Al Abri added that the competition includes several categories, including the visual packaging category, in which students improve the brand identity by proposing a new visual design or improving the visual design of an existing product without working on the structural aspect, and the structural packaging category. Food preservation category, in which new, smart packaging is proposed in order to improve the food chain for the growing world population, prevent food loss and waste, and increase their shelf life.
Al Abri explained that after winning the competition, we give the student another link to participate in the work globally and motivate him to send his work to the local company that produces these works to present the idea and the cover and then discuss the possibility of applying it later. We have a future plan to support students to develop their creativity, which consists of conducting field visits to product and packaging workplaces so that they can learn about the box production process, understand the foundations of packaging, and experience design on the ground.
Student Asma bint Khalfan Al Omaria, owner of the sweets product, said: My interest in the sweets product came through a new visual structural design to produce a special and luxurious box with an attractive and unique modern design that facilitates presenting and storing the product and is suitable for all occasions and trips.
As the student Muna Bint Ali Al-Bahlani said about the product / Mishli (coconut ) / that the idea of designing the cover of this product’s packaging came from the shape of the Mishli (coconut) and the nature of the Dhofar Governorate, which is famous for its cultivation, so the shape of the box was beautiful, attractive and easy for the consumer to use.
The student Jawaher bint Humaid Al-Sulaimi, the owner of the cover for the camel milk product, said that the idea of designing a cover for a camel milk package came after she read about the benefits of camel milk and saw that there was no attractive design for it. She named it “Ghabooq” which means drinking milk in the evening or the camel that is milked in the evening.
Student Fatima bint Yacoub Al Rawahi confirmed that the design of the Henna Al Maliha packaging came to address some problems, including the difficulty of use and storage, the lack of ingredients on the packaging, and the boring and ambiguous design of the packaging because the product is a new visual and structural design unlike what is currently circulating in the markets.
