"The designs we make today are the seeds that will continue to grow into the future."
Cheuk Lau-(Fashion Institute of Technology) Winner, 2011

In 1998, the Young Designers idea was taken from a competition that had been run by W. Braun and had gotten too large, with many hundreds of entries. Frank Cornacchiulo, then principal at W. Braun, suggested that ICMAD restart the competition, to both enhance ICMAD’s image and to showcase the extraordinary talents of students studying package design.

Young Designers competition encourages and develops future creative talent. The Young Designer's competition awards the best design students around the country through their creativity and ingenuity. The event allows students to network with their peers and hear from key industry speakers.

The competition was established in 1999 with rules for designing a cosmetic package. Judging was based on specific “real world” criteria and judges were selected for their expertise in the package design field. The three top winners were given cash awards (which was unique at the time, since it did not involve scholarship money) and celebrated initially, at a luncheon and subsequently, a dinner attended by ICMAD members and guests and featuring a well-known industry "star" to present the awards. For some of this time, the Young Designers Dinner was held during HBA in New York, other years it was a standalone event.

When the competition coincided with HBA, the winning students were given badges to attend the show. Later,when the dates were not compatible, students met with ICMAD member companies to give them a taste of the opportunities in our industry. Many of the winners had never been to New York and several of them had never been out of their home states. In 2014, the Young Designers was moved to Southern California to give students a new experience.

Register for the 2016 Young Designers Awards Dinner.