Established’s “Tilt Beauty” designs were praised for embodying the “art of accessibility,” nominated as the very best at the ceremony on Saturday and received the Diamond Award.
At the Pentawards show in Amsterdam this weekend, New York-based studio Established won the top prize for its work on Tilt Beauty, a project the studio says, “required us to rethink the way beauty products are packaged from the ground up.”
This is the second time Established has won the top prize at Pentwards – they won the Diamond Award in 2015 for their work on the Marc Jacobs Beauty line. Established was also named Design Agency of the Year at the ceremony on Saturday.
For people suffering with chronic pain, existing make-up packaging can be impossible to use. Established says consumers are forced to find hacky workarounds, using sticky tape or rubber bands, or they end up avoiding make-up altogether.
The main packaging is coated with silicone, which, along with the curved shapes, is designed for people with less grip on their hands. The mascara wand is shorter than standard because studies have shown that people with shaky hands have a harder time handling it with a longer design, and the refill system is easy to replace with a simple push mechanism.
The box contains magnets that reduce the force required to open and close the products. The secondary packaging has large tear-off strips for easy opening and the text is written in the Braille Institute of America’s Atkinson Hyper-Legible font for easy reading. Braille product descriptions are also available.
Crucially, the team was determined not to sacrifice aesthetics in a bid to make a more accessible product. “In creating Tilt, we wanted to make products that were both ‘seriously comfy’ and beautiful to look at,” they explain. “The vegan, cruelty-free makeup is easy to open, hold, read and apply, and the packaging is bold, playful and gorgeous.”
“This project really showcased the art of accessibility,” says Marc Powell, Unilever’s global accessibility centre of excellence lead, and one of the Pentawards judges.
“Not only does it feel stylish, desirable and modern, it’s just really cool that accessibility and inclusive design have been embedded into this product from start to end.”
And Established co-founder Sam O’Donahue said it was “an incredible honour” to win the top prize for the second time.
“Creating Tilt Beauty has been a labour of love and one of the most important projects we have taken on in the past 20 years,” he said. “We hope that its pioneering approach to making beauty accessible will have ripple effects throughout the industry.”
Established in 2007, the Pentawards Awards are a prestigious global award for exceptional packaging design. Each year, a diverse range of packaging designs from around the world are submitted and judged by an international panel of over 50 experts, including renowned designers and experienced design directors.
Entries are judged on criteria such as design quality, brand expression, creativity and innovation, and emotional connection. This year’s competition attracted over 2,000 entries from over 60 countries.
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