Photo: (L-R) Front row: Jennifer Freund; Spencer Drate. Back row: Lilly Smith; Maribeth Paulson; Sean Mosher-Smith; Stefan Sagemister; Craig Braun; David Calderley; and Larry Jaffee (Bryan Ekus not pictured as he was stuck in traffic) 

The 2018 Making Vinyl Packaging Awards submissions and judging processes were much different from last year’s competition.

This time, the first phase required entries’ digital photos to be uploaded; 237 entries were received – up from last year’s 124.

We had more than 20 art directors, designers and media packaging professionals on both sides of the Atlantic go through all the submissions to come up with 5 finalists in 12 categories.

Then 8 judges (pictured here) examined in person the finalists’ physical packages from which the winners and runners-up were selected on Aug. 30 at the prestigious design organization AIGA at its New York headquarters.  We thank all the judges listed below, as well as especially AIGA’s Lilly Smith for hosting the occasion, her terrific hospitality and help in receiving all the packages.

The Jury Panel

(Click here for their backgrounds.)

Christopher Austopchuk
Dave Bett
Craig Braun
Hugh Brown
Stefan Bucher
David Calderley
Jeff Chenault
Roger Dean
Spencer Drate
John Foster
Jennifer Freund
Mike Goldstein
David Gorman
Julian Klein
Gail Marowitz
Rob O’Connor
Maribeth Poalson
Walter Rossman
Stefan Sagmeister
Judith Salavetz
Lilly Smith
Jack Stoughton