The Best in Packaging Design: DIELINE Awards Announces 2026 Winners

Now in its 17th year, DIELINE Awards, one of the world's largest global packaging design competitions, announced its 2026 winners at LUXE PACK New York.

NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES, May 6, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Today, Dieline announced its 2026 DIELINE Awards winners, presenting trophies to 170 recipients across 41 categories and 15 overall top winners.

DIELINE Awards remains one of the world's largest global packaging design competitions. Sponsored by Designalytics and presented by Luxe Pack, DIELINE Awards 2026 recognize the best and brightest designers and agencies creating product packaging worldwide, raising awareness of the enormous value of brand packaging design.

With over 1,500 submissions from nearly 40 countries this year, DIELINE's award-winning entries provide a glimpse into the future of packaging, with groundbreaking designs and a shift towards plastic-free materials from numerous brands. Within this collection of winners, you'll discover some of the leading agencies, studios, in-house teams, and independent designers shaping the industry.

The awards’ jury chairs featured a who’s who from the world of design—Sarah Di Domenico, co-founder and CCO of Wedge, Established co-founder Sam O’Donahue, Katie Levy, co-founder of Gander, Zipeng Zhu of Dazzle Studio, and Hey Studio founder Veronica Fuerte. All entries were judged by a panel of jurors, experts in their fields, across five categories—creativity, marketability, innovation, execution, and on-pack branding—and underwent two rounds of rigorous critique.

OlssønBarbieri’s Varus 775 earned Best of Show at the DIELINE Awards, the first spirits brand to claim the top honor since 2019. Inspired by the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, the design features a three-part system: a glass bottle, an aluminum refill, and a ceremonial porcelain vessel. A masterclass in storytelling, the project blends historical narrative with sustainable innovation, utilizing Roman-inspired aesthetics and circular packaging to celebrate regional heritage and superior craftsmanship.

The Designalytics Effectiveness Award was created to elevate the role of package design by spotlighting its immense financial impact on consumer brands. Winner selection is based on sales performance in the marketplace and rigorous quantitative consumer testing. This year's winning redesign went to Catalina Crunch, courtesy of the brand’s in-house design team, as 65% of consumers said they preferred the new packaging to the previous version.

Given alongside the non-profit advocacy group A Plastic Planet, New Zealand’s Honeysticks earned the Plastic-Free Innovation of the Year award. Designed by Milk, the brand’s 100% natural beeswax crayons are housed in plastic-free craft paper packs using vegetable-based inks and biodegradable labels. Honeysticks successfully blends premium design with a circular mission, positioning itself as a formidable, eco-friendly leader in the global art supply market.

Meanwhile, Editor's Choice, an award hand-picked by Dieline's editor-in-chief, went to Beta Design Office for Fussy, a personal care brand that uses a refillable system with a forever container and refills packaged in endlessly recyclable aluminum cans. Studio of the Year, given to the studio that wins the most awards, went to the branding agency Wedge, which picked up five awards in the competition, including Rebrand of the Year for its redesign of the oral care brand Cocolab.

In its sixth year, The Dieline Design For Good Awards went to Bulletproof and Diageo India. Godawan Artisanal Indian Whisky. To protect the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard, they released 173 handcrafted "Blue Pottery" bottles—one for every surviving bird. This initiative helped grow the population from 96 to 173 and raised over $1 million for conservation, proving that purposeful design can foster kindness, preserve heritage, and protect our planet.

“In an era where beautiful design is now considered table stakes for many CPG brands, it takes a truly exceptional studio or designer to place at DIELINE awards,” said DIELINE founder Andrew Gibbs. “This was one of the strongest competitions to date, particularly as we introduced tiered pricing for smaller indie studios. The 2026 winners are a testament to our industry, as they continue to prove just how valuable brand design and packaging remain.”

"While many brands have seemingly doubled down on single-use plastic packaging and ‘cheaper’ substrates, we remain hopeful that many of our sustainable and plastic-free winners will inspire brands to revisit their sustainability goals and push the industry forward to where it must go," said DIELINE editor-in-chief Bill McCool.


About Dieline:

Established in 2007, DIELINE has become the leading media brand focused on consumer packaging design and branding and is committed to supporting the advancement of the package design industry in all its forms.

Bill McCool
DIELINE
bill@dielinemedia.com
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