“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”

Okay. By “a long time ago” I’m talking mid-October, and by “far, far away,” I mean Lancaster, Pennsylvania. But to be fair, I’m an artist, not just an avid Star Wars fan, so I’m taking some creative liberties here.

Back to the Galaxy of Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Tom Newmaster, a partner with the rad branding/packaging design firm FORCEpkg teaches in his spare time (10 years running) a packaging design class for college seniors at the nearby Pennsylvania College of Art & Design. For those of you who aren’t versed in the ways of FORCEpkg, Tom has received over 45 design awards, including Berks County Shining Star 2012, Project 2020 Finalist in 2011 & 2010, Flexo Magazine Author’s Excellence Award 2006, and #16 in Fast Company Fast 50 2005.

Tom offered David Lukshus and me an opportunity to sit in with him. We spent a day with his students sharing our work to broaden their perspectives on how packaging actually gets done, from design to print, and participate in a project critique session. If you can imagine a room of 15 chipper and talented college students -- on a Friday morning, in a 7-hour long class -- you’d be looking at Tom’s class. Aside from what an honor it was to work with this class (hello, bucket list!) it was SO important to me that we share our industry knowledge, something I would have treasured when I was in their shoes.

We started with several of Cog’s case studies. Then, having just attended Cincinnati’s very own Smelt Fry (think: locally-established and leading paper industry convention), we literally dumped reams of glitzy packaging carton and label materials as leave-behinds. The students jumped all over them, using them to inspire changes in the projects they were working on that day.

David Lukshus noted that, 

In addition to sharing our case studies and industry perspective, it was also important to us to use this opportunity to intercept the next generation of packaging designers to impart important habits and skills -- as well as a broad view of the consumer packaging landscape -- before they are turned loose into the professional world.

Seven hours and an amazing lunch at Sprout Rice & Noodles Vietnamese Eatery later (quite possibly the long, lost sister of Cincinnati’s own Pho Lang Thang), we all agreed this was a positive and inspirational experience for everyone.

And what did Tom have to say?  

I’m honored that the Cogs made the trip to talk to my packaging design class. I feel it’s important for young designers to learn how to get the most out of the tools at their disposal and learn about the printer requirements and capabilities. Hopefully we can make this an annual event . . . May the FORCE be with them, always.

We’ll definitely plot a course for Tom Newmaster’s packaging class next year.  

Yours, 
Lindsey Frimming
Cog Partner and Innovation Droid 

LEFT TO RIGHT: TOM NEWMASTER, JACQUELINE SHRADER, ELIZABETH FINO, DYNEISHA GROSS, TYLER BIRKY, ALLANNA PECK, KEVIN FOSS, LAUREN DUFFY, ANTHONY NARDO, EMILY PHILLIPS, AMANDA REILLY