Packaging is an essential part of our everyday visual culture. It aims to seduce, awaken desire, and promise a more pleasurable consumption experience. Packaging is an art form that deserves more appropriate and glamorous recognition than simply the satisfaction of grateful advertisers over increased sales figures. At the Pentawards, the most important international competition for packaging design, the most elegant, stylish, and extraordinary packaging solutions worldwide are awarded annually in different cities across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. These range from the eye-catching boxes by the German agency Amelung for the Lingua Simplex memory game (2014), to pizza boxes by John Knowles Ritchie in London and Tex-Mex-style Maggi bottles by the Swiss agency ARD SA (both 2016), to packaging for Sisheido face masks (2010) and fantastically designed cement bags (!) by the brilliant agency Mousegraphics from Athens (2009).

Since their inception, the Pentawards have evolved into a mega-event where the most brilliant creatives in packaging design compete. This volume showcases who, from 2008 to 2016, ingeniously led the pack in the five main categories of Beverages, Food, Body, Luxury, and Other Markets with their countless subcategories, showcasing all the award winners, all the products, all the wonderful solutions that combined "customer aspirations, product realities, and the potential of context" (Gregory Tsaknakis, founder and owner of mousegraphics) into new, inspiring design ideas.