In 2022, Patrick Walby created the “Zero Waste Medication Blister Pack”, the package prototype that won the student award in Metsä Board’s Better With Less – Design Challenge 2022–2023.
Walby came up with the design idea when he was visiting his grandfather, who was struggling to get some medication out of a blister pack. After the visit, Walby designed a recyclable blister pack made of paperboard that was ergonomic for the elderly and people with limited finger function.
“For me, innovative packaging is about finding new and more effective solutions for existing packaging,” he says.
Internship worth the long journey
Having completed his bachelor’s degree in communication design, the winning design brought Patrick Walby all the way from Melbourne, Australia, to Äänekoski, Finland, for an internship at Metsä Board. He worked for a month with the Excellence Centre’s professionals and learned about the packaging design process, sustainability, paperboard as a material, new technologies and client work.
“Seeing the whole process from start to finish for packaging is the most valuable thing I learned.”
He also got to know the work the design team does to ensure that the design is appropriate for customer needs, and how they make the package lighter and reduce the required materials – aiming for a smaller carbon footprint.
“Everything I’ve learned in Finland with Metsä Board is extremely valuable, and I’m lucky to have seen what is probably the peak of packaging design.”