Pratt Institute-Luxe Pack Gala Honors P&G Prestige

Marc Rosen, Sumit Bhasin and the Pratt scholarship winners

Annual event raises $300,000 for Marc Rosen Scholarship for Packaging by Design.

Written by Jamie Matusow, Editor

The Pratt Institute-Luxe Pack “Art of Packaging Award” Gala, held on May 17, at Manhattan’s swank University Club, raised $300,000 for the “Marc Rosen Scholarship and Education Fund for Packaging by Design.”This year, the annual black-tie gala, which has earned $3 million since its inception in 1989, honored P&G Prestige for its outstanding commitment to package design. Sumit Bhasin, global leader of innovation P&G Prestige, accepted the award and Amy Fine Collins, special correspondent to Vanity Fair and International Best-Dressed List Hall of Famer, served as mistress of ceremonies.The “Art of Packaging Award” is presented each year to a fragrance company that has excelled in the art form.

Bhasin commented that fragrance packaging is “all about the right balance between art and science,” adding that “packaging is really the embodiment of the concept.”

For examples, he cited Lacoste L1212 and Gucci Guilty (which would go on to win a FiFi Award a week after the dinner, for Best Packaging in the Women’s Luxe category, as well as Fragrance Superstar). Both packages, said Bhasin, challenged many design conventions, including selective etching on the bottles.

Rosen commended P&G Prestige and Bhasin for their commitment to innovation, contrasting it to what he dubbed“the Listerine school of marketing,” in which the same bottles and caps are used over and over again while merely changing the color of the liquid inside. “This is not what makes brand packaging unique,” he pronounced.

The Marc Rosen Scholarship and Education Fund supports the only scholarship in the world available to college students looking to pursue careers in cosmetics and package design. At Pratt, Rosen teaches a course on cosmetic and fragrance packaging design, which is the only one of its kind.

The cover of Rosen’s soon-to-be-released book.

At the dinner, Rosen, a seven-time FiFi winner, revealed that he has written a book on fragrance packaging scheduled for release this fall. Glamour Icons: Perfume Bottle Design celebrates perfume bottle design as an art form and includes background stories and personal anecdotes from Rosen’s career. A portion of the proceeds from the book will also help support the Scholarship Fund.

Stay tuned to Beauty Packaging for details and a review.