In "Not a Verdict", for Design Week, our Creative Manager, Laila Rotter, draws on two years as a Pentawards juror to make one point: an award is not a verdict, it's a collective gaze. A different panel would produce a different result, so the value lies in making that gaze visible, through open criteria and feedback. She also shares her read on packaging design in 2026, when craft has become the baseline and challenger codes have worn out, and proposes one filter: does the idea survive without its styling?
