The integrity of our judging process is very important part of the Pentawards competition, and a key part of what helps to make the Pentawards the Gold Standard of packaging design awards.

Quick look: what makes the Pentawards judging process stand out?

• Each round of judging is important and carefully structured so that all submitted entries are judged in a consistent and fair manner
• The criteria used for the judging is shared with and available to all entrants so that they can incorporate this into their entries
• Jury members do not judge any of their own work or anything they or their company may be associated with
• Results shared with entrants come directly from the jury, and they can see a breakdown by criteria and how they compared to the other entries
• Non shortlisted entries get additional written feedback to further help the entrant understand why that design was not shortlisted
• The Pentawards team remains impartial to the judging process, offering advice only on categories or general information on the entry’s content to ensure fairness

Want to find out more? Let’s take a look at each in a bit more detail.

The Judging Rounds

For the first round of judging, the jury review and score entry submissions online individually based on the criteria. This creates the shortlisted, and shortlisted packs are requested to be sent to us for the next in-person round. For the second round, jury members are invited to review the shortlisted entries during two days of judging at the Pentawards offices in London.

They then evaluate and confirm the final Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum awards. These discussions are guided by a neutral moderator from the Pentawards Team. The third and final round is hosted online, where top winners from each category are put forward for the Diamond - Best of Show Award and the entire Jury Panel cast their vote.

You can find out more about the full process here.

The Criteria

Before any judging takes place, we’re clear with everyone on the criteria that will be used – both with the jury and with entrants. During the judging, our jury score across the same criteria for each entry*:

- QUALITY OF DESIGN -

BRAND EXPRESSION

- CREATIVITY & INNOVATION

- EMOTIONAL CONNECTION

*For Sustainable Design, Design Performance and Accessible Design, the criteria differs slightly.

TIP: It’s worth downloading our User Guide which has the full detailed criteria, category information so you can choose the best option for your project and examples from previous winners to help with your write up.

Who’s Judging?

We take great care in hand-selecting our jury members from across the globe. Our goal is to build a panel that is truly diverse bringing together experts in their respective fields from different countries, backgrounds, and areas of design and packaging.

Our jury of 55+ professionals represents both brands and agencies, ensuring entries are evaluated from every possible perspective. Judges are allocated the entries they review based on expertise and experience. Together, they span 22 countries, reflecting the global nature of the competition.

To keep the expertise fresh and perspectives evolving, jury members typically serve for two to three years. We then rotate the panel, introducing new voices and insights each year — ensuring that every competition benefits from renewed energy, diverse thinking, and an ever-changing lens on the work submitted.

Important: The jury are not allowed to judge any projects that they have worked on or that they are associated with. The Pentawards team have nothing to do with the judging process other than preparation and logistics, and remain completely impartial throughout all rounds.

Anonymity

Anonymity is of the utmost importance for making sure the integrity of the competition is protected. We ask all entrants to remove any names within the entry copy, videos and images.

Judges evaluate work, not reputations. Established agencies and emerging designers compete on equal ground, no matter where in the world they are from.

The Feedback

We’re very proud of our feedback model, with the aim that everyone entering into the competition gets the enormous value of feedback for their work. There are two models for feedback:

Shortlisted entries

For shortlisted entries, entrants will get the ‘Pentawards Excellence Score’, this consists of:

- The entry’s score for each judging criteria

- The design’s overall score based on the judging criteria

- How that design compared to other entries in that subcategory (in each criteria)

- The score that the pack would have needed to be shortlisted

Non-shortlisted entries

In 2025 we introduced written feedback from the jury for those not shortlisted. Unique to the Pentawards competition, this was introduced to add more value to those entering but not winning, giving them a more tangible understanding around what the jury were impressed by, and where they felt improvements can be made to help propel entrants work in the future.

Design awards shape careers and reputations so our aim is to always run the competition with credibility, fairness, anonymity, independence, and transparency in mind – because exceptional packaging design deserves nothing less! 

The Competition is open till 27 March, get involved and have your work judged by the best .