We speak to Davide Mosconi, Partner & Executive Creative Director at Auge Design to learn more about their award-winning works and plans for the future.

Can you tell us something about yourself and your agency? 

I started my career two decades ago at McCann Erickson Milan, creating commercials for global brands. Later, I explored freelancing as a designer before co-founding two design agencies. I see myself as a blend of designer, art director, and entrepreneur.

Seven years ago, I co-founded Auge Design with Giorgio Natale and Federica Ariagno. At the time, I was leading a branding agency specializing in fashion brands and museum projects. I was genuinely happy and passionate about my work, delivering projects with high-end outcomes.

One day, Giorgio approached me with an audacious proposal: 'What do you think about starting a specialized packaging agency with the goal of becoming the best design agency in Italy?' It sounded like a bizarre idea, especially considering I hadn't worked on a single packaging project in my entire career at that point! However, I was captivated by the idea.

I started exploring the global packaging scene with a new perspective, thinking this could be an exciting challenge for me. So, I asked myself: why not? In July 2016, we launched Auge Design in Florence. Fast forward seven years: Auge Design stands as the most awarded Italian packaging design agency. It's something extraordinary.

I believe Auge's strength lies in the challenging question and its response: Why not? This question reflects our approach—tackling challenges has been the essence of our journey. Challenges never daunt us at Auge. We're ambitious, thrive on pushing boundaries, approach projects with courage, take risks and embrace responsibilities. While we began as outsiders, we've grown into a more mature and structured entity, yet our motivation is still driven by the same courage and passion.

What's the main area of expertise of your agency? Can you share your journey with design?

After winning numerous international awards (including the Pentawards Diamond Award with Mutti in 2018), we established a strong presence in the B2C food industry, specializing in packaging design. That project paved the way for Auge Design.

Italian and international brands started calling us, expecting the same high level of quality. This became our design standard. We wanted to ensure our projects were always new, fresh, and bold. To keep this up over the years, we began adding designers to our team from different areas, with various skills but little (or no) experience in packaging design. The rules of packaging can be learned on the job, but talent can't be taught!

2018 Pentawards Diamond Award winning work for Mutti

Congratulations on winning the Diamond – The Best of Show this year! Tell us a bit more about this project.

From 2018 to the present, Auge Design has secured a multitude of Pentawards awards but the Diamond one carry immense significance for us: the Diamond award is exceptional, as it marks a project with the highest design quality of the year. For us designers, it has always been a benchmark to challenge.

What's truly amazing is winning it twice in 5 years!
And we take immense pride in being the first agency worldwide to achieve the distinction of winning 2 Diamonds in the history of the Pentawards.

For us, winning these awards is crucial to understanding the quality of our agency. Every year, the world's top packaging agencies participate in the competition. Sharing the Pentawards stage with these fantastic agencies fills us with pride and motivates us to consistently strive for the utmost excellence.

2023 Pentawards Diamond Award winning work for Casa Marrazzo 1934

Can you talk us through the journey of creating CASA MARRAZZO 1934's visual identity, the inspiration and challenges in bringing the pack to life?

The challenges were about blending tradition and modernity, making sure the visual identity reflected the brand's history yet had a modern feel. Creating the packaging required careful attention to detail to design something that showcased Casa Marrazzo's premium quality.

Inspired by the company's rich tradition, we created the "Collezione Casa Marrazzo 1934," a premium collection resembling an art collection with valuable pieces. We explored the concept of "CASA" (home) by artistically reimagining traditional household objects with a nostalgic, vintage feel, presented in a warm, somewhat naive style.

2023 Pentawards Diamond Award winning work for Casa Marrazzo 1934

Which part of creating the pack did you and the team love the most?

The most exciting phase was undoubtedly bringing the illustrations to life. We delved deep into researching traditional household items, exploring different illustrative styles to accurately capture the brand essence and convey the desired tone of voice. At the end of this research, we had dozens and dozens of unique objects illustrated on the table, each with its own soul. Choosing was a real brain teaser!

You have also been awarded multiple awards across the Food and Body, Health & Beauty category. Can you tell us about the packs, the story behind it and the process of bringing it together?

This year, we've received awards for a diverse kind of projects. For instance, Pick-up! (Platinum award) and Leibniz (Gold award) compared to Casa Marrazzo, required a significantly different design approach with a strong emphasis on strategy.

Pick-up!

Pick-up! is a global brand of chocolate and biscuit bars, and its revitalization highlighted the strategy of positioning it as the chocolate bar that energizes young adults, capturing the physical and attitudinal essence of "The Knack" (the satisfying snap of solid chocolate paired with crunchy biscuits). The strategy involved a logo and brand redesign, bringing Pick Up! from the '90s to 2022 with a more vibrant appeal.

2023 Pentawards Platinum Award winning work for Pick-up! (FOOD category)

Leibniz

As for Leibniz, the focus was on restoring the iconical shape of the "52 teeth" biscuit (original design from 1891) and infusing naturalness into the packaging.

We kept it simple by taking away extra stuff from the package front (even the logo!) to let the big biscuit shape shine and show authenticity through its real texture.

2023 Pentawards Platinum Award winning work for Pick-up! (FOOD category)

Clita

Clita marked Auge's first venture into the world of sex toys, providing comprehensive consultancy in packaging and product design, along with a distinctive storytelling approach that says: "This is not a Sex toy."

2023 Pentawards Silver Award winning work Clita (Body, Health & Beauty category)

Tirrena

Tirrena (silver awards in the pasta category) is a premium pasta by Frescobaldi, crafted with wheat grown near Florence using natural drying methods. For this, we devised an ambitious naming and a sophisticated, elegant packaging with blind embossed and Bronze foils.

2023 Pentawards Silver Award winning work Tirrena (FOOD category)

Rana

Finally, Rana (bronze award in the limited edition category) showcased our illustration skills with a unique supermarket packaging design that achieved excellent sales results in France.

2023 Pentawards Bronze Award winning work Rana (FOOD category)

Are you currently working on any exciting new projects? 

At the moment, we have significant ongoing projects in the US and China. Simultaneously, we are assisting Italian startups with premium food and spirits projects It is highly fascinating for us to collaborate directly with entrepreneurs and develop the product from scratch together. Finally, a project we care about is the launch of our first Auge-branded cosmetic product in 2024.

What is your message to young designers or students who are entering the design world?

Dear young designers,

1. Always push boundaries, even if some clients or agencies resist change. Your creativity is powerful, and breaking the rules can lead to exciting, successful new products.

2. This is an amazing job, fuelled by passion and curiosity: the more things you see, the more ideas you'll have.

3. Embrace mistakes: every mistake is an opportunity to learn and get better. Designing is a process of trial and error.

Finally, where do you see the agency heading to next? What is the future of Auge Design?

Auge Design was born without a formal business plan, and to this day, we continue navigating driven by passion and entrepreneurial intuition. Currently, we are working on strengthening our two units in Florence and Milan, but in the future, we might consider opening a branch abroad. Why not?

Find out more about Auge Design here , and enter this year's competition for a chance to be this year's Diamond Award winner!