Last year, the US brought some beautiful and innovative designs to the global stage, including the Diamond and one Platinum winner. What will we see in 2026?

Pentawards has always been about spotlighting and celebrating the best in packaging design on a global scale across different sectors and industries.

Since its launch in 2007, our annual competition has received over 36,000 entries from nearly 100 countries across the globe. After some beautiful designs in last year's competition, we are excited to see what brands and design agencies from the US more will put forward for 2026!

For a flavour of what to expect this year from this region, we take a look back at some of last year's winners.

Tilt Beauty by Established - 2025 Diamond, Best of Show

The US took home the prestigious Diamond Award for Tilt Beauty by Established — a breakthrough in beauty packaging and the first makeup line to earn the Arthritis Foundation’s Ease of Use Certification.

By placing accessibility at the heart of its design, Tilt marks a turning point: packaging conceived for people living with chronic pain, mobility challenges, or low vision from the very beginning, rather than adapted afterwards. It’s a reinvention of beauty packaging that makes glamour more inclusive — without compromising on elegance or desirability.

Every element was reconsidered for everyday ease — from shorter mascara wands that steady the hand and minimise tremors, to silicone-coated surfaces that improve grip, and soft-close magnets that make opening and sealing effortless for users with reduced dexterity.

Dwell Dripper for Verve Coffee Roasters by Zenpack - 2025 Home, Leisure and Other Markets Platinum

Designed to travel as well as it brews, the packaging takes cues from paper-bag lunches and accessory bags to create a friendly, take-anywhere unboxing. Strong shelf presence, product reveal, protection, and a pleasant unboxing experience were the key pillars of the design approach.

A single-part dieline streamlines production and reduces waste, while the range launches in seven colours with a matching coffee scoop engineered as an extension of the brewer itself.

THCDesign by Super Okay - 2025 Gold BODY, HEALTH & BEAUTY (CBD products)

THC Design's brand refresh aimed to elevate the beloved cannabis company from a regional player to a national icon in the vein of Nike and Levi's. Facing a chaotic market and varied state regulations, the purpose was to establish a trustworthy, consistent brand.

The product not only required a packaging system that educated consumers, but one that adhered to strict guidelines across multiple states. Given a dispensary's highly chaotic nature, designing something memorable with a striking visual identity was critical. A bold purple palette, a refined logo, and Dia Type Extended Bold typography created shelf impact. Frosted glass jars and mylar bags ensured brand cohesion, while a universal box with adaptive labeling addressed regulatory challenges. A "bento box" grid system facilitated clear communication of strain profiles and terpenes, giving them new opportunities for storytelling while enhancing consumer education. Motion design and animation also add lively, fun moments to the bento system.

Culturally, the design subtly echoed iconic American brands, while lifestyle photography captured a relaxed, inclusive Southern California vibe. This balanced scientific precision with an approachable humanistic quality reflects the evolving cultural acceptance of cannabis.

Gush by Pentagram - 2025 Gold Professional conceptual work (Sustainable design)

The designers wanted to completely rethink paint packaging and find a more sustainable solution. They developed a new container that is sleek, modern and minimal, with a square footprint that is more efficient and made of low-impact materials.

The design of a can of paint hasn’t changed much since its invention in 1868. The round metal containers waste space when shipped on pallets, and around 75 million gallons sold in the US each year go unused and are thrown away in the trash, where they can harm the environment if not managed properly. (The round shape originated because it prevented paint from getting stuck in the corners, a problem the Gush packaging also avoids.)

Each Gush container opens into two trays, with the paint housed in a transparent bag between them. Made of low-impact, biodegradable acetate, the bag has a flat bottom so it can stand upright and a clear cap to see the color. The container is made of molded paper pulp, which has never been used before for paint trays in the US. The circular handle echoes the shape of the Gush symbol, and a bubble pattern of particles is embossed into the molded pulp.

Zara Hair by Baron & Baron - 2025 Silver BODY, HEALTH & BEAUTY (Body care)

Zara Hair, created with Zara and legendary hair stylist Guido Palau, is a study in shapes, colors, materials, and finishes. The challenge was to inject a sense of desirability, innovation, and style to products that are often presented in a clinical way, while maintaining Zara brand codes. Baron & Baron's approach was to focus on stunningly unexpected packaging and beautiful campaign imagery.

Each item in Zara’s first evergreen styling drop is designed in its own unique colorway with matching carton, giving each product its own look and identity. Subsequent launches are also designed in unique colorways for each product and contrasting finishes on the bottles and caps. In punchy vibrant colors with a matte texture, most of the collection is aluminum, reducing the number of plastic components. Caps, in various vibrant colors, have a sophisticated satin metallic finish.

The Zara Hair collection is daring and bold enough to stand out, while easily accessible to Zara’s wide-ranging demographic of unisex customers.

Eight Oaks by Makers & Allies - 2025 Bronze BEVERAGES (Spirits Collection Mixed)

Eight Oaks Farm Distillery is so much more than spirits. It's a farm just as much as it is a distillery, and they plant, grow, harvest, malt, mill, mash, distill, age, and bottle everything onsite in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. With this rebrand, Makers & Allies' goal was to show the world what the phrase "grain to glass" truly means by encapsulating the full spectrum of what Eight Oaks is capable of.

Flask-inspired custom glass was developed as a nod to the working-class history of farmers and steelworkers in Pennsylvania. It prominently heroes their new branding while showcasing the liquid, utilizing the real estate of the glass to feature key brand phrases such as "Farmed & Distilled in Pennsylvania" and "We Grow What We Drink." Embossed on the back of the glass is the unique signature of the founder's grandfather, who was the inspiration behind the distillery name, remembered for signing family letters with a letter "8", representing the eight letters in 'I love you.'

A tire tread-inspired texture is a uniting element across both the wood closure and the label system, which uses a strategic layout to visually unify the entire offering while clearly differentiating across four unique tiers and fifteen SKUs.

Now it’s your turn to step into the spotlight. Enter now and shape what's next .