The written feedback is new for 2025 and it is exclusive to non-shortlisted entries for this year. The goal is to roll this out to all entries in future years.

For Shortlisted packs, we require physical samples (except for conceptual pieces) and high resolution images

We now require you to send the physical sample(s) of your shortlisted entry or entries (excluding students and concept entries) to our offices in London, for the final jury deliberations. 

The final deadline to receive the sample(s) is no later than Friday 27th of June 2025.

• Download, fill in and print your physical sample form . Include this alongside your sample(s) in your package before sending. You will need to do one form per sample.

• Please read and follow the specific packaging and delivery instructions available here .

You will also need to upload high resolution images of your work for us to use in our next packaging design book, at the Gala Ceremony and for future promotions. Please upload them here no later than Friday 27th June.

For non-shortlisted packs, there is no further action needed.

The judges will review the shortlisted entries and finalise the results, allocating the Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond Awards. The results of this will revealed at the Pentawards Gala Ceremony , which will be held on 4 October at De Kromhouthal , Amsterdam.

On 14 July, after the judging is complete, we will be publicly announcing the Shortlist, at which point you can share all the details on your shortlisted entry without affecting the judging process (images + credits + description).

See more about the whole judging process here.

The 2025 Shortlist will be publicly revealed on Monday 14 July. On this date all judging will be complete and so full details of your shortlisted entries can be shared (images of packs + pack name + subcategory).

Mid-July, after all rounds of judging are complete, your final results will be ready to view in your account and you will be able to buy tickets to the Pentawards Gala Ceremony. We will email you when these results are ready.

At this stage, your results will need to remain strictly confidential until all winners are publicly announced at the Gala Ceremony on 4 October.

Only the first round of judging has been done and therefore to make the final round as fair and impartial as possible, you may not share the details of your shortlisted entry at this stage so that the judges do not see who has created the shortlisted packs.

At this point you can only share the number of works you have had shortlisted and which main category it is in (i.e. Beverages, Food, Sustainable Design, etc).

On 14 July, after the second round of judging, we will be publicly announcing the shortlist, at which point you can share all the details on your shortlisted entry without affecting the judging process (images + credits + description).

The Pentawards Excellence Score allows entrants to get feedback on every piece of work submitted into the competition, whether or not the designs go through to the second round of judging.

The Excellence Score is created from the jury’s verdict of the entry, based on the judging criteria (see below for a reminder) showcased in the entry.

Please note, the score of shortlisted entries may vary as some sub-categories will be more competitive than others and will therefore require a higher score to be shortlisted.

For all entries (except the Sustainable Design, Design Performance, Supplier Innovation of the Year and Brand Brief categories), the criteria is:

For entries into the Sustainable Design category, the criteria is:

For the Design Performance category, the criteria is:

For the Supplier Innovation of the Year category, the criteria is:

For the Brand Brief category, the criteria is:

No, the Excellence Score is final and cannot be amended.

Participants will get to know what the judges thought of their packaging – what they loved and the areas where they felt improvements could be made. Actionable, tailored insights like these are invaluable for packaging designers keen to take their work to the next level.

For example: I scored 10 in Household Goods which was shortlisted but my entry which scored 13 in Bread, Grains and Cereals was not.

Whether or not your work has been shortlisted depends on the number of designs submitted into that sub-category and also the level of work across that sub-category.

For our more popular sub-categories, the level of competition will be stronger and therefore there will be more entries scored at higher levels and it will be tougher to be shortlisted for the second round.

Written feedback is the impartial, honest and a subjective view of jury members from the 2025 Jury Panel. What you will see is a summary of what the judges thought about your work.

The feedback is from the first round of judging which is performed online by jury members, and is based on what was provided in the online entry.

When you log in to your account to see your first round of results, any non-shortlisted entries will also have written feedback available, giving additional insights and advice alongside the entry’s Pentawards Excellence Score.

Alongside the Pentawards Excellence Score, the written feedback feature adds qualitative feedback to these scores, adding value for those who have not made it through to the second round.

The feedback delves deeper into the jury’s thoughts, and provides entrants with actionable and constructive feedback to help take their work to the next level.

As a business, we continuously strive to improve our processes and offering to support our community. By bringing in this new feedback element, we are hoping to give more back to those entering the competition.

We are the only packaging design competition to do this, and while it demands more from our jury and team, we believe it adds meaningful insight for participants.

As this is the first year of launching this feature, we would love to hear feedback from entrants. Please share any with us on info@pentawards.org

Positive feedback or a good score does not necessarily equate to being shortlisted or winning, especially in categories with a high volume of entries or with a high calibre of entries. Please refer to your results to check the score you needed to be shortlisted.