Tipz Receives the A' Design Award for Excelencia Coffee Packaging in Packaging Design

Tipz recognized for packaging design by the international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 24, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ Excelencia Coffee Packaging by Tipz, designed for Guardiao, has been granted the A' Design Award in the Packaging Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The award was conferred within the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

The A' Design Award Explained

The Iron A' Design Award is awarded to good designs that meet the rigorous professional and industrial standards set by the A' Design Awards. This recognition is reserved for works that demonstrate a solid understanding of design principles and show creativity within their execution. Recipients of the Iron A' Design Award are acknowledged for their practical innovations and contributions to their respective fields, providing solutions that improve quality of life and foster positive change. These designs are a testament to the skill and dedication of their creators, showcasing their ability to address real-world challenges through thoughtful design.

More About Excelencia Coffee Packaging

The Guardiao Excelencia coffee packaging employs a visual language derived from the iconography of a guardian archangel. Low relief embossing on the exterior renders the protective wing motif in tactile form, inviting physical engagement before the container is opened. A precision wing shaped die cut defines the opening panel, transforming the act of access into a deliberate ritual. A gold hot stamp seal on the front face marks individual producer recognition. Soft touch matte lamination across all surfaces reinforces material quality and provides contrast to the structural embossed relief.

About Tipz

Tipz is an independent boutique creative agency based in Vitória, Brazil. Founded by professionals with experience in major global advertising agencies, the company develops campaigns, branding systems, packaging design and strategic communication projects for local, national and international clients. Its work combines creative thinking, design and business strategy to build brands with cultural relevance and market impact. Tipz has received recognition in national and international creative and design awards, including Cannes Lions finalist projects and internationally awarded packaging designs.

Award Record

With this recognition, Tipz is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.

About the A' Packaging Design Award

The A' Packaging Design Award is an international packaging competition that recognizes outstanding packaging designs by talented packaging designers worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to packaging designers, graphic designers, branding agencies and product manufacturers from all countries. Entries typically include bottles, boxes, cans, pouches, tubes and cartons. Awarded packaging designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/packaging

About A' Design Award & Competition

A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/181276
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/181276
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!181276
Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/375288
Further Information from the Laureate: https://bit.ly/4cymhRE

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project: Excelencia Coffee Packaging
Function: Coffee Packaging
Category: Packaging Design
Discipline: Communication Design
Industry: Packaging & Retail, Branding & Advertising and Manufacturing
Colors: Firebrick, Gainsboro, Black, Sienna and Brown
Images: 5
Client: Guardiao

The Recognition

Laureate: Tipz
Country: Brazil
Recognition: A' Design Award
Edition: 2025 - 2026
Design ID: #181276

Credits

Team: Ricardo Montenegro, Mateus Montenegro, Gabriel Mendes and Ian Fassina
Image Credits: Photographer Gabriel Mendes, 2025

Design Details

Unique Properties: Guardiao Excelencia packaging creates a multi-sensory identity for premium Conilon. Low-relief embossing turns the guardian wings into a 3D texture on the surface, adding sophistication without extra ink. A wing-shaped die-cut forms the opening, while a gold hot-stamp seal honors each producer. Soft-touch matte lamination boosts contrast. After the Jan 2025 launch, Natural sales rose 50% and Fermented 30%.
Inspiration: Inspired by Saint Gabriel the Archangel and the coffee lands of Saint Gabriel da Palha, Espirito Santo, Brazil, the name was chosen by a priest to declare that the region’s livelihood is blessed and protected. That belief becomes design: a pack that opens through wing-shaped flaps, a physical seal that unfolds to reveal the coffee and suggest protection from farm to cup. It elevates Conilon beyond commodity, celebrating traceable origin, craftsmanship, and local pride.
Research: Qualitative research was conducted to understand consumer perception of conilon coffee within the premium specialty segment. Research objectives focused on identifying barriers to premiumization for this Brazilian variety and defining visual strategies to address them. Methods included field interviews with cooperative members and retail shelf observation. The archangel symbolism emerged from cultural and geographic immersion in the Espirito Santo region. Post-launch commercial data served as a quantitative measure of outcome, with the Natural variant recording a 50 percent sales increase and the Fermented variant a 30 percent increase.
Challenge: The primary challenge was overcoming established market perception of conilon coffee as an inferior variety. Designing credible premium packaging for a product with a historically stigmatized reputation required a strategy that was both visually grounded and commercially viable. The identity needed to stand apart from arabica-focused premium brands on shared retail shelving while remaining true to the cooperative's agricultural heritage. A secondary constraint was translating symbolic complexity, the archangel iconography and wing geometry, into production-feasible structural and print techniques at a mid-run scale.
Realization and Technology: The packaging is produced in structured cardboard with soft-touch matte lamination applied to all exterior surfaces. The guardian wing motif is rendered through low-relief embossing without additional ink or foil, allowing the texture to communicate through light and touch alone. The opening panel follows a precision wing-shaped die-cut, which is a structural feature derived directly from the brand iconography. A hot-stamped gold foil seal is applied to the front face to mark individual producer recognition. All production processes are compatible with mid-run commercial printing.
Operation and Interaction: The package is opened by lifting two lateral wing-shaped flaps that replicate the archangel wing geometry of the visual identity. This opening gesture functions as a structured ritual: the wings unfold outward, framing the moment of first access to the product. Before the package is opened, the gold producer seal on the front face communicates origin and individual recognition. The embossed wing surface and the soft matte finish invite tactile engagement throughout handling. The overall interaction is designed to slow the act of opening and increase perceived value at the point of experience.
Project Duration and Location: The project was developed in Vitoria, Espirito Santo, Brazil. The designed packaging was launched commercially in March 2025.
Specifications: Package dimensions: 110 mm x 220 mm. Structured cardboard substrate. Exterior finish: soft-touch matte lamination. Surface treatment: low-relief embossing on wing motif panel. Opening mechanism: precision wing-shaped die-cut flap. Front accent: gold hot-stamp producer seal. Contents: roasted and ground conilon coffee. Two product variants presented in the same structural format: Natural and Fermented.
Keywords: Coffee Packaging, Conilon Coffee, Specialty Coffee, Embossed Packaging, Brazilian Coffee, Archangel, Cooperative, Premium Packaging, Sensory Design, Producer Recognition