POPAI is celebrating a Hungarian victory again

This year Shop! announced the winners of 18 categories at the Global Awards Ceremony, including the second-time Student Design Awards category, which was again won by a Hungarian student. The Zewa Windmill project and its designer Boldizsár Rajkai a third-year, full-time product design student at BME, can be celebrated by POPAI Hungary and the Hungarian POP profession.

Staccato for WindMill, display

While camping in the woods, Boldizsár Rajkai received the sensational news that he had become this year’s world champion in the Student Design category.

“I’m shocked, I can’t believe it. For me, it has now been proven that it was worth investing in that much work” he says.

He started with a questionnaire to get more insights about people’s thoughts on displays and their connection to the product. The results were disappointing. Most of the people couldn’t remember the display and they choose their product from the ordinary shelves. Boldizsár wanted to make a change on people’s attitude about these stands, so he used his conclusions from the questionnaire during the work on the display. To draw people’s attention he designed a rotating part which he placed on top of the display. When somebody gets close to it it starts moving. It is known that if something is moving, changing in the line of sight it can always draw attention, thus the discursive moving unit can attract people’s attention and the customer gets to the display.

The main customers of household paper towels are women. That is why the display’s shape impresses them, with rounded, ergonomic lines and fine shape construction. The front edge of the structure is not perpendicular to the ground, so this gives an unusual appearance to it. The shelves are slightly sticking out highlighting the products on them. The external figure is as much important as the shape. Boldizsár decided to have two well understandable messages as figures which help the customer meet the fields of application of the product.

To draw people’s attention he designed a staccato (rotate-stop-rotate-stop) rotating part which was  placed on top of the display. When somebody gets close to it the movement sensor starts it moving. There are six vanes on a horizontal axis. On each vane there is one of the six differently packed Zewa Quick Pack paper towel samples, so she/he can check each of the products. He wrote some messages on each vain over the sample products about the applications of each to help the customer decide which one to choose. This display is not an ordinary static display, but with it’s moving parts it can also be really attention calling. It shows the advantages and functions of the products simply but clearly so it could be a useful advertisement in the future.

Answering questions, he said that he chose BME’s industrial product and design engineering major because he wanted to create things that make people’s lives and work easier.

“Fantastic experience and opportunity as a student to get into a real market situation, based on a customer brief, to come up with ideas and a plan. It is a special pleasure that my first plan of this type received international recognition right away” emphasizes Boldizsár Rajkai.

The Hungarian award ceremony will take place in September in a ceremony organized by POPAI Hungary.

Virtual Award Ceremony

The hosts of the show were Tom Sullivan from Cicago and Melissa Gonzalez from New York presented on a huge screen. Nearly 800 virtual participants in the Shop! was greeted by Todd Dittman, president of the organization, from the studio in Chicago, where a two-person band provided the music leading up to the winners.

For the first time, the Global Awards champions were presented on video, where the Hungarian fieldwork was also included. This was followed by bronze, silver and gold medals from the local POP tournament, OMA. The winners of the OMA Display of the Year, Budget and Creative Awards, have been announced. The Shop Equipment of the Year and Shop of the Year award winners were also presented.

For the first time, the Global Awards champions were presented on video, where the Hungarian entry was also included. This was followed by bronze, silver and gold medals from the local POP tournament, OMA. The winners of the OMA Display of the Year, Budget and Creative Awards, have been announced. The Fixture of the Year and Shop of the Year award winners were also presented.

The program was enriched by live sign-ups from renowned artists. From Amsterdam, Janieck sang two songs, but Voice 2019 winner Jake Hoot and superstar Josh Mirenda as well as siblings Theo and Brenna’s own composition were also performed.