THE WHITE BOX CHALLENGE
What if the box is the message?
As a platform for knowledge sharing, dialogue, and cross-industry exchange, epda continues to strengthen the connection between education and professional practice.
THE WHITE BOX CHALLENGE by epda encourages students to explore packaging not as something that simply contains, but as something people live with — transforming it into a narrative, symbolic, and emotional medium.
A Three-Phase Creative Journey
The creative process behind the challenge is structured around three phases:
Explore — defining meaning and intention
Experiment — allowing intuition and creative freedom
Express — transforming the box into artistic and strategic expression
The epda process can be summarized as:
THINK – DON’T THINK – RETHINK
The goal is to explore the boundaries between creativity, strategy, art, and technology — encouraging students to reimagine packaging as a powerful storytelling device.
A Curated Educational Collaboration
THE WHITE BOX CHALLENGE is not an open competition but a curated collaboration with selected European design schools. The participating schools will be introduced here in the next few weeks.
Presentation & Outlook
The results of the 2026 edition will be presented within the framework of the epda Fall Conference 2026 in Athens. The epda Festival will take place on the day prior to the conference, on 12 November 2026.
THE WHITE BOX CHALLENGE represents another step in epda’s commitment to shaping the future of packaging design — empowering the next generation of creative thinkers to redefine what packaging can mean, feel, and communicate.
Stay curious - more information will be revealed on this website very soon!
