Custom Design
Designed with Purpose
Our design process is built on collaboration. Placon’s in-house engineers and designers work closely with your team to understand product requirements, brand goals, retail challenges, and timelines, ensuring every detail is intentional. Keeping design, tooling, sampling, and production under one roof allows for faster communication, quicker modifications, and a shorter path from concept to commercialization. This all comes to life in our design studios.
Designing Products
Our Design Studios
We know how important it is to touch prototypes, talk through options, and work with our engineers to create a custom package that feels like your brand and represents your product the best way possible. That’s why we’ve built Design Centers of Excellence at each of our facility locations. Our DCE rooms will help facilitate conversation, allow for direct communication with our team, and can get you a hands-on experience with some of our award-winning packaging products for inspiration and ideation.
At Placon, we believe in unlocking the engineer within each of us. The DCE rooms offer a place full of creativity, innovation, and problem-solving to help each member of your team unlock the engineer within – all while talking with our designers, tool fabricators, and sales team to get their expertise and support.
Our Design Centers of Excellence can be scheduled for use through our sales team. We’d be happy to offer a guided tour of our facilities during your visit.
Sustainability
Simply Sustainable
Circular thinking and sustainability are built into everything we do. We design custom packaging using recycled materials and closed-loop processes that support circularity and green initiatives without compromising performance.
Our packaging follows APR (Association of Plastic Recyclers) design guidelines, helping ensure what we create is truly recyclable and aligned with evolving industry standards. As Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws continue to reshape packaging requirements across states, this APR-guided approach helps minimize regulatory impacts for our customers.
Design Awards
Placon has a long history of being an industry-leader in custom packaging solutions. From advancements in medical trays, custom retail packaging that pops on the shelf, and unique, problem-solving food containers, here’s a look back at some of our past design awards.
2025
AmeriStar Award for Design Excellence
SimplKomb
The SimplKomb is a revolutionary food and retail packaging solution. The innovative honeycomb shape and design allows bees to produce honey directly in the container, reducing the need for new packaging for retail shelves, limiting labor costs, and mitigating valuable product loss from transfer. This product is unlike anything on the shelves, and is a prime example of our ingenuity and creativity when faced with a packaging problem.
2024
AmeriStar Award for Design Excellence
Farmer’s Fridge™ Sandwich and Wrap Container
This specialized sandwich and wrap container was specially designed for use in refrigerated vending machines. The new design helped reduce jams by over 50%, helping to improve customer satisfaction and experience. The packaging is also made with 100% post-consumer recycled PET, helping Farmer’s Fridge™ reach their sustainability goals.
WorldStar Award for Packaging Materials and Components
Crystal Seal® Cravings Round Deli
Our Crystal Seal® Cravings Round Deli line was a WorldStar winner in 2024 for using our EcoStar® post-consumer recycled PET rather than the typical polypropylene for deli containers, giving retailers and consumers a more recyclable and eco-friendly choice. The cups have a tamper-evident closure and strong seal for safety and reliability.
2023
AmeriStar Award for Refrigerated Food
Crystal Seal® Cravings Round Deli
Our Crystal Seal® Cravings Round Deli line won again for the 2023 AmeriStar awards. The innovation in a tamper-evident rPET deli container, combined with easy stacking, reusability, and enhanced closure mechanism, make this product line a top choice for retailers looking for an eco-friendly grab-and-go option.
2022
AmeriStar Award for Industrial/Commercial
Master Builders Solutions Tray Pals
Placon won the 2022 AmeriStar in the industrial and commercial category for the Master Builders Solutions Tray Pals, a unique plastic thermoformed tray that holds pouches of activators for construction adhesives. This tray rests on the rim of large steel pails and acts as a barrier between product and activator with incredibly tight margins. This reduces residue and improves customer experience.
2021
WorldStar Award for Medical and Pharmaceutical Packaging
Custom Medical Packaging
2020
WorldStar Award for Medical and Pharmaceutical Packaging
ORTHOFIX® Medical Tray
This tray was specially designed to hold two medical operation screws that have an HA coating. It suspends the screws to prevent any rubbing or abrasions of the coating, reducing the amount of damaged or defective parts prior to operating room use. These trays are sterile and easy to open while still containing the pair of screws tightly and securely.
AmeriStar Award for Medical Device
Arthrex Custom Medical Package
This custom-designed medical package is an improvement to standard sterile medical tubes. This package reduces plastic use by 50% and has a smaller footprint compared to others on the market. The length of package can be customized to suit product needs.
2019
AmeriStar Award for Household Products
PACLOCK Bi-Fold Custom Retail Package
This bi-fold clamshell retail package is uniquely designed so consumers can touch and feel the padlock prior to purchase. The large graphic card highlights product features, and the novel closure helps keep the product secure on the shelf. This custom retail package can be merchandised on shelves or as a hanging item.
AmeriStar Award for Medical Device
ORTHOFIX® Medical Tray
Winning in both the AmeriStar and WorldStar medical packaging, the ORTHOFIX® medical tray is a clear success for medical innovation. The custom thermoformed tray keeps the pair of HA-coated screws from chipping, scraping, or becoming damaged. The packaging is made from PET material, which can be recycled, helping hospitals meet their sustainability goals.
AmeriStar Award for Foodservice
HomeFresh® Entrée
The line of HomeFresh® Entrées by Placon are the solution to pre-packaged meals. These containers are leak resistant, modular and easy to denest, and offer vented and unvented lids for easy reheating and food freshness. These containers help reduce food waste and optimize appeal for customers.
2015
AmeriStar Award for Health and Beauty Aids
P&G Gillette ProGlide with Flex Ball Technology
This package was made out of recyclable clear PET with easy-open instructions. Designed to highlight product features, the custom thermoformed package is heat-sealed to the graphic card base for a secure, colorful, and appealing retail package.
2013
AmeriStar Award for Health and Beauty Aids
P&G Gillette ProGlide with Flex Ball Technology
This package was made out of recyclable clear PET with easy-open instructions. Designed to highlight product features, the custom thermoformed package is heat-sealed to the graphic card base for a secure, colorful, and appealing retail package.
Contact us
Custom Designed Packaging
800.541.1535
info@placon.com