Horse Year Scent Sticks Packaging by Bingran Zhao Is Granted the Bronze A' Design Award in Packaging Design

Bingran Zhao acknowledged 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/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Horse Year Scent Sticks Packaging by Bingran Zhao, designed for BeiHang University, has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Packaging Design category. The recognition forms part of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached 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.

What the Bronze A' Design Award Means

The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.

Regarding Horse Year Scent Sticks Packaging

Horse Year is a packaging series for incense sticks. The design centers on the seal script Chinese character for horse, combined with the linear language of Daoist talismans and smoke patterns. Five variants follow a color cycle based on the Five Elements of metal, water, wood, fire and earth. The five boxes can be placed side by side to form an image of a galloping horse. An inner tray is pulled out to reveal the incense and a blessing message. Uncoated paperboard, soy based inks and a molded pulp tray support recycling.

About Bingran Zhao

It is affiliated with the School of Design, Beihang University. Relying on professional academic resources, it has long provided cultural and creative brand design services for the aerospace industry and related cultural and creative enterprises in Beijing. Its business covers Beijing, the whole country and the world, and it has established in-depth cooperation with well-known enterprises such as Alibaba, WeChat and JD.com. The institution has won many international top design awards including IF Design Awards and Red Dot Awards.

Award Record

Bingran Zhao is a winner of 1 A' Design Award, including this recognition.

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://designers.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://designers.org/179810
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/179810
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!179810
Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/378454

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: Horse Year Scent Sticks Packaging
Function: Scent Sticks Packaging
Category: Packaging Design
Discipline: Communication Design
Industry: Packaging & Retail, Branding & Advertising and Manufacturing
Colors: Light Gray, Silver, Indian Red, Peru and Lime Green
Images: 5
Client: BeiHang University

The Recognition

Laureate: Bingran Zhao
Country: China
Recognition: Bronze A' Design Award
Edition: 2025 - 2026
Design ID: #179810

Credits

Image Credits: Image #1：Bingran Zhao Image #2：Jiuxiao Cui Image #3：Zhou

Design Details

Unique Properties: This packaging series transforms the seal script Chinese character for Horse and the linear language of Daoist talismans into a contemporary visual system tailored for incense products. Through a color cycle derived from the generative logic of the Five Elements and the subtle integration of flowing 2026 curves the five variants are unified into a coherent narrative regarding time and blessing. The design merges ritual sensibility emotional experience and everyday usability enabling users to intuitively select incense according to their emotional state rather than engaging with the packaging merely as a decorative container.
Inspiration: Inspired by Chinese incense culture this project celebrates the 2026 Year of the Horse through the Five Elements. The design condenses Eastern philosophy into packaging by blending the seal script horse character with Daoist talismans and smoke patterns. Hidden curves subtly form the number 2026. The color system follows the generative cycle of Metal Water Wood Fire and Earth. This chromatic logic connects five variants inviting users to select a fragrance and an auspicious intention for the day.
Research: This qualitative design study seeks to reintegrate traditional incense and Daoist culture into the daily lives of younger audiences. The research methodology synthesized literature reviews on Five Elements symbolism with competitive market analysis. Interviews and user testing with participants aged 20 to 35 investigated specific habits and aesthetic preferences. Findings revealed that minimalist narrative driven and emotionally expressive designs are preferred for gifting purposes. These insights directly informed decisions regarding the final form color system and copywriting strategy.
Challenge: The primary challenge lies in translating specific cultural elements like seal script the Five Elements and Daoist motifs into a contemporary global packaging language avoiding stereotypical Oriental imagery. Research balanced historical literature with youth aesthetic preferences selecting motifs that convey cultural depth without religious misinterpretation. Execution complexity arose from controlling fine lines on uncoated paper using soy based inks. Multiple proof iterations ensured both environmental sustainability and visual precision.
Realization and Technology: The packaging employs uncoated paperboard soy based inks and restrained hot stamping to emphasize the seal script visual while ensuring recyclability. Constructed through die cutting and folding the design utilizes a molded pulp inner tray instead of plastic. The graphic system is developed by vectorizing strokes from seal script and Daoist talismanic lines refined through rigorous prototyping and color calibration.
Operation and Interaction: Users may first align the five individual boxes side by side to assemble a complete image of a galloping horse, and then select the incense corresponding to a particular color and Five Elements attribute according to their current mood or usage scenario. The packaging is opened by pulling out an inner tray, through which the incense and its associated blessing message are revealed simultaneously. This deliberately slowed opening action creates a brief "pre-ritual" moment before the act of lighting the incense. After use, the outer boxes can be retained as modular desktop storage units or framed as decorative panels, allowing the packaging to continue functioning beyond a single-use context.
Project Duration and Location: The project started in May 2025 in Beijing China and finished in November 2025.
Specifications: Width 160 mm × Depth 40 mm × Height 70 mm
Keywords: Incense packaging, Year of the Horse, Chinese zodiac, Five Elements, Daoist talisman