AWARDS
Key words
- Packaging, Sustainable Design, Refillable
Lyon and Lyon, a branding and packaging design studio based in Sheffield and Barry, won Gold and Silver at Pentawards 2025 in Amsterdam for their packaging work with SITCH, a UK sustainable haircare brand. The result follows a Dieline Best In Show win in 2024 for the same project, making SITCH one of the most recognised sustainable packaging designs produced by a UK agency in recent years.
It was a big night, trophies, cheers, and an unplanned dance-off that Mat somehow also won (scroll to end to see! ). The hangover was real, but mostly we’re proud.
Sitch had already won big at Dieline last year, and this double Pentawards result cements it as one of those rare projects that hits on every level: story, structure, sustainability, and shelf impact.
So instead of another trophy post, we wanted to share a few thoughts from the conversation we filmed out there about what actually went into it.
“The whole thing was totally bespoke.”
Mat: “For a start it was totally, totally bespoke. The whole thing was totally bespoke. So the full brand, packaging from the ground up. A whole new footprint. It meant that the whole brand was tailored, the whole experience was super tailored and super customised. We managed those touchpoints really closely. That’s part of it. The second thing is I think it looks great. It was bang on brief but it really stands out on the shelf.”
That’s been a through-line in our work this year, starting from zero rather than retrofitting old systems. It’s more effort, but it’s how you get brands that feel coherent and confident from the first moment someone picks them up.
The Challenge
SITCH is a refillable haircare brand built around the belief that sustainable packaging doesn’t have to compromise on aesthetics. Lyon & Lyon were brought in to develop the full brand identity and packaging system from the ground up, with no legacy constraints and a brief to create something genuinely new for the category.
Designing for a refill culture
Function met form in every decision. The packaging had to look premium but behave responsibly. That kind of detail is where a lot of unseen time goes, exploring what’s viable, testing, discarding, and starting again.
Mat: “The main thing in terms of the packaging was to make a vessel that would be beautiful enough to store and keep, with their refill system. It was a real sustainable project in the sense that it was achievable to do it that way. But working out which way that should go was probably the trickiest thing. Obviously material choices, we looked at wheat, straw, plastics, going through that journey of navigating through all the different materials was probably the biggest thing client side.”
The hidden work clients don’t always see
That invisible work, proportions, nesting, manufacturing logic, is what makes the final result feel effortless. It’s also why projects like this earn longevity long after launch.
Mat: “It took like over a year from concept to shelf. We could have just put something nice on the shelf, but there was a lot of thinking in the background about how the whole range was going to work. These packs all nest into each other, they’re exact proportions. So if X is one, some are 2X and some are 0.5X. They all have to sit inside each other, so any change on one pack changes all the others. There was a lot of detail, a lot of design thinking behind all that.”
On trends and timelessness
Mat: “We just don’t look at trends. Obviously we’re on socials so you get stuff by osmosis, but we’re certainly not actively hunting out trends or saying ‘this is what’s trending right now, let’s do this,’ because ultimately a trend will come and go. It’s about designing in a way that’s right for the brief and finding its own unique home, not a trend.”
Quote
That philosophy runs deep at Lyon & Lyon. True originality comes from restraint and listening to what the brand needs, not what the algorithm wants.
Process and play
The best projects usually have that combination, serious thinking and people you actually want to work with. It’s hard to fake chemistry, and this one had it in spades.
Mat: “The brand process was really fun. The brand itself is quite fun, there’s a lot of light in it. It got real and hard when we were actually making these things production ready. That was super tricky. We had packaging engineers working with us to get it right. But Gloria and Anthony, the clients, were just great fun. Lovely people, we got on really well.”
The Outcome
Pentawards is the leading global award for packaging design. Gold and Silver in the same category, for the same project, is rare. The SITCH work was recognised for its combination of sustainability credentials, shelf presence, and the rigour of its structural design.
SITCH is the clearest example of what Lyon and Lyon means by working with brands the world actually needs. A product built around reducing single-use plastic, packaged to be kept and refilled, designed to be beautiful enough that people want to.
“Worth the effort.”
We wrapped the chat by asking Mat to sum up Sitch in three words. His answer:
“Worth the effort.”
And that pretty much says it all.
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We work with brands the world actually needs.
We don't invent stories.
We find the ones that were always there.
The product and the planet.
One story.
Brands the world actually needs.
We work with brands the world actually needs.
We don't invent stories.
We find the ones that were always there.
The product and the planet.
One story.
Brands the world actually needs.
We work with brands the world actually needs.
We don't invent stories.
We find the ones that were always there.
The product and the planet.
One story.
Brands the world actually needs.
