At its 2015 Art of Packaging Award Gala, a glamorous event that celebrates excellence in packaging design, Pratt Institute honored James Gager, senior vice president and group creative director at M·A·C Cosmetics and Jo Malone Worldwide, and included a major announcement by Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees Mike Pratt that the Institute has created a new full tuition scholarship in Marc Rosen’s name. Proceeds from the event, which was attended by more than 350 special guests, benefit the Marc Rosen Scholarship Fund for Packaging by Design at Pratt. Emceed by supermodel Carol Alt, the gala marked 26 years of the Fund, which has helped raise more than $3.5 million for scholarships for graduate packaging design students at Pratt.
The new Marc Rosen Scholarship for Packaging by Design that was announced at the event will provide full tuition on the basis of merit to a first-year student in the Graduate Communications Design program beginning in 2016-17. The scholarship may be renewed for a second year, making it Pratt’s only scholarship with the potential to cover the entire cost of tuition.
At the event, Gager, who was introduced by John Demsey, group president of The Estée Lauder Companies, accepted the Art of Packaging Award. As Creative Director and Senior Vice President for M·A·C Cosmetics since 1999, Gager has been instrumental in growing M·A·C into one of the top makeup artist brands in the world. Gager received a bachelor’s degree in industrial design and a master’s of science degree in packaging design from Pratt Institute.
“This is not just a celebration of me,” said Gager. “It is a celebration of everyone who has worked on the brands that I’ve worked on,” he added. He encouraged the Pratt students who were in attendance to pursue their work with confidence, to take risks, and to fail in order to learn and find future successes.
Rosen teaches a course on cosmetic and fragrance package design, in which students are challenged to create a perfume bottle prototype, a scent card, box, shopping bag, and advertisement. To date, the Fund has provided scholarships to more than 100 Pratt students, many of whom have become industry leaders. This year’s student scholarship winners, whose fragrance packaging design work was on display at the event, are: Olivia Hwayoung Kim (M.I.D. ’15); Liyang Xu (M.S. Package Design ’15); Saana Hellsten (M.S. Package Design ’15); In-Young Bae (M.S. Package Design ’15); Hsiao-Han Chen (M.S. Package Design ’15); and Marc Valega (M.S. Package Design ’16).
Image: Marc Rosen, Pratt Institute President Thomas F. Schutte, Honoree James Gager, Pratt Institute Board of Trustees Chair Bruce Gitlin (photo: Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan Company)