Platypus Graphics continued its dominance of the Queensland PICAs, winning four golds and both judges’ awards on the night.
However, the perennial powerhouse had stiff competition this year with small Toowoomba outfit Greenridge Press winning five golds, including two for best regional small business.
The Platypus tally was a third of last year’s massive haul of nine golds, though the number of categories was cut from 32 to 23 and an effort made to reduce the number of categories with multiple gold winners.
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Organisers say the number of entries was up 40 per cent on last year and double the number of printers submitted work for consideration.
Platypus cashed in big on two outstanding jobs – packaging and collateral for Tasmanian whisky maker Nant Distillery, which won golds for the packaging, and leaflets, flyers, brochures, stationery on a single sheet with four or more colours categories; and offset booklets, catalogues, brochures and magazines for advertising material for the Adresse Point Cook real estate development.
The Nant Distillery entry also won Platypus the Judges Commendation award, in effect the second place overall, and the Adresse Point Cook job was given the highest honour of the Judges Choice award.
Platypus director Tom Lusch credits the company’s quality-conscious clients for commissioning award-level work.
“We have a core of clients that want high quality work. About 25 per cent of our business is designers, which we attract from consistent results like these – awards certainly help,” he says.
“Our staff have great attitudes and attention to detail to make our work the best.
“We also have more equipment that is better than a lot of other printers so we can tackle jobs like these others wouldn’t touch.”
Lusch says in-house embellishment capability is another advantage, allowing them more control over the process to ensure quality.
He says the competitior was a lot stiffer this year because there were more entrants than usual.
“It’s great that it was so much closer this year, the organisers did a great job. I’d rather have a close competition,” he says.
“We are hanging on to number one spot but only just.”
[Related: Complete list of winners]
Greenridge won gold in the embellishment and offset books for the Gab Titui Indigenous Art Awards 2014 book; and digital books, booklets, catalogues, brochures and magazines for a photobook for Covershot Photographers. Both jobs won gold for the regional small business category.
Greenridge general manager Kyal Osborne says the number of awards the small Toowoomba business won took them by surprise, having only won one gold last year.
“Having such a great team committed to quality work makes it a lot easier to produce at an award-winning level. It takes a dedicated team with no weak links to keep the quality consistent,” he says.
Osborne also credited investment in new kit, such as the HP Indigo 3550 and Ryobi 755 that were used to print the winning jobs.
“A big focus of our company is to invest in the best technology, both equipment and software, and it is great the see those investments paying off in our best result ever,” he says.
Greenridge print machining apprentice Paul Talbot also won the QLD LIA Apprentice of the Year award.
Double golds went to Cornerstone Press and Heaneys Performers in Print. Avon Graphics also got in on the winning, doing finishing work for four gold winners.
Some 300 guests attended the awards at Brisbane’s Victoria Park Golf Club, with the winners taking the accolades of their peers and industry figures over a sumptuous meal. Entertainment was provided by former Australian test cricketer Greg Ritchie.
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