Other big winners were Offset Alpine with three and Geon with a brace. Others scoring a Gold award included Focal Printing, RA Printing, Adams Print, D&D Colour Printing, Pilpel Print, Picpress, Finsbury Green, FiveStarPrint, Impresstik, STS Creative Printing, Cadillac Printing, Bambra Press and Digitalpress.
Avon Graphics once again took out honours in the embellishment category, while The Laminating Company won the Self-Promotion category and Peachy Print Australia was named Australia’s top print business with less than 10 employees for the third year in a row. Despite its recent woes Pettaras Press was at the event, but narrowly missed out on Gold.
Five categories of print did not receive a Gold, including interestingly digital print. Platypus won Gold in the One, two and three colour printing category, in Commercial postcards, showcards and mobiles, in the Non-saddlestitched booklets and in the Book printing categories.
Also announced at the Dinner were winners of the industry’s three most sought after gongs, the three NPA Sponsor Awards. The Currie Group Graphics Award, presented for the most innovative use of imaging in printing as judged by representatives from Currie Group, was presented to Picpress, Victoria, for Antarctica Book. This entry also took out the gold medal in the Limited Editions category.
The Heidelberg Award for excellence in craft, judged from all gold medal winners by a panel appointed by Heidelberg, was won by Adams Print, for the 2009 Mark Wilson Calendar.
The PaperlinX Award for outstanding excellence in printing, as nominated by the judges, was given to the night’s big winner Platypus Graphics, for Kids of Sydney V which also won the One, Two and Three Colour Printing category earlier in the night.
PIAA president Jim Atkinson said that while the past year had been print’s annus horribilus the future was certain to be brighter. Andy Vels Jensen, who described himself as CEO of the not-for-profit organisation Heidelberg called on his fellow suppliers to be prudent in their financing decisions.
Print’s night of nights was a celebration of print and an important opportunity for those who work in the industry to catch up with colleagues, competitors and friends from around Australia. TV star hosts Gorgi Coghlan and Larry Emdur kept guests entertained with their good natured banter, and set a cracking pace in announcing the winners in the 30 Award categories – a brisk and professional approach which paid dividends in audience behaviour.
Perhaps the most impressive part of the night, however, was the magic show by Australian Magic Champion Matt Hollywood, which had the audience gasping in amazement one minute, and collapsing with laughter the next.
“Congratulations should be extended to everyone involved in this year’s Awards,” said NPA chairman John Wanless on the night, “and especially those of you who have been judged ‘the fairest of them all’ for your achievements.”
Wanless also paid tribute to his 27th National Print Awards committee, including Lynne Trensky, Luisa Rampone and the team at Printing Industries, and also mentioned the critical importance of the ongoing support provided by the event’s sponsors and patrons.
“In particular, I would like to thank all those of you who took the time and effort to submit your work to your local State printing awards,” he added, continuing, “The aim of the National Print Awards has always been not only to recognise the achievement of excellence in print in Australia, but also to encourage the industry as a whole to continually raise the benchmark.
“The quality demonstrated in the entries received in those competitions, and the difficulty reported by judges in every State as well as by our National judging panel, proves once again that those standards are continually being lifted and that the quality achieved by Australian printers is the equal of that achieved anywhere in the world.”
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