The National Print Awards celebrated 25 years this year, and judging by the celebratory mood of the nearly 1,000-strong crowd that filled the Palladium ballroom of the Crown Casino in Melbourne, it certainly won’t be the last.
Awards chairman Scott Telfer used the silver jubilee of the National Print Awards to tell the cream of Australian printers that the next National Print Awards will probably have a quite different look and system of adjudication – rumours are that perhaps from next year the national awards will be judged from winners of the state PICA finalists. Final details will be revealed in the next few months.
Telfer also paid tribute to his predecessors in the role of chairman, especially Sid Thomson and Alf Carrigan, awards stalwarts such as Graham Luke, who could not attend on the evening due to illness, and the vital role that sponsors of the awards play in ensuring that the standard of the award winners, the judging, and the evening celebration, are a credit to the industry.
He singled out and thanked the major sponsors – Heidelberg Australia, Agfa Graphics and Australian Paper – for their significant ongoing commitment to the awards.
String trio String Angels started the evening with some glamour and jazzed-up light classical favourites, before presenters Jo Stanly, a Melbourne radio personality, and Peter Rowsthorne, comedian and TV presenter, took to the microphones for a sometimes very funny presentation of awards to gold medal winners.
And the winners represented ongoing developments in the industry, with many of the awards, gold, silver and bronze, going to the new titans of the local industry, such as GEON, which scored a gold award, along with more familiar large companies like PMP, winner of two gold medals, Offset Alpine and Hannanprint, in for their usual share of the awards.
“Smaller” print companies weren’t left out. On the contrary, D&D Global, Manark, Scott Print and Sydney Allen walked away with two gold medals each, while Webstar scored the biggest tally with three gold medals.
The PaperlinX Award for best apprentice was awarded to fourth year apprentice Arron Milner of Lilyfield Printing, who is studying at the Sydney Institute TAFE at Ultimo. He was warmly received by the boisterous crowd during his speech.
The Agfa Graphics Award for the Most Innovative Use of Imaging in Printing was presented by the company’s new CEO, Frederik Dehing, to Sydney Allen for its striking Body of Work catalogue, which also won gold in the booklets, catalogues and magazines bound by any method but saddle stitching category.
The Heidelberg Award for Excellence in Craft was this year presented to GEON Advance Press for its beautifully produced book, Kids of Perth. Heidelberg managing director Andy Vels Jensen this year robbed the audience of his usual very amusing, edgy “state of the nation” address, and instead presented a video called the “Passionate Printer”. And lo, it summed up the feeling of the room very well.
As usual the noise of the audience threatened to drown out the entire presentation ceremony but just managed to hold back from last year’s record in noise and poor manners. This should be a key consideration for change in the committee’s deliberations for the mooted changes in awards ceremony proceedings.
Nevertheless, it was a spirited and good-humoured gathering of print’s luminaries, and celebrations continued well into the morning at other venues.
And the winners of the 25th National Print Awards are …
Gold Award Winners
ABC Printing
Adams Print
Bambra Press
D&D Colour Printing x 3
Edition Renard
Finsbury Green Printing
GEON Advance Press
GEON Scanlon Printing
Hannanprint NSW
Impresstik
Manark Printing x 2
National Capital Printing
Offset Alpine Printing
Peachy Print Australia
Pettaras Press
Pilpel Print
PMP Print x 2
Scott Print x 2
SEP Sprint (Australia)
Sony DADC Australia
Southern Colour
Southern Cross Visual
STS Creative Printing
Studio Labels
Sydney Allen x 2
Webstar x 3
Silver Award Winners
Adams Print
Atlas Specialised Packaging
Bambra Press
Blue Star Print Australia
Cadillac Printing
Collotype Labels
Colorpak Limited
Courtney
Finsbury Green Printing x 3
Fivestarprint x 3
Geon Australia
Geon NSW
Gosford Printing
Hally Labels
Hannanprint NSW x 4
Hyde Park Press
IMATECH WA
Macdonald & Masterson Printing
Nexus Print Solutions
Offset Alpine Printing
Panorama Printing
Pilpel Print
PMP Print x 2
Print Works QLD
R A Printing
Rawson Graphics
Red Rover
Scott Print x 2
SEP Sprint (Australia) x 2
Spectra Litho
Studio Labels
Supreme Printers
Sydney Allen
The Digital Centre
Toth Bienk & Associates x 3
Visualcom
Webstar
Bronze Award Winners
Adams Print x 2
Australian Plastic Card Company
Bambra Press
Blue Star Print Australia
Craft Inprint Group
D&D Global Group
Digitalpress
Finewrap Oakleigh x 2
Finsbury Green Printing x 2
Fivestarprint
Glama Pak
Graphic Print Group
Hannanprint NSW x 2
Hyde Park Press x 2
IMATECH WA
Impresstik
Kosdown Printing
Labelmakers Group
Lamb Print x 2
Manark Printing
Mutual Printing
Offset Alpine Printing x 6
Pacmetal Services
Peachy Print Australia x 2
Pettaras Press
Pilpel Print x 2
Platypus Graphics
PMP Clayton
Print Works QLD
Printpoint Aust
R A Printing
Red Rover
Sands Print Group
Scott Print x 2
SEP Sprint (Australia) x 2
Solito Fine Colour Printers
Southern Colour
Southern Colour (Vic)
STS Creative Printing
Studio Labels
Sydney Allen
Toth Bienk & Associates
Visualcom
Webstar x 2
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