Tasmania’s version of the PICA’s, the Diemen Awards, saw Flying Colours and Mercury Walch in a tie for most awards won, with nine gongs each.
Flying Colours managing director and awards chairman Craig Pearce says the Diemen Awards have become an important event on the Tasmanian print industry calendar.
“The PICA Awards have been run in Tasmania for many years, however we rebranded as the Diemen Awards three years ago to make the awards exclusively Tasmanian, named after Van Diemen Island,” he explains.
“The evening was a great success and it is quite clear from the attendees that our awards in Tasmania show great promise for the future.”
This year saw a record amount of 382 entries across four mediums: print, design, digital and the new category for 2016 TV/film.
Mercury Walch general manager Gary Nilsson told Australian Printer, “We ended up being the most successful printer on the night, so we are pretty happy with that and the wins across a wide variety of categories. We have a diverse range of products and that is part of the success of our business.”
Another big winner was Focal Printing which took out the night’s top honour, the Grand Diemen Award and also another four golds.
The Grand Diemen trophy, made of hand-crafted Tasmanian timber, is awarded every year to the overall best entry in print.
Focal received the award for the At the Workshop newsletter which it produces quarterly for Australian Tapestry, printed using a Ryboi 740 press.
Focal general manager, Jacinta Jacobson says, “The newsletter itself is vibrant in colour and involves a lot of crossover in production. The photographs within the newsletter are important because the tapestries are larger than life, huge artworks which need to be colour accurate.
“We are pleased with the outcome of the night,” she continues. “We have won the Grand Diemen Award five years consecutively and six out of the past seven years. It is rewarding for the investment we have put into the machinery here.”
See below for complete winner’s list:
Rising Star – Flying Colours
One, two or three colour item – Mercury Walch
Business Cards – Mercury Walch
Letterheads – Flying Colours
Envelopes – Flying Colours
Stationary Sets – Mercury Walch
Invitations – Flying Colours
Brochures – Flying Colours/ Focal
Postcards – Focal
Presentation Folders – Focal
Newsletters – Mercury Walch
Booklets, Catalogues, Magazines – Focal
Book Printing – Mercury Walch
Annual Reports – Mercury Walch
Calendars – Mercury Walch
Packaging – Mercury Walch
Labels (offset printed) – Flying Colours
Labels (other than offset) – Abel Labels
Digital Printing (inkjet or non inkjet) – Mercury Walch
Digital Printing – Flying Colours
Commercial Items – Flying Colours
Multi-Piece Productions and Campaigns – Focal
Embellishment – Abel Labels
Self Promotion – Flying Colours
Wild Card – Mercury Walch
Small Printing Business Award – Focal
Grand Diemen – Focal
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