National Print Awards’ crowning achievements

Melbourne’s Crown Palladium Ballroom played host to this year’s National Print Awards, with the event playing up to the music theme inspired by the award night’s host, Julia Zemiro, from SBS television’s popular RocKwiz music game show.

Guests at the event, held on April 20, were not only entertained by Zemiro’s offbeat sense of humour, but were also treated to some laughs courtesy of late addition, Tommy Little, who raced through a selection of his own greatest hits from this year’s Melbourne Comedy Festival.

The 29^th NPA night got into the groove with its music-tinged ‘Greatest Hits’ theme, awarding 24 of the nation’s print companies with 28 of the event’s gold awards for the year’s greatest printing hits.

Of those 24 print companies that took home gold, the super stars in the group were GEON Group Perth, Offset Alpine Printing NSW, Adams Print VIC, Platypus Graphics QLD and Percival Print & Packaging WA , who each took home two gold awards apiece.

The event also saw three sponsor awards given out to three very special printers, with the first sponsor award of the night presented by Simon Lane from Fuji Xerox Australia. Lane presented the inaugural Fuji Xerox Australia Award for the Most Effective Use of Printing Technologies to Geoff Hunt from Momento Pro NSW for ‘Head On 2011’. Momento Pro also did all the prepress, embellishment and finishing.

The night’s second sponsor award, the Currie Group Graphics Award was presented by Phillip Renell from Currie Group to Michael Duarte from Imatec Digital, WA, for ‘Photography & Design Book’.

Renell said the book was an ideal winner for the Award, which is presented for the most innovative use of imaging in printing. Designed by Denise Teo, it was printed by Imatec on Curious Metallic Ice Silver from K.W. Doggett Fine Paper and was finished by Classic Bookbinders and Art.com.

Heidelberg’s Alastair Hadley presented the night’s final sponsor Award, the Heidelberg Award for Excellence in Craft, to Glen Morrissey from GEON Group Perth for the Rio Tinto Diamonds Calendar. Designed by Marco Dabala, this beautiful calendar was printed on Silk Matt from BJ Ball Group. The embellishment was done by Intafoil before the job was finished by GEON Group Perth in co-operation with Fast Finishing Services.

The awards’ chairman, John Wanless, said that despite some hard times for the Australian printing industry, there is still a commitment to quality and innovative work by those in the game.

“There’s no doubt it’s been a tough couple of years in the print and graphic communications industry,” says Wanless, “but it’s wonderful to see that, whatever they throw at us, Australian print professionals still take the time and effort to ensure that our work is on a par with print produced anywhere in the world.”

The night’s winners were:

CATEGORY	GOLD WINNERS	GOLD WINNING JOB
Booklets, catalogues and magazines bound by any method but saddle-stitching.	Adams Print VIC	Eugene von Guerard – Nature Revealed Catalolgue
Book printing, limp bound.	Adams Print VIC	Gustave Moreau & the Eternal Feminine
Packaging – Any substrate other than cardboard	Amcor Closure Systems SA	Lemon Z
Embellishment	Avon Graphics VIC	National Rural Independants Ltd Invitation Set
Multi-piece productions and campaigns	Bambra Press VIC	Prime Minister’s Olympic Dinner Invite
Labels, roll fed	CCL Labels SA	Wolf Blass Platinum label
One, two or three colour printing , any format	Courtney Colour Graphics VIC	Journeys of Melbourne’s Coffee Pioneers
Web offset printing, cold set	Davies Brothers TAS	Mercury
Self promotion	Evolve Printing NSW	Evolve Volume 1
Book printing, case bound.	Finsbury Green SA	University Book
Calendars – any format.	GEON Group Perth	Rio Tinto Diamonds Calendar
Stationery – any format	GEON Group Perth	SAXON KLEIN Stationery
Digital printing, non inkjet	Imatec Digital WA	Photography & Design Book
Impact, Sensory or Direct Mail	Immij NSW	Android Man Self-mailer
Limited editions or Art reproductions	LPI NSW Graphic Services	Maps that Shaped Australia
Digital printing inkjet	Momento Pro NSW	Head On 2011
Web offset printing heat set.	Offset Alpine Printing NSW	RM Williams Spring/Summer Catalogue 2012
Web offset publications with a cover price	Offset Alpine Printing NSW	Selector Spring 2011
Postcards and greeting cards – sets will be judged on the average standard of the items	Percival Print & Packaging WA	Australian Eucalypt Collection
Packaging – Cardboard substrate	Percival Print & Packaging WA	Sharday Wild
Book printing, digitally printed.	Picpress VIC	Cuba – 2 Volumes – Greg Hotson
Presentation folders.	Platypus Graphics QLD	Digit Landscapes
Annual reports – any format.	Platypus Graphics QLD	Brisbane Girls Grammar School Annual Report
Innovation	Price Screen & Digital SA	Eco Brand Creative Display
Small printing business awards less than 15 staff	Print Impressions VIC	HIA Professional Award Submissions 2011
Security or Speciality printing.	R A Printing VIC	Military Aviation Mini-Sheet
Flexographic printing	Studio Labels SA	The Other Woman
Digital printing wide format	Visualcom SA	Art Gallery – Saatchi

 

CATEGORY	SILVER
Calendars – any format.	Adams Print VIC
Self promotion	Body of Work NSW
Embellishment	CCL Labels SA
Web offset printing, cold set	Colourpress WA
Stationery – any format	Copycat Printing SA
Innovation	Digitalpress NSW
Leaflets – 4 or more colours on a single sheet.	Eatern Press VIC
Annual reports – any format.	Finsbury Green SA
Book printing, case bound.	GEON Group Perth
Multi-piece productions and campaigns	GEON Group QLD
Presentation folders.	GEON Group Sydney
Digital printing wide format	GEON Group Sydney
Security or Speciality printing.	GEON Group TAS
One, two or three colour printing , any format	Impact International NSW
Commercial posters, showcards, card constructions and mobiles	Intoprint NSW / Platypus Graphics QLD
Small printing business awards less than 15 staff	Kuhn Corp Press QLD
Impact, Sensory or Direct Mail	Kwik Kopy Norwood SA
Labels, roll fed	Labelhouse VIC
Limited editions or Art reproductions	No Silver
Digital printing inkjet	Picpress VIC
Booklets, catalogues and magazines bound by any method but saddle-stitching.	Platypus Graphics QLD
Web offset printing heat set.	PMP Limited QLD
Web offset publications with a cover price	PMP Print VIC
Postcards and greeting cards – sets will be judged on the average standard of the items	Print Applied Tech TAS
Book printing, digitally printed.	Q Print Online WA
Booklets, catalogues and magazines saddle-stitched.	Scott Print WA
Book printing, limp bound.	Special T Print NSW / Platypus Graphics QLD
Packaging – Cardboard substrate	STI Lilyfield NSW / Platypus Graphics QLD

 

CATEGORY	BRONZE WINNERS
Booklets, catalogues and magazines saddle-stitched.	Arte Grafica Printing SA / Offset Alpine Printing NSW
Book printing, case bound.	Blue Star Print VIC
Web offset printing heat set.	Cadillac Printing SA
Security or Speciality printing.	Colour Crew QLD
Flexographic printing	Detmold Consumer Goods Packaging VIC
Postcards and greeting cards – sets will be judged on the average standard of the items	Digi-We-Dee SA
Limited editions or Art reproductions	Eastern Press VIC
Labels, roll fed	Ever-Redi Press NSW
Digital printing wide format	Expo Group WA
One, two or three colour printing , any format	Finsbury Green SA
Leaflets – 4 or more colours on a single sheet.	Finsbury Green SA
Annual reports – any format.	Flying Colours Printing TAS
Presentation folders.	GEON Group VIC
Impact, Sensory or Direct Mail	GEON Group VIC
Calendars – any format.	Green and Gold Printing NSW / Platypus Graphics QLD
Stationery – any format	Heaneys Performers in Print QLD
Innovation	Heaneys Performers in Print QLD
Book printing, limp bound.	Hyde Park Press SA
Digital printing inkjet	Label Print Systems QLD
Commercial posters, showcards, card constructions and mobiles	Newstyle Printing SA
Multi-piece productions and campaigns	Print Applied Technology TAS
Embellishment	Print Applied Technology TAS
Small printing business awards less than 15 staff	Printskill SA
Book printing, digitally printed.	Satellite Digital NSW
Booklets, catalogues and magazines bound by any method but saddle-stitching.	STI Lilyfield NSW
Self promotion	Tafeda NSW
Digital printing, non inkjet	Walker Designs TAS / Graphics Print Group SA