Masters of Their Craft

Examples of the year’s finest print work were honored with PrintImage Excellence Awards at the 2011 Owners Conference in Chicago. While the experts talk about automation and lights out production, these printers prove that the printer’s craft is still alive and well. The awards were sponsored by Eastman Kodak Company.

The Best of Show winner was The Karpinski Puzzle, submitted by Cleveland-based Porath Print Source, owned by Gerry Englehart. “Our panel of judges had a difficult job this year as we spent days pouring over the entries, and many additional hours comparing the possible Best of Show winners,” noted Cindy Woods, NAPL senior vice president, Marketing.

Englehart explained how the winning project came to be: “Our client wanted to do a long-term direct mail campaign. They decided on a puzzle, whereby a different puzzle piece would be mailed out in sequence over a period of time. Then they decided to make it double sided, where we had to make sure both sides were in register and the die lines on each side had to allow for clarity of the printed graphics and text.

Each side of the puzzle was printed on 80-pound gloss cover stock. We then had to mount the printed pieces to a thick 50-point board stock on both sides. Registration in this process was critical. Once mounted, the pasted board was die-cut into final puzzle form. With a different piece being mailed out each month, we had to make sure each recipient received puzzle pieces from the same puzzle to avoid mismatching pieces due to ‘bounce’ in the die-cutting process. We then prepared nine mailings at once, dividing up each puzzle into nine envelopes.

The challenge of this project was unifying a marketing concept with print production, product assembly, and preparing nine concurrent mailings in accordance with U.S. postal standards.”

Category #1: Offset One-Color

1^st Place: Solid Impressions, Arbor Folder

 

Category #2: Offset Two-Color

1^st Place: Porath Print Source, Porath Thanksgiving Card

 

Category #3: Offset Four-Color

on a Two-Color Press

1^st Place: Sorrento Mesa Printing,

San Diego 2011 Calendar

 

Category #4: Offset Four-Color on a Four-Color Press

1^st Place: DS Graphics, N Magazine

 

Category #5: Foil Stamping, Die

Cutting, Embossing

1^st Place: DS Graphics, Where Would You Like to Be Right Now?

 

Category #6: Binding and Finishing

1^st Place: ProPrint Inc., Young Cooperator

 

Category #7: Best Use of Paper

1^st Place: Cordes Printing, Tracey & Joe Wedding

 

Category #8: Digital Copier – Toner-Based

1^st Place: Solid Impressions, Impact

 

Category #8: Digital Copier – Toner-Based

1^st Place: Solid Impressions, Impact

 

Category #10: High-Production, Digital Press

1^st Place: CustomXM, Laman Library

Annual Report

 

Category #11: Wide Format

1^st Place: Red’s Printing Company, Timmins

Van Wrap

 

Category #12: In-House Design

1^st Place: The MPX Group, Steps To Wellness Folio with Inserts

 

Category #13: Self-Promotion

1^st Place (Tie): DS Graphics, Wildlife

2011-2012 Calendar

1^st Place(Tie): Custom XM, Custom XM

Cross-Media Blend

 

Category #14: Stationery

1^st Place: Cordes Printing, Brian &

Alyssa Wedding

 

Category #15: Newsletter

1^st Place: Solid Impressions, Newsletter

 

Category #16: Innovation

1^st Place (Tie): Porath Print Source, Karpinski Puzzle (Best of Show)

1^st Place (Tie): Cordes Printing, Wine Label

 

Category #17: Cross-Media Production

1^st Place: CustomXM, Custom XM Cross-Media Blend