A promotional pocketbook printed by Penrose, Auckland-based Logick Print has won the coveted Supreme Award at New Zealand’s Pride in Print Awards gala dinner held at Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre. It's the fourth Supreme award for the specialist print house and industry innovator. The BJ Ball Apprentice of the Year title went to Kosema Fuiono from Blue Star Collard (Auckland).
Supreme Award winner - 'Touchy Feely'
Director David Gick (left) with some of the team from Logick Print
Titled 'Touchy Feely,' the multi-faceted promotional pocketbook of embellished stocks commissioned by B&F Papers – which also took out the Business Print Category Award – was “technically superb,” according to the judges.
“From a finishing point of view, there are not many jobs that encompass so many different embellishments, all in the one place, and they get them all completely right throughout,” said the judges' statement. “This is a job that everyone who looks at it says how fantastic it is. There are foils, bright inks, perforating stamp work, binding, creasing and assembly. The whole thing is technically superb, sharp and beautiful.”
Pride in Print Awards gala dinner at Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre
Logick director David Gick said his small, committed team embraced the considerable challenges in the brief to illustrate to the industry “what can be done” on the particularly-textured range of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified stocks.
“We’re happy to work with people who believe we can push the boundaries and we certainly did that with that job,” Gick said. “With it being a promotional piece, we were able to show Foilco foils to the market and say ‘hey, there is a little bit of different inspiration here’. We made sure the deboss was out of this world and the same with the emboss with a solid black cover. We made sure that what we did, we did very, very well. We didn’t just want to produce the same techniques and do it as usual – we wanted to push it as far as we could go.”
Gick said the work has generated international interest. “It is the first time that, with a promotion, we have had requests from overseas – Europe, the United States, Singapore and Asia in general – they wanted a copy and we sent those. What we do these days is about making sure it is a world-class job. This work has gone all around the world and to get that type of feedback shows we are pushing those boundaries.”
Logick also won the Paper and Board Packaging Category for its Pure Mama Product Packaging as well as the Letterpress Process for its Special Edition 2022 Calendar.
Blue Star Collard (Auckland) printer Kosema Fuiono (pictured above) was named BJ Ball Papers Apprentice of the Year.
Fuiono, who had previously won the Heidelberg Offset Apprentice of the Year title, charmed the 400-strong crowd with a humble, generous and humorous speech.
“I believe I am receiving this award on behalf of the very positive and supportive team of Blue Star Collard and the whole of Blue Star in Auckland and New Zealand,” he said. “Thank you for the opportunity you have given me to extend my learning. I am very blessed to be working with people that have been doing this job their whole life – some 40-plus years – and I’m there every day, asking questions.”
While currently operating both a Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 74 and Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 105, Fuiono said he was also happy to still help out other departments such as diecutting and foiling when needed.
Blue Star Collard operations manager Allen Masterson said Fuiono’s achievement was totally deserved. “He’s actually been the lead printer on a five-colour press for at least half of his apprenticeship. We describe him as a superstar. We’ve had apprentices that don’t see it as a vocation but Sema, right from the beginning, said ‘I want a job where I have a future, where I can do something for my family’ – he’s pretty much grabbed it with two hands and run with it. From my perspective, being called a ‘trainer,’ I’m almost embarrassed – because he’s the sponge that sucks up everything.”
PrintNZ chief executive Ruth Cobb said even though all five finalists could have taken out the title, Fuiono was the standout.
“He is a really hard worker, is committed to the business, has a really sound understanding of the print trade overall from having worked in other departments, and he has clear plans as to where he wants to go,” said Cobb. “He always had his books ready for Competenz/Te Pūkenga training advisor Grant Alsop – he always wanted more! An impressive thing he said was ‘on a bad day at work, I learn the most’ – so when things don’t go right, he figures it all out.”
Cobb noted that Fuiono had excelled despite the significant challenges of emigrating to New Zealand as a 12-year-old unable to speak English and then becoming the family’s main breadwinner and helping to raise his siblings at 15 when his father was taken ill.
The other four finalists for the BJ Ball Papers Apprentice of the Year were:
PrintNZ Screen Print Apprentice of the Year – Liam Blom, ACI Screen & Print (Auckland)
BJ Ball Packaging Apprentice of the Year – Frey Head, Oji Fibre Solutions Paper Bag (Auckland)
Trust4Skills Reelfed Apprentice of the Year – John Reddy, Philstic Labels (Auckland)
GAPF Digital Apprentice of the Year – Nana Southall, Blue Star Constellation (Auckland).
Pride in Print 2022 main winners:
