The industry’s ‘Greatest Hits’ have scored a swag of Gold medals while industry insiders have enjoyed a night of red-carpet encounters with the stars at the 29th National Print Awards presentation.
The night, always a highlight of the graphic arts calendar, featured gourmet dining care of Crown’s Palladium ballroom, plenty of laughs provided by one of Australia’s newest and funniest comedy talents and, of course, Greatest Hits – a theme which created memorable moments under the hosting talents of the lovely Julia Zemiro.
Zemiro not only lent her expansive music trivia knowledge to the night, but was an absolute delight, with her brisk and bright presentation skills and quirky sense of humour making the Awards presentation seem far quicker than usual – no mean feat when navigating through 33 categories and three sponsor awards.
This was complemented by Little – a late addition to this year’s NPA line-up – who entertained some 450 guests with a selection of his own ‘Greatest Hits’ from this year’s Melbourne Comedy Festival and previous shows.
The real stars of the night, however, were the 24 companies who, between them, took out the 28 Gold Awards. This year, the list was spread surprisingly evenly between well-known NPA legends and an array of new talents, and across State borders.
Five companies - GEON Group Perth, Offset Alpine Printing NSW, Adams Print VIC, Platypus Graphics QLD and Percival Print & Packaging WA – took home two gold apiece.
The other top awards went to Courtney Colour Graphics VIC, LPI NSW Graphic Services, Finsbury Green SA, Picpress VIC, Bambra Press VIC, Immij NSW, Amcor Closure Systems SA, CCL Labels SA, RA Printing VIC, Studio Lables SA, Davies Brothers TAS, Imatec Digital WA, Momento Pro NSW, Visualcom SA, Avon Graphics VIC, Evolve Printing NSW, Price Screen & Digital SA and Print Impressions VIC.
The first Sponsor Award of the night was presented by Simon Lane from the NPA’s newest major sponsor, Fuji Xerox Australia, who said his company was delighted to be supporting ‘a fantastic celebration of the achievements of the print and graphic communication industry’.
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’. The job was designed by Kellie Martin and printed by Momento Pro on DES Innova Smooth Cotton Duo 220gsm. Momento Pro also did the prepress, embellishment and finishing.
The Currie Group Graphics Award was then 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.
The night’s final Award, the Heidelberg Award for Excellence in Craft, was presented by Heidelberg’s Alastair Hadley 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. Embellishment was done by Intafoil before the job was finished by GEON Group Perth in co-operation with Fast Finishing Services.
It was NPA Chairman John Wanless who summed up the night best, saying it was ‘one of the greatest NPA celebrations we’ve ever enjoyed’.
“It’s been a terrific night, celebrating a standard of print excellence which just keeps getting higher each year,” Wanless said after the ceremony.
“There’s no doubt it’s been a tough couple of years in the print and graphic communications industry, 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.
“To do so in the face of such challenging conditions is especially outstanding and I congratulate all those who took home a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal tonight.”
Next year’s National Print Awards will once again be celebrated in Melbourne, during PacPrint 2013, and will mark the Awards’ 30th anniversary – two events which seem sure to make it a blockbuster.
“I’m not sure the committee is quite ready to speculate on next year’s event,” laughed Wanless as his tired team packed up. “It will be hard to top tonight but with so much excitement around the anniversary and PacPrint, I’m sure we’ll come up with something!”
Click here to view list of winners.
