A vibrant and 'out of the box' shop window display for women's clothing chain, Jigsaw, has scooped one of the many awards for Next Printing at the HP Asia Pacific Print Excellence Awards 2015 in Singapore last night.
'The Jigsaw Display', an iconic architecture piece backdrop of London's Big Ben and St Paul's Cathedra, also gained fame at the global Fespa Awards in May, receiving a silver medal for paper and board point-of-sale.
Colleen Bate spoke to Next's Industrial Design Manager, Nobuto Nishizawa about the inception and creation of the Jigsaw project.
According to Nishizawa, Next was given a brief to produce a backdrop window display for Jigsaw clothing, inspired by large scale pop up cards which resembled an iconic architecture piece of London's Big Ben. The creative team for the task comprised Nishizawa, Re-board designer Anson Gu and General Manager Romeo Sanuri, who provided direction and input along the way.{gallery}Simple_Image_Gallery/Next_Printing_HP_Print_Excellence_AWards:::0:2{/gallery}
"Our initial task was to produce a vector cut file capturing Big Ben's features, with layers of inside and outside folds. The approved design was printed on 5mm foam board, which proved light and rigid and provided the exact finish we were after.
"The material was then cut with a 45 degree v-notch knife from both sides, allowing us to achieve inside and outside folds, despite the thickness of the substrate. To ensure that the backdrop could be freighted around Australia with ease, we chose to use 16mm Re-board Premium and FomeCor for the backing - it is both strong and lightweight at the same time.
"Finally, we added lights to the display to introduce some pizazz and bring it to life."
Nishizawa tells us that the client was so happy with the result that he wanted St. Paul’s Cathedral to be added to the mix, which naturally posed some extra challenges.
"Although it was far more complex to add St. Paul’s Cathedral, in terms of fold line placement and proportional divide across the total height of the display, we were able to overcome these hurdles through much testing and eventually by adding structural elements which allowed the unit to free-stand," he explains.
Richard Lucas, Business Manager, HVG Graphics Media, is thrilled about Next's coup and proud that his company has supplied the Premium and FomeCor Re-board products included in the backdrop: "As a Re-board Partner, Next Printing is a very successful innovator in its use of the product. They combine various materials to achieve unique displays and effects. The winning three dimensional Jigsaw window display clearly shows Next's skill and creativity alongside our materials' lightweight versatility and ease of use for cutting."
Nishizawa says the JIGSAW project was one of the more interesting projects he has worked on.
“It's amazing to receive an award for the hard work we’ve all put in. We enjoy these type of projects – they are not just printing jobs but also require problem solving on other levels. We all felt a sense of accomplishment when the job was distributed to Jigsaw stores across Australia!"
Clearly, Next is deserving of accolades. For the past 11 years, this wide format printing business has continuously evolved. There's a distinct focus on creating products with a difference in the areas of retail merchandising, fabric, exhibition, and graphics for television productions … and this clearly pays off.
At the HP Asia Pacific Print Excellence Awards 2015 last night, Next was also awarded the Overall Grand Winner for Sign and Display for HP Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) as well as the Grand Winner for Creative Award in Sign and Display APJi.
And, apart from winning an award for the the 'Jigsaw Project' this year, the printing company also received a Special Recognition Award for its entry 'Engagency 3x3m Stand' and two other wins for its entries - 'Macquarie Bank Qantas lounge display' (in the category of Corrugated Packaging) and 'Telstra Wifi launch' (in the category of Digital Green Printing)
General Manager Romeo Sanuri, whose Uncle started Next's parent company 30 year's ago, says that he is proud to be involved with Next. "We have steered away away from the price wars that are so prevalent in the industry at this time. Instead, we prefer to look at different areas in our business where we can improve on, such as investment in the right people, offering printing alternatives in terms of fabric and Re-board and thinking outside of the square. As things are ever changing, our constant question is 'What next shall we do with our business?' "
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