The FESPA Awards, are designed to recognise printers and signmakers from around the globe who have produced quality projects with technical expertise relevant to the application.
Entrants for all categories in the FESPA Awards 2018 will be required to submit their work by 26 January 2018. The final judging will take place from 28 February-2 March by an independent panel of industry experts and the winners will be announced alongside the FESPA 2018 exhibition in Berlin at the FESPA Gala Dinner on the 16 May 2018. 
The FESPA Awards are open to all print service providers and signmakers anywhere in the world, with categories spanning the full spectrum of the industry from commercial, packaging and wide format print to customer service and cross-media.
Entries will be judged on technique, colour, appearance, image definition, job complexity, use and creativity.
The list of the 2018 categories includes:
• Point of Purchase Products: printing on paper and board, including paper banners and backlit papers.
• Point of Purchase Products: printed on all types of plastics, including plastic banners and backlit plastic plus lenticular, plastic printing in sheets, flexible or rigid.
• Special effect: screen printed over offset, digital or screen-printed images and other innovative applications.
• Special effects on T-shirts and other garments: embroidery, additions of pearls, metal, circuitry etc.
• T-shirts and other garments: direct printing, transfers and roll-to-roll.
• Roll-to-roll printed textile: decoration and pennants, banners, tapestries, draperies, other textile products (e.g. bags, scarves, ties, etc.)
• Direct printing on three dimensional products: bottles, mugs, skis, packaging etc.
• Non-printed signage: channel lettering, neon signs, signwriting, etching, engraving and dimensional signage, acrylics, non-printed vinyl etc. Outside of the application-led categories, there are three separate categories: Young Star, Best in Show and People’s Choice.
The Young Star award is open to an employee or student in a print related discipline aged between 16 and 25 years old. Best in Show is decided by the judges, across all the shortlisted entries, for the piece of work that offers the most outstanding example of print. And the People’s Choice award is voted online by the FESPA print community. Voting will open on the 5 February 2018 and close on 5 March 2018.
All shortlisted entries will also be displayed at the Messe Berlin during FESPA 2018, from 15-18 May, and the winners will be announced in front of an elite audience of global industry experts at FESPA’s Gala Night. Details of the award ceremony and gala night will be revealed soon.
FESPA Awards
