Wakefield Digital wins Supreme at Pride in Print

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A "beautiful looking book" on the refurbishment of the Christchurch Town Hall won the New Zealand Pride In Print’s best of the best Supreme Award, after unanimously taking out the top prize in the 2021 awards.

This year’s winner was entered by Wellington’s Wakefield Digital, under the subcategory of hand binding, and said the judges, stood out from hundreds of other commercial jobs entered.

The book was digitally printed on an HP Indigo 7r, and there were just 100 produced. It was finished with sections being sewn and then hand bound.

Judging took place in April, and awards were announced at the in-peron gala evening event in Auckland, which was hosted by Hilary Barry and comedian Ben Hurley. The full roll-call of winners will be in Print21's Friday industry news bulletin.

An ‘absolutely delighted and completely surprised’ Wakefield owner Dickon Lentell, who was only able to receive the award via zoom from his Wellington home, because of the city had been plunged into Covid lockdown, said the book had been difficult to produce, but at the same time, "such a pleasure".

Wakefield Digital produced it for Momento Books on behalf of the author, and Lentell said it took hours of calibrating to get it right, especially the colour consistency and double page spreads, but "working with such quality design and photos made it worthwhile".

The glossy, limited edition, hand finished book which judges said "blew them away" with its craftsmanship and "perfect" centre spreads throughout, was produced from photographs by Olivia Spencer-Bower, and called Christchurch Town Hall: A Conservation Story.

Judge Johnny McHarg said the stunning photography in the book and the number of double page spreads, or ‘crossovers’ that had been perfectly executed, was astounding.

“The complexity of these crossovers – and there are so many of them – that are 100 per cent perfect is difficult to achieve. Some of them are next level. “This is a standout entry and miles ahead of every other print finishing job that we looked at. It is spectacular.”

Judge Steve Watson called the book "a thing of beauty".

He said: “What blew us away when we started going through the book (at judging) were those crossovers. A lot of them were like a single leaf, all the way through the book.”

"The book was tightly sewn which allowed the line-ups and folding to give that effect, which came in ‘page, after page, after page’.

“Most judges have seen thousands of crossovers in their careers but never anything like the quality of this. This book is special.” 

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