Emmanuel Buhagiar's Imagination Graphics took out the top spot in the Konica Minolta National Specialised Print Awards 2018, at a ceremony held last night at the glittering harbourside Park Hyatt hotel.
The Marrickville-based print business won the National Award for its Hamptons pop-up book. Buhagiar said, “It was a complex job, with a client who wanted to push the boundaries. The client threw everything at us, we had just three weeks to produce it. I pay tribute to my print team, their skill and commitment to producing the best work.”
“I also pay tribute to Konica Minolta, we have been with them for the past ten years and I can say the business has grown I part thanks to the Konica Minolta print equipment we have been able to use during those years. The quality we achieve with our latest Konica Minolta AccurioPress, that has won this award, against some outstanding work from the other entries, is testimony to the advanced technology.”
The Award was judged in the company of the other state award winners, all of whom bar Elect Printing from ACT were at the Awards last night. They included Whoyou Creative from SA, Tennyson Print from Qld, Tako Print from WA, and from Victoria it was Revolution Print, which won the state award with a job printed on its KM-1 inkjet B2 sheetfed press, which it installed a year ago, along with an MGI digital embellishing system.
Judges were Kenneth Beck fom Carbon8, Anthony Parneman from EFI, Kellie Northwood from Real Media Collective and Darryl John from Konica Minolta.
Introducing the awards Sue Threlfo, general manager, Production and Industrial Print, Konica Minolta said, “The National Specialised Print Awards are a celebration of our customers, and a way for us to recognise how their creativity combines with the Konica Minolta engines to produce such amazing work for their customers. We have never seen such quality before, it reflects on the creativity and skill of the printers involved.”
This year saw a record number of entries, 246, entering into five categories; digital flat sheet, digital print bound books, digital brochures, digital labels and digital embellishment.
At the event Konica Minolta Australia managing director Dr David Cooke revealed that the company is itself in the running for an award, as one of five finalists in the Human Rights Commission Australian Human Rights Award.