Printers have until the end of the week to get their entries in for this year's PICAs, the winners of which compete for the National Print Awards.
Entries close on Friday 3 May at 5pm. The awards are open to all. Members of PIAA have one free entry into the awards, as well as discounted entry fees across all categories, and Sustainable Green Print Members are additionally able to submit one free entry into the Creative Sustainability Award Category.
The state PICAs will again feed into the National Print Awards, which will be held this year on 15 August as part of the PrintEx trade show in Sydney. Winners of the NPAs will have the opportunity to travel to Canberra for the second annual Print2Parliament event.
The PICAs have been renamed from the Printing Industry Craftsmanship Awards to the Printing Industry Creativity Awards, a move which Andrew Macaulay, CEO PIAA, says is not so much a rebranding as an evolution.
“It comes from feedback from a number of members, who have made the point that the industry is about creativity. It is massively innovative, it is at the forefront of technology adaptation, and we celebrate craftsmanship but we shouldn’t limit ourselves to that. We are creative people, and we want to celebrate that creativity, diversity, and inclusivity,” he said.
Macaulay added that the quality of entries grows higher every year, and he looks forward to seeing the finalists.
“They are a testament to people’s ability to push the art and find new ways of delivering messages and commercial value to their clients – or simply art, in some cases,” he said. “It’s a link between visual communications and commercial transactions, and you can see why it’s such a compelling piece of that process when all you want to do is pick it up and interact with it.”
PIAA members each have one free entry into the awards, and many are entering multiple categories, said Macaulay.
“We’ve had some members who’ve entered more than 30 categories because Print2Parliament was so valuable to them last year,” he said.
Entries are open at https://www.printingawards.com.au/enternow.