Letters, feedback, get it off your chest: 12 November 2008

Readers have their say over recent news.

Re: Pack up your troubles at NSW Print Excellence awards

I have been absolutely thrilled and honoured on behalf of Printing Industries NSW to be receiving all the positive feedback about our recent PrintNSW Excellence Awards held at Doltone House.  The large number of phone calls and emails has demonstrated beyond doubt that these awards rightly hold the position of being the State's most prestigious and respected print accolades for the printing and graphic design industry. 

Having given it a 10/10 rating and been quoted "as the best of any awards night" we were proud that the industry could come together to celebrate not just the winning entries, but most importantly that quality print is alive and thriving in Australia.

The number of gold awards for excellence in print across many fields proved that the industry can and does produce first class quality work.  Perhaps this was no better exemplified than by Sydney Allen Printers and The Digital Centre who together with Armstrong Miller + McLaren (AMM) produced the "Body of Work" suite of publications.

Many printers and commentators have recently observed that the printing industry has never been under a greater threat than today from alternate communication mediums, most notably the electronic medium.  The Annual Reports issues as symptomatic of this. 

The PrintNSW Excellence Awards and PICAs in other States are the major industry showcase of the power of print.  This is against a backdrop of constant pressures to commoditise print and downgrade its relevance and importance in the face of competing communication mediums and eco-myths. 

AMM, for example, have made a corporate decision to invest in print and elevate it into a realm that cannot be copied and reproduced by electronic mediums.  Pictures on the page can be copied electronically, but the web cannot give the consumer the sensory and tactile experience that customers feel when flicking through Body of Work or any of the other outstanding gold award winners.  For AMM, their's is an ideal that they create in partnership with their printers: excellence (and matched to ISO colour standards) in concept, design, photography, layout and print as one continuum in the value chain that creates the final printed product. However, all this is little more than an unfulfilled dream if the printer is not of the calibre to bring the creatives to life.  The converse also applies; the best printer can only do so much with an average design and content.

This symbiotic relationship is embraced and celebrated in other industries: builders and architects co-exist and rely upon the professionalism of each other to produce award winning buildings that together promote their industry and stimulate each of us into action to buy, build or renovate our houses.

Surely the challenge for promoting the power of printing is to ensure its survival and re-birthing by excelling at one thing: the art of communicating the client's message better than competing communication mediums. 

Perhaps the time has arrived where our print awards need to start embracing the significant value chain contribution of those that drive and excel in delivering the power of print's message for our clients as an integral part of the printing process: be it embellishing, binding or creative design.

If there was any doubt about the power of print's supremacy to make an impact, a copy of the AMM + Sydney Allen Printers' winning entry "This is the Mass" was presented to the Pope in July whilst he was in Australia and received a very rare public endorsement from His Holiness.  Sitting right alongside that publication in the Vatican will soon be a copy of the Gold PrintNSW Excellence Award 2008!

Finally, the gold award winning (and Guinness Book of Records) 1.0m high book "Body of Work 1:1" will be the exclusive feature and drawcard at prestigious locations including 5 star hotels, luxury car outlets, diamond traders and other venues where the power of print will be influencing the moneyed and decision making giants of our economy and in the process, making a statement about our industry – a statement other mediums cannot compete with.

Body of Work's "Free Spirit" printed by The Digital Centre was the first Australian product to win the coveted Xerox Pixie Award on 26 October 2008 from over 100 counties.  In some ways, Australia is leading the world in print – we just have to get out there and keeping telling everyone our good news stories.

Congratulations to all the winners – be proud, tell your clients, tell the world just how good you are ...

Robert Fuller
General Manager NSW
Printing Industries