Letters, feedback, opinions – get it off your chest
Dear Editor,
Re: Girl power takes centre stage at RMIT Industry Training Awards
Congratulations to Danielle Mueller, Angela Clarke and Krystal Attard on their achievements at the RMIT and LIA (NSW) awards recently.
However, I must express my disappointment at Print 21's reporting of their achievements. Girl Power indeed ... Danielle is 21 and Angela 25 ... hardly girls. Had these women been men, your headline would not have described them as boys. It is astonishing and disappointing that after more than 30 years of women being apprenticed to the printing industry, attitudes remain so archaic. I can hear your male readership groaning as I write this, but this is not just about the words used to describe us, the language is symptomatic of the attitude that is ultimately responsible for the extremely poor retention rate of women in this industry. In this climate of skills shortages, more should be done to retain those we have invested so much in, and women make a valuable contribution.
I was one of the first women apprenticed in South Australia, and the first to win the Apprentice of the Year award in that state, back in 1981... when it was rightly described as an industry rarity. Until recently I have worked continuously in the industry, and watched many women leave in frustration and disappointment, or managed out of the business because they had committed that mortal sin of becoming pregnant, or because they needed some flexibility in their working hours so they could also care for their children.
I recently made the decision to leave the industry after 29 years, tired of the different expectations placed on me and disappointed at the lower rate of pay than my male colleagues. Once I was told I didn't deserve to earn as much as my male colleague as "... you don't have a wife and kids to support ..." Sure there were means to address that, through the Anti-Discrimination board, or I could have stood up for myself in the same way that my male colleagues do ... resulting in a label as 'a difficult woman'. Instead I resigned, with resignation.
The printing industry needs to find out why they cannot retain the women they train, they need to do it now, and they need to make the necessary changes to their business practices to ensure the current situation improves. A workplace with a balance of men and women is the most productive and rewarding for all of us.
Regards
Ann Hall
Contract Manager, Printing
Communication Division
Centrelink
Dear Editor,
Re: Judging is completed for National Print Awards
But, you can be assured that the best designs will be on display.
I've long held the opinion for many modern years that good print comes from good design, but great design is what makes medal winners.
Big or small, as printing companies we continue to establish and re-establish our niche in an over vendored market place in order to differentiate and gain a competitive advantage. So what medium is an accurate measure of performance. At the break down its ink on paper, and lets face it; we are all pretty good at this. The difference with medal winners is what you do with that paper next and that's what is dictated by the designer.
Foils, embossing, de-bossing, combination varnishes, coatings and laminates, intricate folds, pop-outs, perfs. and inserts will all feature highly in medal results. I wait anxiously for the final awards to be proven wrong, then we'll see the beginning of a level playing field, true quality without the razzle dazzle.
Good luck to all entrants.
Greg Hourigan
Pegasus Print Group
Dear Editor,
Re: Judging is completed for National Print Awards
What do you mean the winners will have to wait to be notified?
I know that winners have been notified, because 3 of our clients have won first second and third prize in Limited editions! They have told us and as we submitted the entry for 3rd prize for a book done using various digital papers from DES (and it is titled DES), we received a letter telling us that it had won 3rd prize, though the printer will get the prize, not us.
A first time ever that one binder's work has taken out all 3 prizes in a category, and as you may know from past complaints of mine, we will not get any credit. The attitude is that it is the printing entirely that earns the award!
This to me confirms the antiquated attitude still prevailing in our industry by those at the top re finishing!! There is no category for binding in the Print Awards , its as if it does not exist. Yet binding can make a document, especially a digital one, into something of real beauty. Last year the organisers told me that in theory, a document could be held together by a piece of string and still get first prize, when I queried why WE got no recognition for any of the prizes given which involved our work. (Do a search of the web site for last year's awards)
The joke is that we also do printing, both foiling and digital, and in all of these jobs we have done one or the other or both, to finish the job, including a little bit of digital for the job that won first prize for Impact Printing, on the Art of Governor Latrobe!
That book is equally as beautiful as the Bradman book that was stolen last year, after winning a prize, but in a different way, not being quite as imposing. We also used a Konsberg table to die cut the book box. Although the hole may seem a simple matter I think using a digital cutting table to do it would have to be unique !! And the black border around that hole was done using our Flat Bed Octopus! Not screen printing. This all meant that we could supply the publisher with small amounts of his book as he needed them. ( Though he has miscalculated on demand, and they are pretty well all sold in advance anyway) Maybe you would like to prepare an article and Gazump the others on award night!
Seems funny though that work form the one binder gets all 3 prizes, from all over Australia, yet its the printing that is only judged.
Also work we bound, won the Heidelberg prize twice in a row for Nokomis Publications and PMP a few years back! The first time ever also that the same printer got the Heidelberg Award in a row! But we got no mention. The next year PMP and Nokomis submitted and got silver for a job done by another binder whilst a job by us for another publisher, won Gold for first, beating theirs !! No one got the Heidelberg Award that year from memory. Maybe they should have used us to bind that job. It was promised to us.
The Print awards Committee realise that they made a mistake re confidentiality in that there is no requirement for this year's award recipients to keep mum about being told of their prizes, so they are in the process of discussing a confidentiality requirement for next year.
I was told this personally. Funny that they send out the press release you refer to, which says that no one knows, which is not at all true.
It gives quite the wrong impression to people in our Industry. Apprentices and others all get your newsletter. I am sure that all employees in the businesses that won prizes would have been told. What are they to think when they see that it has been stated that no one knows??
I find too much in our industry of people trying one over the other. Today's attitude to business ethics is supposed to override this antiquated idea that the means justifies the end, but It almost seems accepted practice to try and get away with something by some printers.
I would hope that we are better than used car dealers.
Xerox for example tell me that they have certain clients who will swear black and blue that they only put certified stock through their machines, yet when Xerox come to service a crash, they pull out some piece of rubbish from the guts. The printer is trying to avoid paying for damage done by him, at Xerox's expense ...
The other service companies say much the same, and this attitude is being reinforced by this type of Press release in my opinion. Maybe I would be seen as splitting hairs !!! I remember that we did a job some years back which scuffed in folding and we paid for it to be reprinted. It was sent wet by the printer who denied that. Yet I know confidentially from his foreman that the foreman actually suggested that it be varnished for that very reason and the owner refused the extra expense.. we paid the extra ourselves for it to be varnished the next time around !!
It leaves a sour taste in one's mouth.
Ted Congdon
Whites Law Bindery
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