Paragon Printers pick up top PAGE awards
Print is still alive and well in the ACT according to Paragon Printers which triumphed at last week’s PAGE Awards.
The Fyshwick-based company took home four awards on the night. Next in line was Blue Star, which scored two. Mal Barnett, group manager at Paragon Australasia Group, told Print21 that the night was an important opportunity for local printers to get together and celebrate.
“There aren’t a lot of us anymore in Canberra,” he said. “The print craft side has gone away from what it used to be, so it’s important for us to be able to establish ourselves as printers.”
Pictured below: Rocco Schirripa, national sales manager at Paragon Printers, with the awards.
Blue Star, based in Fyshwick, took out two awards. In addition to these wins, Blue Star also printed five of the winning entries of the six remaining categories. “Blue Star has always had a proud tradition of printing quality material and working closely with our designer clients,” said Malcolm Hobbs, sales manager. “It has been rewarding to see these two focus areas come together in this way.”
Blue Star was particularly pleased with winning the award for the Annual Report (pictured below) category.
"It is especially great when you consider this report was the first one to utilise our new program structure, which meant for the first time in 16 years the entire structure and design of the report was overhauled and re-done.
Our TSRA Communications Coordinator Rebecca Murphy and Blue Star graphic artist Elise Knotek spent hours ensuring the design and page layouts were as close to perfect as we could get," said Hobbs.
"Our challenge was making the best of using black and blue colours for inside of the report, and we used different tints, cropped photographs and coloured flyout paragraphs to keep the page design looking fresh and appealing.
The other remarkable thing about this report was that Rebecca and Elise produced it remotely over the telephone and electronically – as Rebecca is on Thursday Island (at the top of Queensland) and Elise is based in Canberra, so ensuring the ongoing page layouts and colour proofs were correct was no easy task.
The ceramic turtle featured on the cover was created by Torres Strait Islander artist Ms Ella Savage, and featured throughout the report as a line drawing and really added to the uniqueness of the report."
Printing Industries ACT general manager, Barry Neame, said there was a palpable excitement in the air, in part because of the variety of the awards. "The awards combine printing, graphic design and clients, it's a very mixed audience," he said. "Award winners are decided on the basis of interpretation of the crief to the graphic designer and liaison between the client, designer and printer to reach the outcome. It's a very holistic approach to producing the final product."
Organisers reported a strong crowd of 200 people with judges remarking that the standard of entries was very high – particularly in the excellence in the production of other printed material – offset over $5,000 category, which saw three winners awarded.
"Feedback from the judges was that the standard was the highest in a number of years," Neame said.
All the winners are below:
Category 1
Best Annual Report 2 or 3 Colour - Offset
Winner: Blue Star Print Group
Category 2
Best Annual Report 4 Colour or More - Offset
Winner: Qote
Category 3
Excellence in the Production of Other Printed Material – Offset under $5,000
Winner: Paragon Printers Australasia
Category 4
Excellence in the Production of other Printed Material – Offset over $5,000
3 Winners: Blue Star Print, Paragon Printers Australasia, Paragon Printers Australasia
Category 5
Excellence in the Production of Other Printed Material - Stationery
Winner: Cre8ive
Category 6
Excellence in the Production of Digitally Printed Material - Open
Winner: Cre8ive
Category 8
Excellence in the New Media Multi Media/Web Development – Under $10,000
Winner: Voodoo Creative
Category 9
Excellence in the New Media Multi Media/Web Development – Over $10,000
Winner: Cre8ive
Category 10
Environmental Excellence – a Project
Winner: Cre8ive
Category 11
Environmental Excellence – a Business
Winner: Paragon Printers Australasia
Category 12
Innovation Excellence – Specialised Processes
Winner: Grey’s Canberra
Category 13
Innovation Excellence – Client Satisfaction
Winner: Qote