PICA 1: Printers party hard at Adelaide

7 November 2011

Celebrations ran long into the night at the 24th annual PICA awards on Friday, with 22 different companies taking home gold.

According to SA general manager Peter Mansfield, with 356 people in attendance at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, the gala event was a success. So much so that security had to close the place down around 2am.

“People look forward to the PICA nights immensely. 2011 has been an incredibly tough year, and to forget it for a night by letting your hair down is a really exciting thing to do.

“Last year’s event was very good but the venue was tight and cramped. This year the feel of the whole evening was a notch up in class and quality, without losing any entertainment value from the MC and the importance around the print awards,” he says.

Two of the three winners in the excellence awards were from the same company, Hyde Park Press. The managing director brought all two tables worth of staff up on stage with party poppers to celebrate their win.

The company was awarded two gold awards in addition to the Heidelberg Excellence in Craft, and DIC Excellence in Print awards.

Pictured: The Hyde Park Press team accepting their award for excellence in print.


Graphic Print Group claimed the third Excellence in Print prize – the Fujifilm & Fuji Xerox digital craft award. On the business side of the industry, Griffin Press won the Zero Waste SA Improved Resource Efficiency award and Amcor Closure Systems took home the SafeWork SA Improved Safety award.

At the end of the night Finsbury Green won the most overall awards with 18, Newstyle Printing came away with 11 awards, Fivestar Print with eight, and The Bowden Group won seven.

Comedienne, Julia Morris returned as MC and took her commentary to another level, now that she knows more about the industry.

“She was more playing on peoples and names, which gave it a feeling that she was part of the print community. She did have some understanding of the awards and recognising people from last year almost gave it the feeling that she was part of the group,” said Mansfield.

The event’s major sponsor, Media Super, presented its inaugural Outstanding Contribution to the Industry award to Peter and Elisa Lane from Lane Print & Post.

All in all it was a great night and printers left determined to retun to do it all again next year.

Gold Award Winners:

Finsbury Green

  • One, Two or Three Colour Printing
  • Book Printing, Case Bound
  • Leaflets
  • Booklets, Catalogues, Magazines, non saddle-stitched
  • Annual Reports
  • Calendars

Newstyle Printing

  • Commercial Posters, Showcards, Card Constructions & Mobiles
  • Limited Editions or Art Reproductions
  • Book Printing, Limp Bound
  • Multi-piece Productions and Campaigns

Fivestar Print

  • Presentation folders
  • Book Printing, Digitally Printed
  • Multi-piece Productions and Campaigns
  • Packaging, Other Packaging Materials

Hyde Park Press

  • Book Printing, Case Bound
  • Book Printing, Limp Bound

Arte Grafica Printing

  • Booklets, Catalogues and Magazines, saddle stitched
  • Small Printing Business

CCL Labels

  • Labels, Roll Fed
  • Embellishment

The Bowden Group

  • Booklets, Catalogues and Magazines, saddle stitched

Copycat Printing

  • Stationery

Digi We Doo

  • Postcards and Greeting Cards

Kwik Kopy Printing Norwood

  • Impact, Sensory or Direct Mail

Custom Cartons

  • Packaging, Cartons

Price Screen & Digital

  • Packaging, Display Stands

Amcor Closure Systems

  • Packaging, Other Packaging Materials

Collotype Labels

  • Labels, Roll Fed

Studio Labels

  • Flexographic Printing

Johns' Print Centre

  • Screen Printing

Cadillac Printing

  • Web Offset Printing, Heatset

Visualcom

  • Digital Printing, Wide Format

Price Screen & Digital

  • Innovation

Printskill

  • Small Printing Business

Riverland Printers

  • Country Printing Business

Graphic Print Group

  • Digital Printing, A3 or Smaller

Of the two entries into Security or Speciality Printing, silver was awarded but no gold. There were no entries made into the categories of sheetfed labels, coldest web offset printing, and web offset printed publications with a cover price