The Foggys? Derek Fretwell on Pride In Print

Print 21 correspondent, Derek Fretwell, fought his way through the fog to attend this year's Pride In Print awards. And he wants to make one thing crystal clear: the winning entrants are in a class of their own, even if the rules might seem a little cloudy.

The Pride In Print awards evening of 2008 has passed into history. Fog closing Auckland airport at an inappropriate time may have prevented some attendances but could do nothing to dampen the enthusiasm for, or the glamour of, the event for those there.

As usual the event organisation was as sparkling as the attendees. Seating a thousand or so hungry practitioners of graphic communication is always a practical challenge. It says something about the relevance of the industry to realise that this is more (I am told) than attend the New Zealand Sportsperson of the year awards or, more interestingly, the Qantas Media Awards honouring our cousins in electronic communications. Needless to say, many wine labels served their ultimate purpose adding to the conviviality of what is now possibly the largest event of this type in the New Zealand business calendar.

Pictured: Supreme winners (L-R), Warren Fenning; Cyril Southan and Greg Nash of Original Screen.

The awards themselves were notable to this attendee by the fact of several categories being unable to produce a medal-winning entry. This could not be a lack of interest as several were highly commended in the same categories. Standards must therefore be changing and either the entry quality is lower, or the judging standards higher. In either case it raises the value of a Pride In Print gold medal as a measure of process quality.

To explain to those not lucky enough to live in godzone, there are eleven categories leading to a possible forty-two process-based and six product-based awards. From the gold medal winners the best in class are selected for consideration for the Supreme award. The greatest of the great. The best example of graphic communications (requiring a substrate to carry it) produced within New Zealand in the last year.

This year the finalists were from Gravure, Flexo, Packaging, Sheetfed, Labels, Two classes of digital, special products and processes-metal, specific products and processes-security and screen.

I will not attempt to explain why Gravure and Flexo are not Packaging, Labels are not Sheetfed or Flexo, why Digital or Screen are deserving of special categories or why "Blind Trail, Pinot Noir" is not a "Wine Label". I have already said enough on this and continue my comments elsewhere in this publication,

This night was about the entrants, the commended and the gold medal winners. Of the finalists, all were equals and the judges in picking one performed a function far braver than anything this critic has ever aspired to. But wasn't The Golden Compass Digital larger than A2, remarkably like the supreme award winner, although not screen printed. To me the Passchendaele Memorial Book was perhaps a slightly better example of a book than the sheetfed finalist but being digital, although sheetfed, in a different category. It's just as well that the "Organic Plain Flour bag" is not packaging or we may never have seen the very worthy "NZ Rox Jewellery Box".

I note we are informed of all the details of production from the press used to the blankets, masks or inks. But strangely, not the principal influencer of final print quality, the imaging system used to create the master image, be it screen, plate or cylinder? 

I can go on as critics do, it is not my work on display, and little courage is required of me to be clever and right. No job of mine is subjected to the analysis of experienced and qualified judges. So let nothing diminish the achievement of these very fine businesses in winning the acclamation of their peers in each of the categories described.

This publication congratulates you all.

As does this writer, who also looks forward to the day when the supreme award winner will be judged by the same criteria and against the same competitors that the job was won on. That "Hair Comes Alive In Our Hands" stands and wins against all producers of such products.

Let us all acknowledge Gravure Packaging Ltd, Carter Holt Harvey Paper Bag, Logick Print & Graphics Ltd, Printlink, GEON Kiwi Labels, Admark Visual Imaging Ltd, Verve Digital Ltd, Fonterra Canpac and Security Plastics as the best printers in the land.

Original Screen, twenty times highly commended, winner of nine gold medals and this your second New Zealand Pride in Print Supreme award: the industry salutes you.   

For a full list of all the winners, click here.