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A View from Within the Golden National Print Awards 2013

Posted by BrettDashwood on May 28, 2013

npa2013 brett dashwood (outputlinks) robyn frampton (frampton pr)Friday night was the culmination of over a year for a select number of companies that had progressed through the state level Printing Industries Craftsmanship Awards (PICA) and now vied for honours at the 30th Annual National Print Awards held at the Palladium Ballroom at Melbourne’s Crown.

The evening commenced with pre-dinner drinks outside the ballroom which was a good chance for many to catch-up with people they had not had an opportunity to over the preceding 4 days of PacPrint, which was being held at Melbourne’s Exhibition Centre.

A Golden Year

Being the 30th Annual National Print Awards, the Golden Year was themed “The Midas Touch.”  “King” John Wanless gave a royal introduction and the evening was regally hosted by “Lady” Julia Morris. The food was fantastic and in addition to “Lady Julia,” we were entertained by comedian and impersonator Ben Price.

I had the distinct honour of being seated with four executives from Kodak for the evening, as well as two board members from Innovation & Business Skills Australia (IBSA); a very good way to spend an evening after the end of the 4th day of PacPrint.

Half way through the evening Lady Julia had to remind everyone about the importance and the hard work and dedication the medal winners had put in, indicating in her own glorious way that people should pay more attention and that medal winners should be applauded, particularly those gaining top honours with Gold in their categories.

npa2013 mckellar renown press heidelberg awardRepeat offenders for awards

There were several companies that appeared again and again on the stage, but none more than Melbourne’s McKellar Renown Press, who claimed two category-based Gold medals, plus both the Fuji Xerox Effectiveness Award and the Heidelberg Australia Award.

An Opportunity for Next Year

Currently there are only a handful of the 30+ categories that are even relevant to digital print, and I don’t believe that any of the category winners took the gong with variable work, even the direct marketing campaign pieces that won.

I think that is an awesome opportunity for those in our industry. We now have the technology that allows us to create work with supreme quality. Combined with fantastic capabilities that involves more than just print, I think that we should start working towards high quality fully personalised applications being considered amongst the medals at the next National Print Awards.

npa2013 successsful team from mckellar renown press with Scott Allen from Fuji Xerox

A list of Major Award Winners and a summary of category awards can be viewed here

28 May 2013 - Also published on the OutputLinks Industry Insights Blog site

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