appointments  Pride in Print 
In a series of seminars, Pride In Print judges revealed the secrets to winning gold medals at the prestigious awards ceremony. If you missed them, here are the key points. As part of the annual Pride In Print Awards Roadshow, printers are invited to a question and answer session with a representative bench of judges. These sessions are put on in conjunction with Printing Industries New Zealand.

It is the printers’ chance to ask judges the hard questions and find out what cuts the mustard in making gold medal or supreme award winning entries.

Pride In Print Awards manager Sue Archibald explained to Auckland printers recently that over the 11 years of Pride In Print’s existence it had developed a symbol that was now widely recognised by print buyers as the mark of quality.

Print quality in New Zealand was now so high that the smallest fault could lead to jobs being discarded, Archibald said.


Can you enter across more than one category?

Yes, you can enter as many categories as you like, so long as each entry has an accompanying $50 fee.

Do the judges take into account the degree of technical difficulty to achieve certain results?

Each entry is judged individually. It is not compared against any other. When a perfect job is identified it is awarded gold medal or higher. The degree of difficulty and the technical expertise of the work are a consideration. A simple job will not get any leeway when it comes to a print fault, a technically difficult job will.

What is the balance between print quality and design?

Designers have their own design competition. Pride In Print looks at print quality.
Where the design has played a part in print difficulty this is taken into consideration.
This could be by way of stocks or inks used in the final form of the product, special processes used in the final product or very difficult type specifications.

What examples have you got that show technical expertise is being recognised ahead of design at the awards?

A few years ago the supreme winner came from a two-colour press and required eight passes to achieve 16 colours. The degree of difficulty blew the judges away. This year’s winner the NZ Woman’s Weekly and the difficulty to achieve perfection from the web process was a consideration. This job was also a commercial job – run with the normal constraints of weekly publishing.


How do the judges know and recognise the degree of difficulty factor?

The entry form asks for this information. Give as much information as you can. Be specific and include the designer’s brief if this is relevant. The more information, the more power to the entry.

Are the judges up with the latest technology trends?

Over recent years we have developed a team of experts with shop floor experience. The technology side of printing is moving so fast we have to have hands on experience.

If the judges are currently active in the industry, how do they disqualify themselves from entries they’ve had a hand in?

If they see a job of their own, or know about a job they move away from it and declare their interest. There are enough judges to cover for this situation and due to the importance of having "hands on" expertise within the panel this situation does arise. The Awards Manager and her assistant (Sue Archibald and Haley Feringa) are often aware of these jobs and check to ensure no form of ‘bias’ can be attributed to any result. Ms Archibald advised, in the Awards’ 10-year history, she had been very impressed with the integrity of all panels over the years.

What is the best method of selecting samples for entry?

Don’t wait till the last minute and go through old job bags. Handpick the job as it comes off the press. Go through it with an eyeglass page by page. Put it away and rejudge it before sending it in. The standards are now so high the judges have to nitpick to eliminate entries. A huge number of entries are instantly eliminated because of basic faults.

What about the sending of an entry?

Careless packaging is still a problem in some areas. We have had poorly protected entries that have been jammed into a post office box. Sometimes 10 heavy boxes will flatten out the work, but if it is too bad and we have sufficient time we ask for more samples. However, since 98% of the entries arrive on closing date there is often not time to find out there is a packaging problem. Present your job to the Awards the same way you would to a customer. It has got to arrive in fabulous condition.

Do you know of any printers using systems to select work?

Yes. One printer keeps the Pride In Print entry forms in the lunchroom and the printers themselves make the selections. They have a chart on the wall of who has nominated entries and they get an award if their entry is a winner. The wall chart also identifies those printers who are not looking for award winning work.

Is it OK to ask a judge to help select our entries?

Most of the judges are only too happy to help. The judge will declare an interest at judging time, but if you get them involved in your selections you will start to appreciate the degree of scrutiny that goes on at judging time. Once you know what they’re looking for you on the way to a winning entry.

How do you submit a very large format job?

It’s impossible to bring a bus into the awards if you’ve printed something on the side of it. The judges require a small portion of the job, plus a photograph. A metre long portion x the web width is required for judging purposes.

In the case of cartons or boxes, do you require the flat printed sheets or the formed work?

The formed product is what will be judged in the packaging sections. This is what is requested on the entry form. If you supply flat sheets that contain imperfections the job will go out unless you mark them "sample only". Then only the formed work will be judged. Often a printer will choose to send a flat sample to highlight a certain degree of difficulty. This is a good practise. However you must indicate on the entry that this is what you are doing.