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A total of 136 including three special awards were handed out at the 23rd National Print Awards at the Sydney Convention Centre Ballroom on May 12. Judging Committee chairman, Rod Urquhart, says it was “pleasingly apparent” to all the judges that the standard of entries this year was overall higher than before, and in some categories the “work submitted could only be described as magnificent”.

Channel 10 news presenter Natarsha Belling, filling in for Sandra Sully, hosted the presentation dinner, along with impressionist and comedian Paul Martell.

The three special awards, as in earlier competitions, were attached to the Print Awards judging process. These awards winners were:

• The Agfa Gevaert award for the best use of imaging was selected from all entries in every category independently of the main judging process by Agfa representatives. It was won by SEP Sprint (Australia) for the Most Innovative Use of Imaging in Printing.

• The PaperlinX award for the best entry by a third or fourth-year apprentice was selected by the judging team. It was won by David Campbell, who completed his third-year apprenticeship in 2005 at the Sydney Institute, TAFE Ultimo. Lilyfield Printing, Regents Park in Sydney, employs Campbell.

• The Heidelberg award was selected by an executive of Heidelberg Australia from the gold medal winners of all categories and presented to The Ducor Group for Excellence in Craft.

While there is insufficient space to name all the winners, in all there were 32 Gold, 48 Silver and 56 Bronze medals awarded, with two areas, categories No. 14 Book printing one, two or three colours, and No 24, Web offset uncoated stock being deemd as not having a sufficiently worthy entry to deserve a gold medal.

It is noteworthy that once again, NSW entrants were the biggest winners in all categories on the night, with a total of 49 medals, encompassing 11 Gold, 17 Silver and 21 Bronze. However, Gold awards were shared equally between NSW and Victoria with 11 each. Victoria received 35 awards (11 Gold, 12 Silver and 12 Bronze).

The ACT won two Bronze; Queensland 11 medals with one Gold, five Silver and five Bronze; South Australia, came in third in the medals count with 28, comprising seven Gold, eight Silver and 13 Bronze. Western Australia collected 11 medals - three Gold, five Silver and three Bronze.

Urquhart says the criteria for the judging was that each entry be considered and evaluated for print quality, with judging based on excellence of print quality achieved.

Commenting on the Awards, Urquhart says that although the judges always seek to determine the one best item of each category, and hence award a single gold medal, in two categories No. 6 ‘Booklets, catalogues and magazines, saddle-stitched’ – four or more colours, and No.7 ’Booklets , catelogues and magazines bound by any method but saddle-stitching’, “the sheer number of brilliant entries necessitated the awarding of two gold medals to each to each categorey, as the top entries were simply unable to be separated.”

The four Gold winners here were Finsbury Green Printing (printer Finsbury), ‘Booklets, catalogues and magazines saddle-stitched’ for client Gloria Jeans and Bambra Press (Bambra) for The Australian Ballet; Penfold Buscombe (Penfold), ‘booklets, catalogues and magazines bound by any method but saddle-stitching’ for Charterhall Holdings, and Rawson Graphics (Rawson) for Novo Nordisk.

Another interesting development this year, says Urquhart, is the movement of digitally produced work into categories where such work had not been previously seen.

Judging of the limited edition and art reproduction (category No. 12) was “particularly difficult” for the judges due to the mix of conventionally and digitally produced entries, says Urquhart. “This effect also exacerbated the existing divide between books and prints.”

For the first time since its inception, the Awards are being held in Sydney for two years in a row. “We’re not doing this out of any bias … rather, it (will) allow us to align our 2007 award with the PrintEx 2007 trade show in Sydney next May, and combine the importance of both events,” says National Print Awards chairman Scott Telfer.

“In 2008, we will be back in Melbourne for two years – allowing us to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the National Print Awards in the city where they began and share the industry highlight with PacPrint 09.”

In addressing the audience, Telfer thanked the National Print Awards three main sponsors: Agfa, Heidelberg and PaperlinX, all of whom “make a huge contribution to the success of the awards, not just in monetary terms, but also with practical advice and participation in the judging process.”

This year, PaperlinX took over the award naming rights from Australian Paper.

Reported by Arthur Haddrick