appointments 
Admark has picked up a Silver World Medal at the prestigious 2004 New York Festivals Design & Print Advertising Awards. The medal was awarded for the Air New Zealand Boeing 774-400 Lord of the Rings aircraft in the Fleet Graphics: Entertainment Promotion category. The silver medal was, in fact, the only medal awarded in this category. The annual New York Festivals awards are now in their 47th year and the 2004 Design & Print Advertising awards received over 3,800 entries from some 62 countries. From these entries, 947 achieved finalist status, with only 313 Grand, Gold, Silver and Bronze medals being awarded in total.

Laurie Pilling, Admark’s Managing Director, says "It’s extremely humbling for a company of our size to win an award like this when we’re up against such tough competition. It just proves that the Admark team are absolute world leaders when it comes to printing and applying aircraft graphics.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Air New Zealand for giving us the chance to complete such an exciting and enormous undertaking. I’d also like to thank Lisa Pilling, our project manager, and everyone who was involved in the project. You’ve helped put Admark and New Zealand printing on the world stage yet again."

The graphics for the aircraft were designed to commemorate the release of the third and final instalment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy The Return of the King. Admark had previously printed and applied graphics to two aircraft to commemorate the release of the second movie, the Two Towers. This time, however, the project was on a much grander scale, being the largest aircraft graphic ever produced and some 20 per cent larger than any aircraft project previously undertaken by Admark.

Made up of 360 individual pieces, the 800 square metre graphic curves around the fuselage and engines of the giant Boeing, stretching more than 48 metres along each side of the aircraft and up to eight metres deep from the centre of the roof round to the cargo belly. The aviation marking film used was specifically designed by 3M to withstand huge changes in the pressurization of the aircraft and speeds of up to 1,000 kilometres. Enormous temperature fluctuation is also an issue, from ˆ70ºC while cruising at 35,000 feet to +60ºC during prolonged spells on the tarmac mid-summer in destinations such as Los Angeles. Interestingly, although the actual film is barely thicker than cling film, the sheer size of the image means that the decal actually weighs 106 kilos.