Fespa reshapes award system

Fespa has redeveloped its Awards programme, making it an annual competition and opening it to any print service provider, anywhere in the world.

The global competition will culminate in a prize-giving ceremony on May 22 in Munich, the penultimate night of Fespa Digital 2014. It has instigated 10 application categories: Instore; Outdoor; Interior; Functional decoration; Garment; Integrated; Sustainable; Special effect; Fine art; and Vehicle decoration.

Duncan MacOwan, head of events for Fespa, says, “FESPA’s mission is to inspire our community, and the people that buy print, by sharing amazing examples of print’s capabilities. By opening the awards beyond our immediate member community, we hope to attract a broad global portfolio of entries, with examples of innovative print across the whole gamut of wide format applications. This is the only truly global awards scheme in wide format print. By entering, printers have a unique opportunity to achieve worldwide recognition for their business and their work, and to showcase their skills to a receptive audience of peers and print buyers. The exposure that comes with a Fespa award win could catapult a print business to new growth opportunities.”

An independent panel comprising print buyers, printers and other print experts, as well as professionals involved in commissioning print will judge the awards. The judging criteria set down includes excellence in execution of print quality; technical expertise relevant to the application; appropriate use of techniques, design, media; creativity with regard to the application (choice of print and techniques to meet the objectives of the project); and the return on investment for the end user of the printed work. Fespa says that all entries will receive constructive feedback from the judges. The Fespa print community will vote for two additional award: the Hall of Fame Printer of the Year and the People’s Choice Award.

The President’s Innovation Award will go to the entry which all judges agree to offer the most outstanding example of innovation across all categories. The Fespa web site will showcase shortlisted entries from March 20 onwards, from which time Fespa will invite the print community to vote online for the People’s Choice award. A gallery of the winning and highly commended work will travel on a year-long global tour, showcased at FESPA exhibitions in Africa, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil and Asia.

MacOwan adds, “We’re confident that many of the entries will amaze those who see them, from the judges to those who browse them at fespa.com and see them close-up at our exhibitions. Our vision is that the FESPA Awards should motivate printers to push the boundaries of what they produce, and help our community to remind the world of print’s tremendous potential as a promotional, decorative and functional medium.”

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