Winners 2017

www.howardhuntgroup.com 01322 414000

This was anything but junk mail. The NSPCC’s annual ‘Letter from Santa’ campaign invited the customer to log on to an online ordering portal and choose the visual design they wanted to send before using data input fields to customise their letter online. The printer in Dartford, Kent, finessed a campaign involving 15 million inserts with ordering forms as well as messages to drive ordering online, 4,000 posters and 2,000 leaflet dispensers. “The NSPCC piece in particular brilliantly demonstrated how to
deliver an end-to-end mailer,” was the verdict of the judges, who were focusing not just on print but the full range of finishing techniques including folding, perforating, personalisation, die-cutting and pop-ups. “In fact all the samples were innovative.”

www.northsidegraphics.com 028 9022 2111

This year’s winner grew from a tiny acorn to a seven-figure turnover in under four years. Only a few minutes from Belfast city centre, the 41-staff company is in capital form, and in the past year has expanded its digitalprinting.co.uk offering with a second brand for trade buyers, tradedigitalprint.co.uk, and invested heavily in capex, people, software and marketing. All the while it has been bumping up profitability, leaving one judge with high expectations for 2018 and beyond: “A fantastic business, I’m sure this will be the first of many awards. And, who knows, perhaps Northside Graphics is a future Company of the Year?”

www.paragon-europe.com 020 7601 6270

It was in the cards. Paragon took the top spot in this category thanks to entries including Hyundai Tarot Cards – a fitting theme for a category that focuses as much on targeted messaging and the handling of complex data, meanings and interpretations as the printed product itself. The job, in runs of multiple thousands a month, rolled off its digital kit to form part of a winning hand that also included a Hyundai Free Paint Campaign, Hyundai Pop-Up Monthly Mailings and Architas Investment ONE Statement. “The entire entry showed a clever use of analytics to drive innovation for creative products that deliver fantastic response rates,” the judges said of a team that dovetailed excellence in colour with smart applications.

www.pureprint.com 01825 768811

A three times runner-up in the magazine category, Pureprint turned the page this year to go one better and was “a natural winner,” according to judges. They were particularly won over by the variety of techniques, which were “impressive and showed incredible innovation”. Use of special metallic and fluorescent colours defined the print for issue 17 of Berenberg Equities Highlights. Meanwhile, a lifestyle supplement for Love magazine had to wow a client hugely demanding on colour and quality. It did just that with a six-page four-colour cover in four different versions with gloss coatings. The printer in Uckfield, East Sussex, also entered issue 12 of Hole & Corner magazine and Gagosian Spring 2017 issue to prove it really is a natural.

www.push-print.com 020 7231 1166

“These guys understand what makes a beautiful book,” said judges of the London printer that went one further in 2017 after being runner-up twice in three years. The Gestalt book, for example, ticked the two key boxes essential to anyone aspiring to win this category: highest quality of print and precision binding. The 1,000 copies boasted lightweight gloss art paper with course screen rulings, foil-blocked spine and cover and immaculate thread. “The book is print perfection personified,” concluded judges of an entry that also included a David Bailey title and a We Transfer book with a 10-day delivery date from receipt of artwork.

www.rapidity.com 020 7689 8686

A client wanted to sell his swanky house in Malta, but first came the marketing to an international audience. A limited run of only 40 books saw them covered in calfskin leather, pared by hand and antiqued using Aniline dyes and waxes. The books went into clamshell boxes covered with Brillianta Natur Linen Cloth and inlaid with Skivertex cloth. The boxes were then foiled in 22ct gold on an 1896 Imperial stamping press, to the client’s delight: “What you produced surpasses anything I could have imagined; I
have a copy on display in my hallway.” Judges, also weighing up material for Halcyon Gallery, an architect’s presentation and a workspace pitch, picked up on the brochure: “The book just oozed opulence; a truly stunning example of quality finishing,” said one. Another: “Simply exceptional entry.”

www.smpgroup.co.uk 020 8855 5535

As well as high-quality print, judges for the out-of-home (OOH) category were looking for in-situ effectiveness and outstanding customer service for everything from billboards to bus wraps. London’s SMP Group won praise for the breadth of its entries - Lloyds Windows, a Specsavers 48-sheet, a Porsche building wrap and Paddy Power experiential bus wrap. The latter focused on Leicester City’s surprise crowning as Premier League champions and included an open-top-bus vinyl wrap that rolled off a 1.6m-wide HP Latex machine. Printing took place over two days with wrapping completed in a day. The print scored a direct hit, with people reaching for their cameras to capture the head-turning green bus with cheering betting winners on board. The judges joined in the fun: “A really impressive range of entries, hats off to the team.”

www.labmak.co.uk 01274 681151

A runner-up three years running, their boat finally came in. Bradford’s Label Makers won one of our most challenging categories thanks to several labels including one for Mary Rose Gin. It was named after Henry VIII’s flagship and 6,500 two-layered laminated labels were possible only because of super-accurate latest-generation digital and process kit. The first layer was reverse printed blue and black on a digital inkjet line and then repassed for a white background. Second layer, a Fasson polypropylene opaque material with bright silver reverse, was printed with a juniper, rosemary and grapefruit background. “Impressive entry,” said judges of labels for Kakapo wine and Lanique Liqueur Spirit as well as Mary Rose Gin. “The latter was a beautiful label, simply stunning - so many processes involved, but they pulled it off.”

www.wyndeham.co.uk 01726 892400

The printer in St Austell, Cornwall, pumped up the volume in this reconfigured category on longer-run magazines produced gravure or web offset. Stepping up to the plate were issues of Boat International, Love, Harrods and World of Interiors. The first is a high-quality magazine for the super-rich printed in runs of 25,000 on heavilly coated paper with high levels of ink coverage. Skilled press minders ensured no marking or blistering as hot paper cooled in chill rollers during high-speed, wideweb production. A tight schedule and heavy ink coverage on highly coated paper made the 55,000 copies of Love technically challenging. But “all of the entries showed a great image ‘lift’, which helped achieve stunning results across the board,” said one judge, backed up by another praising “beautiful print that just sings off the page”.

www.wyndeham.co.uk 01202 628300

The eye-witness account said it all: “I have witnessed first-hand the care the Wyndeham Southernprint team takes in producing a high-quality product and was amazed by the attention to detail throughout the whole printing process,” read the client testimonial. Covers for the 73,000 Claygate catalogues were printed on a 300gsm woodfree gloss with a matt laminate and spot UV. A major challenge was managing, palletising and storing 56 versions of the cover ranging from 150 to 900 copies per version. The judges’ verdict for an entry, which also included catalogues for Action Handling, Farla Medical and the Step Directory, was as emphatic: “The Claygate catalogue showed great colour consistency, which is no mean feat especially when you consider it was a multi-versioned product with 56 different covers.”