FESPA’s annual awards programme which celebrates print excellence is now open for its 2015 Awards. The global competition is open to any print service provider anywhere in the world, culminating at the prize-giving ceremony at FESPA’s Gala Dinner on May 19, 2015 during FESPA 2015 in Cologne, Germany.
This year the global competition consists of 21 categories, 17 covering a variety of application themes including in-store; fine art print; decals, outdoor and vehicle decoration; special effect print; garment and wearables; interior decoration; and industrial and functional project of the year. Each category can be entered with work created using either a digital print process, screen print process or a combination of any print process.
Entries to the Awards, sponsored by Kornit Digital (fashion and garment decoration), MS Printing Solutions (interior decoration project) and Mimaki (Young Star Award) will be judged by an independent panel of global industry experts. The judging criteria is: Excellence in execution and technical expertise of print quality; appropriate use of techniques, design, media; creativity for the application; and selling efficiency/ROI for the end user of the printed item. All entries must have supporting documentation which will give an explanation of the technique used, high resolution imagery and samples of the print.
Outside of the application-led categories, there are four separate categories: Young Star, Best in Show, FESPA Hall of Fame Award and People’s Choice. The Young Star award is open to an employee or student in a print related discipline between 16 and 25. Best in Show is decided by the judges, from the shortlisted entries, for the piece of work that offers the most outstanding example of print. The Hall of Fame Award is dedicated to the best printer, voted for by the FESPA Community from a shortlist of printers nominated by their peers. The People’s Choice award is also voted for by the FESPA community at Kölnmesse during FESPA 2015.
Duncan MacOwan, head of events and new media, FESPA, comments: “Last year was the first year we opened the Awards to the global print community and we got some fantastic entries demonstrating the power of print from around the world. For the 2015 Awards we have added more categories compared to 2014 as we felt the existing categories didn’t illustrate the full scope of printing techniques that could be used. The FESPA Awards are a great way of highlighting the creativity that can be demonstrated through print across digital, screen and textile print. It is a platform to inspire our global print community and to motivate other PSPs to push the boundaries of print.
“Winning or even being shortlisted for a FESPA Award is a significant endorsement of a print business’ skill and expertise which enables printers to instil confidence with potential and existing customers. Printers have to be in it to win it, so PSPs should enter their best work.”
For more information, the full list of categories or to enter the FESPA Awards 2015, visit: www.fespa.com/awards