If you regularly tell your clients that your print results are among the very best in the country, it’s time to prove it by getting your entries ready for the 2016 Media Super National Print Awards, which will feature three new categories and a student award.
The new categories are Typography, Illustration, Corporate Identity and Print/Digital Campaigns, plus a Student Award focusing on the unpublished concepts or printed self-promotional piece from design students.
Entries for the Awards will open mid-October and close on January 29, with judging held in the first week of February. However, as jobs printed any time from January 1 this year are eligible, those who wish to enter would do well to start putting pristine copies of their best work away now – and, with exciting new graphic categories included this year, even more businesses will have the opportunity to be involved.
According to NPA Chair Susan Heaney today’s advertisers, marketers and manufacturers are well educated about the important role print plays in delivering real ROI on their communications – but in a competitive market, they demand excellence, innovation and effectiveness from their print.
“Success at the National Print Awards is a good way to demonstrate to your clientele that you not only ‘talk the talk’ but ‘walk the walk’,” she says. “In the face of ever-increasing competition, it’s a remarkably effective way to demonstrate that your print meets the highest standards and will, therefore, help maximise the effectiveness and influence of your clients’ printed collateral as part of their campaigns and wider marketing strategies.”
The purpose of the National Print Awards has always been to ‘recognise and reward the achievement of excellence in print’ and, while categories and other elements may have changed over time to reflect the dramatic transitions in the industry over the years, this fundamental principle remains. This year, however, the graphic elements of a successful printed piece, and its importance as part of the multi-channel communications environment, will receive extra recognition.
“For well over 30 years, the National Print Awards has demonstrated that Australian printers are equal to, or better than, their counterparts anywhere in the world,” Heaney says. “With Australia at the forefront of innovative approaches and new print technologies, the quest for quality continues – and now it is time for designers, creatives, agencies and printers across the country to prepare for the 2016 Awards competition.”
Entrants will need to submit two flawless copies of each entered job, which may be produced any time from January 1, 2015 until December 31, 2015. Selecting these as soon as possible after production, and storing in a safe and secure space so they can be easily accessed and prepared for entry, is advisable says Luke Wooldridge, who has once again agreed to chair the independent NPA Judging Panel.
“The print categories for this year’s competition will be almost identical to last year’s, so entrants can use those as a guide, but this year we are excited to announce a set of new categories to really round the competition out across the entire graphic communications spectrum,” Wooldridge advises.
These will include Typography, Illustration and Corporate Identity, designed to recognise the graphic elements of a successful printed piece, Print/Digital Campaign which will look at print as part of an overall multi-channel campaign, and a newly created Student Award which will judge the unpublished concepts or printed self-promotional piece from design students.
“With a range of new possibilities opened up by these additional categories, it’s a great time for designers, creatives and agencies – as well as printers who offer these services – to plan their increased involvement, and of course there’s no reason why all print businesses can’t start to identify and set aside potential winners from the six months of eligible work they already have under their belt,” he adds.
Heaney agrees, saying past winners can attest to the value of success at the National Print Awards.
“Now’s the time to start your planning so that you, too, can enter these important Awards and reap the rewards for your business – and don’t forget to mark Friday May 20, 2016, in your diary so you can also join us in for the industry’s ‘Night of Nights’, the 2016 Media Super National Print Awards Presentation Dinner.”