Finat Congress and Label Competition 2012: subscription and entries open

Labels and Labeling thumbnail

Finat, the worldwide association for the self-adhesive label industry, has announced the entry and participation details of its annual international labeling competition and the provisional program of its congress which will take place in the Hilton Hotel in Athens, Greece, from 6-9 June 2012. Finat also revealed the winner of the congress logo contest of this year's edition.

This year's congress looks at the various aspects associated with the buzzword ‘sustainability’ for the labeling industry. It will highlight the perspective from one of the leading customers of our industry, demonstrate how to combine economy and ecology when designing packaging and labels, and allow the opportunity to share and discuss best practice with industry leaders and entrepreneurs in different areas of corporate sustainability.

In addition, the congress will bring inspiration from the Live8 (Live Aid) experience and will present an outlook into the future from a leading futurologist. And it will give participants an opportunity to learn about the latest trends and developments affecting the European self-adhesive label industry. The full program will be released in due course.

International Label Competition: final call for entries

Finat converter members and other label printers that are not yet affiliated to Finat and who have not yet entered their labels are encouraged to do so before the March 9 deadline. The Finat label competition recognizes and rewards achievements in terms of both end use/marketing impact and print and converting quality. The awards will be presented to the winners during Finat's Congress in Athens.  

This year the competition is separating all wine labels from the mainstream categories, irrespective of printing process used. This means that there are three drinks categories and one food category. This trial has been prompted because wine labels by their nature are usually aesthetically pleasing and decorative and the quality of design and printing quality has improved considerably over the years, says Finat. The intention is to allow other end use categories to have a greater chance of winning an award. This principle has also been applied to the cosmetic entries, where all cosmetic labels will be entered in the cosmetic category irrespective of printing process used allowing more scope for labels entered in the pharmaceutical and other related categories.

In recent years the Finat awards competition has seen a considerable increase in the number of entries, with the figures hovering around the 300 mark with almost two thirds of the entries to be found in the marketing/end use group.

Finat Congress logo contest

In order to encourage the next generation of graphic designers, Finat has for the past four years organized a congress logo competition. Several colleges and universities from the host country Greece were invited to submit entries from their students on the theme 'Sustainable Labeling – now is your chance'. More than 120 entries were received from two teaching establishments: the Vakalo Art & Design College and the Akto College, both located in Athens.

The final award was made to Georgios Karanikas from the Vakalo Art and Design College. He produced a simple one-color design depicting the meander, a design often seen round the walls of ancient Greek buildings. His idea was to show, in a stylized way, two hands interlinking and collaborating together illustrating the international, multi-cultural character of the Finat Congress. The judges were said to be impressed by the simplicity of design using only one color and the concept behind the design.

Tony White: How to win a label print competition

Click here for more stories about Finat on L&L.com.