HP announces Print Excellence Awards 2012 winners

HP has announced the winners of its Print Excellence Awards 2012. The awards will be presented at a celebratory evening in Düsseldorf on May 3.

The competition recognizes the best examples of creativity and print quality produced across HP's digital portfolio in 21 categories across commercial print, sign and display, and labels and packaging applications. Submissions were open to users of HP Indigo, Inkjet Web Press, Scitex and Designjet systems and attracted entries from 364 customers from 47 countries.

Judging was conducted by an international team of experts: Yolanda Simonsis, editorial director PFFC-online, USA; Jean Poncet, editor in chief, Etiq & Pack, France; Eric Pierre, creative director, BBDO Paris, France; Stan Kilpin, publisher, Cygnet Publications, Australia; Boaz Rossano, CEO Video Dubber, Israel; David L Zwang, president, Zwang & Co., USA; Stephen Sonnenfeld, VP advertizing and brand integration, Thomson Reuters, USA; Nir Navot, art director, Amdocs Israel; and Sophie Matthews-Paul, independent consultant, UK.

‘It was exciting to see the way print service providers and their customers were able to push the envelope with the HP print technologies, especially the Indigo,’ said Zwang. ‘Offset print has always been the benchmark that people use to set their expectation for quality print. There is no doubt in my mind that the Indigo print entries we saw not only met that level, but exceeded it.’

‘It was my honor to participate as a judge,’ said Simonsis. ‘I believe the tipping point for digital in the label and packaging industries will arrive sooner than others anticipated. Digital easily executes complex designs with perfectly registered type so fine you need a loupe to read it, vignettes so subtle and skin tones so lifelike that it now certainly surpasses analogue technologies that struggle to replicate effectively without waste.’

‘The HP Print Excellent Awards concentrate on innovation,’ said Matthews-Paul. ‘However, they also look at environmentally responsible printing. We considered how entrants demonstrated creativity and skill. Seeing how the criteria were interpreted in the submissions from different parts of the world was very interesting.’

Awards were categorized by device category and by application type. The judges said that after lengthy discussions, the decisions on all winners were unanimous.

‘The response to this competition exceeded our expectations. The quality of the submissions reflected how creative agencies and enterprises benefit from a wide range of applications that PSPs are producing on HP digital presses and printers,’ said François Martin, worldwide marketing director, graphic solutions business, HP. ‘Receiving submissions from nearly 50 countries demonstrates the spread of digital printing around the world as well as confidence in our technologies and innovations.’

A complete list of all winners is available at www.hp.com/go/pea2012winners.

Pictured: Judging was conducted by an international team of experts

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