L9 announces winners of 2019 World Label competition

The L9 is an alliance of global label associations formed to jointly formulate policies and to collect strategic information of global interest to the worldwide label industries. The members were invited to submit entries in the 22 classes of the competition ensuring the results truly represent the worldwide label industry. The class structure encompasses all the principal printing processes and market applications. 

The competition, now in its 18th edition, received a total of 68 entries from FINAT (Europe), JFLP (Japan), TLMI (USA), FPLMA (Australia), SALMA (New Zealand), LMAI (India) and PEIAC (China). Entries are selected by a panel of judges from each association with the proviso that the label must have won an award in their respective local competition. The entry must be submitted by one of the L9 member associations, which are limited to entering only one label in each class.

Winning a WLA award is considered to be the peak of attainment in the international label industry and provides the winning converter a platform to use their achievements for strong marketing purposes. The brand owner, design studio, the pre-press operation and finally the printer all share in the glory of winning. The label industry has, for some years, coined the term ‘Technical Oscars of the Label Industry’ for the awards. 

The judging, which took place in Brussels the day before the Labelexpo Europe at the exhibition venue, resulted in 27 winners and 21 honorable mentions.

‘The judges take their task very seriously and discussion between the judges and their opinions can occupy a considerable amount of time before they come to an agreement. We are very dependent on the technical information which is provided by the converter which in some cases can be the fine dividing line between success and failure,’ said Tony White, chairman of the judging panel. ‘With quality levels increasing year on year we face a task that continually challenges us to make the correct decision regarding the award-winning entries.’

The judges for the WLA 2019 competition included Tony White, chairman representing FINAT, Masaaki Yoshitabe and Yohei Noguchi representing JFLP, Lindsey Boyd representing FPLMA, Paul Teachout representing TLMI, Jean Lee, Dongie Wu and Jikin representing PEIAC, Amit Sheth and Ajay Metha representing LMAI and Noel Mitchell as a visiting judge.

Best of the Best Awards 2019

For the past seven years, the L9 World Label awards Association has commissioned five additional awards to represent the best labels in each of the main printing processes. These awards are selected from the winning labels after the judging of all the classes has been completed in the following classes: flexography, letterpress, offset litho, combination printing and digital printing. The plaques will be presented, and the winners revealed during the Labelexpo Americas event in Chicago in September 2020.

The Results (you can see all winning labels on our Instagram acccount)

Class 2: Flexo Line/Screen

• HM TLMI: Syracuse Label & Surround Printing, USA for “Ginger Raspberry Kombucha”
• HM FINAT: IPE Industria Gráfica S.L.U., Spain for “Parisparkless”

Class 3: Flexo Colour Process

• Winner PEIAC: Guangzhou Guangcai Labels Co. Ltd., China for “Brew Beer”
• HM TLMI: Labeltronix for “Copper Wings IPA”
• HM FPLMA: Studio Labels for “200 Miles”

Class 4: Flexo Wines/Spirits

• Winner TLMI: Multi-Color Corporation North America Wine & Spirits, USA for “Freakshow Chardonnay”
• HM PEIAC: Beijing Deji Information Technology Co., Ltd., China for “Vodka Bottle”
• Class 6: Letterpress Line/Screen
• HM LMAI: Any Graphics Pvt., India for “Willowood Wilicon”

Class 7: Letterpress Colour Process

• Winner JFLP: Shinwa Label, Japan for ”Konbucha”
• HM FINAT: Ҫiftsan Etiket, Turkey for “Savon de Royal”

Class 8: Letterpress Wines/Spirits

• Winner FINAT: Kolibri BV, The Netherlands for “Ron de Jeremy Rum”
• HM JFLP: Shimokuni, Japan for “1st Anniversary 2018 Kamikawa Taisetsu”

Class 10: Offset Line/Screen

• Winner JFLP: Labelhouse (VIC), Australia for “Alpine Cider Sparkling Apple Juice 330ml”
• HM PEIAC: Shandong Taibao Anti-Counterfeiting Technology Products Co. Ltd., China for “Shui Jingfang Memorial Ticket”

Class 11: Offset Colour Process

• Joint Winner FINAT: Skanem Liverpool. UK for “5Ltr Edge5W30”
• Joint Winner FPLMA: Multi-Color Corporation, Australia for “Shooting Star by Gavin Wanganeen”

Class 12: Offset Wines/Spirits

• Joint Winner FINAT: Multi-Color Corporation North America Wine & Spirits, USA for “Smoking Loon Rose”
• Joint Winner FPLMA: Jamesprint, Australia for “La Di Da Malbec”
• HM TLMI: Multi-Color Corporation North America Wine & Spirits, USA for “Prayers of Sinners”
• HM JFLP: Seieido, Japan for ”ICHINOKURA Premium Junmai Sake”
• HM SALMA: CCL Label, New Zealand for “Emma Marris”

Class 13: Combination Line

• Joint Winner TLMI: McDowell Label & Screen Printing, USA for “Venetian Lace”
• Joint Winner FINAT: Ҫiftsan Etiket, Turkey for “Vasso Shampoo” 
• HM FPLMA: Hally Labels, Australia for “Pabst Blue Ribbon”

Class 14: Combination Line/Screen

• Winner FINAT: Ҫiftsan Etiket, Turkey for “Savon de Royal Luxury Hand Soap” 
• HM FPLMA: Label Power, Australia for “Organic Beef Liver”
• HM LMAI: Any Graphics Pvt., India for “Belly Art (Croc-Finish)”

Class 15: Combination Colour Process

• Winner TLMI: McDowell Label & Screen Printing, USA for “Athena” 
• HM SALMA: Label and Litho, New Zealand for “Auribee”

Class 16: Combination Wines/Spirits

• Joint Winner JFLP: Marushin, Japan for ”Watakeya Sake”
• Joint Winner FPLMA: Labelhouse (VIC), Australia for “Archie Rose SOH Inside Gin Back Label”
• HM FINAT: IPE Industria Gráfica S.L.U., Spain for “Abadia Da Cova Blanco”

Class 17: Digital Printing

• Joint Winner FINAT: Ҫiftsan Etiket, Turkey for “Sir Asprins Multi-Purpose Stain Remover” 
• Joint Winner FPLMA: Multi-Color Corporation, Australia for “Jurlique – Rose Body Oil” 
• HM SALMA: Kiwi Labels, New Zealand for “Alpine Silk – Manuka Honey Moisture Crème”

Class 18: Digital Wines/Spirits

• Joint Winner FPLMA: Multi-Color Corporation, Australia for “The Quickening” 
• Joint Winner SALMA: Soar Print, New Zealand for “Vine Street”
• HM TLMI: Multi-Color Corporation, Mexico for “Mi Campo”

Class 19: Screen Printing

• Winner LMAI: Any Graphics Pvt., India for “Lion”
• HM FINAT: Ҫiftsan Etiket, Turkey for “Céu Shampoo”

Class 20: Gravure Printing

• Joint Winner FINAT: Multi-Color Corporation Wales, United Kingdom for “Farris Bris Limited Edition”
• Joint Winner SALMA: Gravure Packaging Ltd., New Zealand for “Whittaker’s Dark Almond 250g Block”

Class 21: Booklets

• Winner SALMA: Kiwi Labels, New Zealand for “Yalumba 8 Page ECL” 
• HM FINAT: August Faller GmbH & Co. KG., Germany for “Info-Sec”

Class 22: Innovation

• Winner FINAT: Schreiner Group GmbH & Co. KG., Germany for “((rfid)) DistaFerr Wet Detect”
• Winner LMAI: Any Graphics Pvt., India for “Cut Windows = Rangoli”
• Winner PEIAC: Shenzhen Zhengxinyuan Co. Ltd., China for “Security Label Based on Optics”