Pretty Perfect Piece

The Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute's (TLMI) Label Awards competition is an event that converter members always look forward to. The announcement of the award winners at TLMI's Annual Meeting, skillfully presented by Steve Lee, VP at RotoMetrics and chairman of the Awards Competition Committee, is one of the highlights of the annual awards banquet.

Not surprisingly in the current economic climate, participation in this year's competition was down somewhat from previous years. Even so, a total of 55 awards were presented, including 37 first-place awards, 17 second place awards, and the coveted Best of Show award.

According to Lee, even though participation was down, "the overall quality of the entries was very good. Once again the Digital Printing category grew quite a bit," he notes.

Judge Jim Flynn, manager, print technology for Gallus, also noted the number of top-quality digital labels, along with a noticeable number of shrink labels in many different categories and a lot of what he termed multi-web structures. "We saw a lot of intricate, elaborate constructions that we had to dissect. Analyzing the constructions was actually a lot of fun."

In terms of the total number of awards, McDowell Label and Screen Printing was a big winner. It took home eight awards, including five first-place honors and three seconds. Other multiple first-place finishers included Collotype Labels USA, Dow Industries, Label Technology, Multi-Color Corp., and TAPP Technologies—all with two first-place finishes.

In the International categories, KimBells pack and Collotype Labels International Holdings each took home three first-place honors. Labelgraphics (Glasgow) won three prizes, including two firsts and one second.

Best of the best

Selecting the Best of Show entry is always a difficult proposition and was especially so this year. "It was a tough pick between the last three left out for Best of Show," says Lee. "The Judges deliberated for a long while before picking the winner."

The Best of Show honors for 2009 went to Logmatix for its Red Rain Decals entry. This flexo-printed decal was produced using Water Ink Technologies inks, RotoMetrics tooling, and Harper Corp. anilox rolls.

"This year's Best Of Show winner was at the top of the judges' list in all categories," reports Paul Teachout, SE technical graphics advisor for Harper Corp. "From the appeal, purpose, technical difficulty, and all-around design, the execution of the label was close to perfect, very well done."

"The Best of Show selection was difficult," notes Flynn. "There was some stiff competition, including digital entries." In the end, it won because the judges felt it was a "pretty perfect piece—it needed to be to win," says Flynn. pP