Excellence Awards — And the Winner Is...

During the judging of packagePRINTING’s 2007 Excellence Awards, the judges’ eyes were drawn to this year’s collection of digital entries. But, one entry earned more than just a glance. Wilmington, Mass.-based Dow Industries, received the honor of Best in Show for it’s “Canary Island Banana - Hybrid” label, produced for The Yankee Candle Company. The entry is also the first-place winner in the digital labels category.

What struck judge Dean Gilbert—assistant professor, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University—was that the label’s sharpness, striking color, and offset-like quality were achieved using a digital press. “Until now, [digital printing] hasn’t really been recognized for outstanding color reproduction,” he said.

Judge Bob Waddington, general manager, UVitec Printing Ink agreed, saying the print job was on par with high-quality flexo printing. “Digital printing afforded the printer the ease of basically pressing a button and producing a job that required a fraction of the makeready time and prepress costs associated with a regular printing press job,” he said. “For small runs, the printer now has a real cost-effective edge.”

Yankee Candle’s brand, marketing, and innovation team regularly introduces graphics that show off the fragrance and product theme, and create a high-end look. As a result, the team created Yankee Candle’s World Fragrance Collection, in which authentic fragrance extracts and oils are sourced directly from countries around the world and are featured in compelling label graphics.

Dow Industries accepted the challenge of printing extremely difficult graphics onto the Canary Island Banana label. The label needed to have a hot-stamp look and transparent inks, with low annual usage and high-order frequency. Working in conjunction with Yankee’s Print Production Department, Dow chose digital as the preferred print process to achieve high-end graphics, no trapping, and tight registration, said Andy Farquharson, president, Dow Industries. The company felt digital would also help accommodate small quantities, frequent orders, and short lead times, he explained. The graphics were printed on a metalized Flexcon BOPP substrate, giving the final label a shimmery look.

Dow created a gold hot-stamp look from the silver, and used percentages of white ink for the ocean background, allowing for transparency in selected areas. The labels were press proofed in a few hours and produced on one of Dow’s HP Indigo 4000 presses. They were then off-line diecut on a Rotoflex Vericut diecutter, and slit and inspected on a Rotoflex inspection rewinder.

“The result was a stunning look that met the challenge Yankee demanded,” said Walter Dow, CEO of Dow Industries.

Let’s not forgot...

This year, packagePRINTING received almost 180 entries from 30 companies. Other digital entries of note were Copac Inc.’s “Ginseng Gold - Triple Ginseng Root,” which took second place in the digital labels category, and McDowell Label and Screen Printing’s “2003 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley,” which was the third-place winner in the same category.

The judges also spent a considerable amount of time examining Bert-Co.’s SpongeBob DVD entry, which earned first place in the folding carton, offset category. In the same category, Disc Graphics placed second for its “Divvies 4 pc. Convertible Cupcake Kit,” a compartmentalized folding carton with an internal platform to hold frosting and sprinkles.

In the Speciality category, Diamond Packaging received first place for its retro Diamond Packaging 2007 Calendar, which features a three-panel folded design and 1950s theme with colorful antique cars. The company wanted to create a promotional piece that highlighted its capabilities, including creative design, stochastic printing, printing and stamping on plastic, spot coating, foil stamping, and embossing.

Winning entries will be displayed at packagePRINTING’s Excellence Awards Reception, to be held on October 16 in conjunction with the CPP EXPO Reception. pP