Take Your Shot —Polischuk

One of my favorite days of the year is when we host the judging for packagePRINTING’s Excellence Awards competition. I should qualify this, because it’s a favorite work day. I still like Christmas better.

On our “judgement day,” several industry representatives from a broad spectrum of package-printing segments come to our office to scrutinize the fine details of hundreds of entries. This is no easy task because the Excellence Awards competition covers virtually every segment of package printing. The judges move from tags and labels and flexible packaging to folding cartons and corrugated materials. Within these categories, they compare and contrast entries that are printed using the major technologies—flexo, offset, gravure, screen, and digital, along with combinations of everything there is.

Recent Best of Show award winners (the competition’s top honor) have represented some of the industry’s hottest trends. In 2005, Spear won the award for its “Bacardi Big Apple” label. This entry used combination printing on a clear film substrate to provide an impressive no-label-look label.

In 2006, Marilyn Monroe graced the August cover of packagePRINTING. Rotocolor’s “Marilyn Merlot” flexo-printed label won top honors because it represented the epitome of the quality strides that flexographic printing had achieved during the preceding years.

Last year, it was “digital’s day.” Dow Industries won Best of Show with its Yankee Candle “Canary Island Banana” label. This label required high-end graphics on an SKU that demanded small and frequent orders with short lead times. Digital printing was the answer for Dow Industries, highlighting the growing impact that digital printing is making in the package-printing market.

This year, the Excellence Awards competition heads into its 22nd year. Judging will be held in June with the winners presented in packagePRINTING’s August issue. This competition is an opportunity for package printers to put their best foot forward and to be judged by a panel of industry experts.

What will win top honors in 2008? Will it represent a cutting-edge trend or exceptional workmanship applied to a creative design? Remember what hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, once said, “You miss every shot you don’t take.”

Take your shot at winning the 2008 Best of Show award. Look for the contest brochure that will be mailed out in March, or visit our Web site at www.packageprinting.com and download an entry form.

We welcome your comments regarding any part of packagePRINTING. They can be addressed to Editor, packagePRINTING, 1500 Spring Garden St., Ste. 1200, Philadelphia, PA 19130, or to tpolischuk@napco.com.

Tom Polischuk