Adams Print was the big winner at the National Print Awards, taking home three gold medals and both the Heidelberg and Judges awards, while small seven-man Tasmanian firm Focal Print also bagged three golds.
The Geelong-based Adams Print won gold in both the case bound and limp bound book printing categories, and won the one, two or three colour printing title for the Richard White 2014 Calendar.
It was its entries for book printing which won the most prestigious awards – the inaugural Judges’ Award for Excellence with the case-bound book, ‘The Extraordinary Life of Sir Charles Lloyd Jones’ – considered to be the Award’s premier honour.
The company also took out the Heidelberg Award for Excellence in Craft for its limp bound book, ‘Geelong Art Gallery – Collections’; The company improved on last year’s strong showing where it won two golds.
[Related: All the winners from NPA 2014]
Production manager Robert Soutar was surprised by the firm’s incredible showing, putting it down to patience, hard work and attention to detail.
“We weren’t expecting to win any, I’ve been calling Geelong all night saying ‘we won another”, he says.
“You have to have the right clients to be able to produce quality work. So much of the market is price driven, but we were lucky enough to have clients that care about quality.
“It’s great to have customers that see printing the same way we do.”
Soutar says staff at Adams Print care deeply about the quality of their work, some so committed they drive from their homes in Melbourne every week.
He says finishing work is outsourced to Avon Graphics, and his printers closely monitor it to ensure quality.
“We work tirelessly, everything has to be spot on because quality is what we’re about,” he says.
“You have to care about the quality of your work or you just get sucked into the price wars.
“But you also have to respect your competition or you aren’t motivated enough to keep improving and you fall behind.”
Adams Print’s kit is led by a Heidelberg Speedmaster XL105 six colour B1 press and a Heidelberg Speedmaster 52 Anicolor.
The other big winner was small Tasmanian firm Focal Printing, which with only seven full-time staff won three gold medals including the best small business award.
It was victorious in the multi-piece productions and campaigns; and booklets, catalogues and magazines saddle-stitched categories.
Owner Geoff White says his family printer has been producing quality work for a long time but has only recently started entering awards at the urging of his children who he hopes will soon take the reins of the company.
“It’s easier to keep the quality high in a small company than a bigger one,” he says.
“You have to be diligent and work at it to make sure you don’t let it slip, and motivate staff to do their best.”
White says he has worked to establish a tradition of quality throughout the business, employing a Swiss-trained production manager to oversee it on the floor, and has tried to instil the same values in his children.
“He comes from a high-quality background like me, so I think we have assembled a great team that can keep the tradition alive,” he says.
“There’s a bit of luck involved too, but I think the harder I work, the luckier I get.”
White says Focal Printing invested in quality equipment, such as a Ryobi five colour with coater offset press, allowing the firm to handle long and short run orders of quality work.
[Related: More awards news]
Perth digital printer Discus on Demand won the Currie Group Award for the Most Innovative Use of Imaging in Printing for ‘Brothers Wedding Book’, which won the gold award for Innovation. It added a second gold for digital wide format printing.
Double golds also went to STI Group and Rawson Graphics from NSW, and Picpress and Mercedes Waratah from Victoria.
Despite having the most nominations, with nods in seven categories after it dominated the WA PICAs, Perth firm Scott Print only managed one gold for the booklets, catalogues and magazines bound by any method but saddle-stitching category.
Offset Alpine, coming off three golds last year and with six nominations, also only won gold once and fellow 2013 tripe award winner Platypus Graphics left the ceremony without a single win.
Most of the remaining Golds went to South Australia, with The Bowden Group, Finsbury Green, Newstyle Printing, Openbook Howden Design & Print, Cutler Innovative Print Solutions all going home with a top Award.
The Fuji Xerox Award for the Most Effective Use of Digital Printing Technologies was given to Momento Pro for their entry, ‘Bhutan – Black Ribbon’,
The Media Super Future Leaders Award, created to recognise and reward exceptional young employees and ‘future leaders’ of the industry, was presented to John Billett, a print machinist with Foot & Playstead in Tasmania.
About 400 guests attended the awards at Sydney’s Westin hotel on Friday, which was hosted by Radio and TV presenter Libbi Gorr along with Melbourne businessman Will Fowles, with comedian and ventriloquist Dean Atkinson providing entertainment.
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