May 2, 2005—Association of Graphic Communications’ 63rd Annual Graphic Arts Award Exhibition—the best and brightest of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut design and print work—took place at the Xerox Sharing Knowledge Center in New York City, April 20 and 21.

More than 600 entries were submitted for the competition, with 181 winning an award in 24 categories. Of those, only 16 were dubbed Technical Excellence Award winners; and of those 16, several were given further honors with the AGC Technical Excellence Leo Award. The Leo Award, named after Printing News founder Leo Joachim, is given based on design, printing, and finishing excellence.

Judging for the competition lasted over a three-month period and included 18 judges. Entries were looked at for production quality and the effective use of paper, type, color, binding, and other media-relevant elements. Design and function were taken into account, as well. Achievement and Showcase Awards recognized professional quality and cababilities in the Tri-State area, while the Technical Excellence Awards were selected based on outstanding production, striking appearance, innovative techniques utilized, and challenging production problems overcome.

This was the fourth year the event was held at Xerox, and the second year in which the Technical Excellence Awards were given out in a small ceremony opening the exhibition.

“Frankly, it’s rather amazing how the level of technical expertise of the region’s firms that compete year after year continues to rise,” said Ronald Assoian, Raad Graphic Arts, Saddle Brook, N.J., and one of the Leo Award winners. “All of us at Raad are very pleased not only to be able to compete again this year, but to be so consistently recognized for the third year in a row, this year with 20 awards in all. My hat is off to the competition.”

This year’s Technical Excellence winners were: Custom Capabilities Inc., New York City; Disc Graphics Inc., Hauppauge, N.Y.; Hatteras Press Inc., Manasquan, N.J.; New York Life Investment Management, Parsippany, N.J.; Oxygen Media LLC, New York City; Pictorial Offset Corp., Carlstadt, N.J., with two awards; Raad Graphic Arts Inc., with three awards; Reproduction Services Inc., Bridgeport, Conn.; Sandy Alexander Inc., Clifton, N.J.; and Toppan Printing Co. America Inc., Somerset, N.J., with two awards. In addition to Raad Graphic Arts, Custom Capabilities Inc., also received a Leo Award.

“The 2005 AGC contest featured some outstanding work,” said Jann Levesque, group publisher, Cygnus Business Media/Printing News. “The entries were some of the best I have seen in any other contests I have judged, with amazing design, printing, and finishing abilities. The Leo Award winners, in particular, demonstrated some of the most intriguing finishing techniques in the market. The winners incorporated booklets, folders, CDs and cases, folded posters, boxes, and extremely high-quality printing using difficult metallic inks and a creative use of media.”

Collaborative Efforts
Also given out at the event was the first Creo Technology Application Award, judged on the effective collaboration between printers and agencies and the innovative utilization of advanced screening applications. This new honor was bestowed upon L.P. Thebault Co., Parsippany, N.J., and agency Farrar & Farrar, New York City, for their Burberry Holiday 2004 catalog.

“We are very pleased to receive this award for this collaborative project,” said Doug Hazlett, vice president of sales and marketing for L.P. Thebault. “Farrar & Farrar came to us wanting to show Burberry’s products in the very best way possible for their Holiday 2004 catalog. Only Staccato could give us the broadest color and best detail needed to produce this superior quality product.”

“The Burberry catalog contains the most challenging print reproduction subject matter—soft pastels, four-color neutrals, fine fabric weaves, and delicate flesh tones,” said Gordon Pritchard, Creo marketing manager. “To further complicate matters, this job combined sheetfed and web presswork. L.P. Thebault met the challenge by leveraging their production skills and Staccato screening to deliver an outstanding final product.”