The Body Language Series won the books category and was selected as the overall winner. The judges praised its “outstanding” typography and good choice of colours. The booklets were designed by Valle Walkley and printed by Push on 120gsm Olin Regular in natural white. Push also printed the winning entries in the brochures (product) and brochures (corporate) categories, both designed by Made Thought. Other category winners were: Geordie Dave, designer of the winning direct mail entry, which was printed by Team Impression. The stationery award went to designer AV Brown with printing by Belfast Print Workshop. Brochures (services) was won by Alphabetical and printed by Identity Press. The winning designer of annual or interim reports was Radford Wallis, with printing by Gavin Martin. Five Foot Six won magazines and catalogues category, printed by Empress Litho; Best in digital print was designed by Magpie Studio and printed by Gavin Martin. The recycled paper category was designed by Radford Wallis and printed by Gavin Martin; Finally, the winning creative paper award was designed by The Designers Republic and printed by Evolution Print. Around 150 guests attended the awards ceremony, held at London’s iconic Abbey Road studios. It capped off a busy period for Antalis. The merchanting group announced earlier this week that it would acquire Xerox’s €300m (£256m) turnover office paper and digital print media business, and also recently sealed an exclusive distribution deal with display graphics substrate specialist Drytac....

The printer in Mitcham, Surrey, has achieved the Heidelberg ISO 12647-2 certification to prove it can consistently match colour throughout a run and from job to job. Managing director Danny Sullivan said: “We are heavily concentrated on brand quality and consistency with blue-chip clients and will flag up this award to customers in a brochure with case studies. “We hope this certification could push us more towards print management companies and design agencies because there is a failure within the industry of colour consistency.” Positive Images, only the 17th company to win the Heidelberg certificate, works for household names in sectors such as health and retail. Printed material includes brochures, leaflets and stationery. The four-day process saw Heidelberg taskmasters check prepress, calibration and printing. Sheets were sent for scrutiny to Germany, and test sheets must be sent every six months. Certification renewal is every two years. Sullivan installed a £1m Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 75-5+L two years ago and also runs a six-colour Speedmaster 74 and a raft of digital kit. The newest investment included Axis Control spectral measurement which Sullivan said “eats up all the work but is still not at capacity”. “We bought the XL because we had already invested heavily in IT at the front end and in post-press but not in the pressroom because of the level of expenditure required. But push came to shove and we had to invest.” The extra capacity has changed Positive Images’ average runs from between 5,000 and 25,000 to much longer runs for brochures, Sullivan said. Brother and production director Mike Sullivan said an added bonus of the XL was sustainability. The kit runs with virtually no alcohol and very few start up sheets. Heidelberg colour specialist Steve Fowler said: “Colour quality sells. Print management companies were the first to demand provable colour standards but this has become a requirement for a growing number of tenders. “Print colour management focuses the mind on production processes and so has the side benefit of reducing variables and with that, cutting waste as well as minimising the risk of disputed or rejected jobs. “Printers can even supply their customers with documentation to prove that the colour quality was produced to the tightest parameters,” he...

The printer in Mitcham, Surrey, has achieved the Heidelberg ISO 12647-2 certification to prove it can consistently match colour throughout a run and from job to job. Managing director Danny Sullivan said: “We are heavily concentrated on brand quality and consistency with blue-chip clients and will flag up this award to customers in a brochure with case studies. “We hope this certification could push us more towards print management companies and design agencies because there is a failure within the industry of colour consistency.” Positive Images, only the 17th company to win the Heidelberg certificate, works for household names in sectors such as health and retail. Printed material includes brochures, leaflets and stationery. The four-day process saw Heidelberg taskmasters check prepress, calibration and printing. Sheets were sent for scrutiny to Germany, and test sheets must be sent every six months. Certification renewal is every two years. Sullivan installed a £1m Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 75-5+L two years ago and also runs a six-colour Speedmaster 74 and a raft of digital kit. The newest investment included Axis Control spectral measurement which Sullivan said “eats up all the work but is still not at capacity”. “We bought the XL because we had already invested heavily in IT at the front end and in post-press but not in the pressroom because of the level of expenditure required. But push came to shove and we had to invest.” The extra capacity has changed Positive Images’ average runs from between 5,000 and 25,000 to much longer runs for brochures, Sullivan said. Brother and production director Mike Sullivan said an added bonus of the XL was sustainability. The kit runs with virtually no alcohol and very few start up sheets. Heidelberg colour specialist Steve Fowler said: “Colour quality sells. Print management companies were the first to demand provable colour standards but this has become a requirement for a growing number of tenders. “Print colour management focuses the mind on production processes and so has the side benefit of reducing variables and with that, cutting waste as well as minimising the risk of disputed or rejected jobs. “Printers can even supply their customers with documentation to prove that the colour quality was produced to the tightest parameters,” he...

The two are due to return to the High Court on Friday 28 June in the latest turn to a dispute that followed a ballot of 112,000 union members last month over alleged unfair competiton from the likes of TNT and working conditions. The vote, on a 74% turnout, resulted in a 92% “yes” vote to the question ‘do you support the boycott of competitors’ mail?’. But at court on Wednesday 19 June the CWU undertook not to up the boycott ante for at least a week. A union spokeswoman said: “Royal Mail had already given notice they intended take this court action before they knew the result of the ballot. It was very jumpy about the boycott element of the ballot. “In effect they tried to take out an injunction on something we hadn’t done, but we had agreed with Royal Mail we would not do anything for seven days. There was no injunction, so this is a bit of a nothing.” However a boycott was still possible, she insisted: “There’s little I can say until next Friday. There could be another hearing, but that’s crystal ball gazing. It depends on what happens between now and then. “I really don’t know what will happen next. This has never been done before; nobody has ever suggested boycotting particular types of mail, it’s a complete unknown and we can’t say anything. “But a boycott is still possible. The overwhelming majority of members at Royal Mail have spoken in favour of that action and they are ready and willing to do that.” A spokesman for Royal Mail said he could not comment on an ongoing legal process, but a prepared statement from the organisation said: “CWU has in the High Court given an undertaking not to induce its members employed by Royal Mail to refuse to handle access letters and parcels. This is pending a further hearing at the High Court on Friday June 28. “As a result any direction by the Communication Workers Union that postmen and women should refuse to handle Access letters and parcels would be unlawful. “Royal Mail is fully committed to the delivery of all of the mail entrusted to us and we have consistently made clear we would take all appropriate steps to prevent any disruption of this.” Under Downstream Access contracts, Royal Mail accepts letters and parcels at its mail centres that have been partially sorted by large customers and other postal operators and delivers to homes and firs for an agreed price. This accounts for around half of the Royal Mail daily post bag and is big business. The spokesman said: “The CWU has cited concerns over competition in direct delivery as a...

The two are due to return to the High Court on Friday 28 June in the latest turn to a dispute that followed a ballot of 112,000 union members last month over alleged unfair competiton from the likes of TNT and working conditions. The vote, on a 74% turnout, resulted in a 92% “yes” vote to the question ‘do you support the boycott of competitors’ mail?’. But at court on Wednesday 19 June the CWU undertook not to up the boycott ante for at least a week. A union spokeswoman said: “Royal Mail had already given notice they intended take this court action before they knew the result of the ballot. It was very jumpy about the boycott element of the ballot. “In effect they tried to take out an injunction on something we hadn’t done, but we had agreed with Royal Mail we would not do anything for seven days. There was no injunction, so this is a bit of a nothing.” However a boycott was still possible, she insisted: “There’s little I can say until next Friday. There could be another hearing, but that’s crystal ball gazing. It depends on what happens between now and then. “I really don’t know what will happen next. This has never been done before; nobody has ever suggested boycotting particular types of mail, it’s a complete unknown and we can’t say anything. “But a boycott is still possible. The overwhelming majority of members at Royal Mail have spoken in favour of that action and they are ready and willing to do that.” A spokesman for Royal Mail said he could not comment on an ongoing legal process, but a prepared statement from the organisation said: “CWU has in the High Court given an undertaking not to induce its members employed by Royal Mail to refuse to handle access letters and parcels. This is pending a further hearing at the High Court on Friday June 28. “As a result any direction by the Communication Workers Union that postmen and women should refuse to handle Access letters and parcels would be unlawful. “Royal Mail is fully committed to the delivery of all of the mail entrusted to us and we have consistently made clear we would take all appropriate steps to prevent any disruption of this.” Under Downstream Access contracts, Royal Mail accepts letters and parcels at its mail centres that have been partially sorted by large customers and other postal operators and delivers to homes and firs for an agreed price. This accounts for around half of the Royal Mail daily post bag and is big business. The spokesman said: “The CWU has cited concerns over competition in direct delivery as a...