Patak’s decided digital print was the answer for short runs of flexible packaging due to the reduced set-up time, cost and ease of use. Ultimate’s digital print division, launched only last year, insists that when required, digital print can be matched to conventional print techniques. Digital print offers print quality when very small text and details are required, and it also provides strong and colourful vignettes across film, says the company in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. Judges agreed, singling out time spent on repro as “probably the factor that swung it for this entry – it was beautifully done”. www.ultimate-packaging.co.uk 01472 255400 COMMENDED Interflex www.interflexgroup.com 0191 501 1777 Tesco Toffee Popcorn and Kit Kat two-finger Cookies and Cream bars helped Interflex, based in Midlothian and Sunderland, score well this year. Registration control on the press was critical to the quality of the Kit Kat packaging. This design was printed on a Flexotecnica Tachys press using Sun Chemical Solimax Inks, with Sandon Global’s high-volume process anilox rolls. FINALISTS Interflex The Sherwood Press Group Ultimate Packaging...

Take Bentley’s new Flying Spur brochure, with a printed spec as impressive as the car’s: produced in six languages on a six-colour press with inline anilox coating, in-press spectro control and the latest hybrid screening, every detail is superb. The use of gloss and soft-touch spot UV varnishing captures the luxury paintwork and interior veneers. The Jaguar XFR-S Saver brochure, meanwhile, has a clean, modern look requiring the finest detail print to do justice to this highest of high-specification cars. Some 5,000 copies were produced to a tight five-day schedule that sent judges into automative overdrive: “What a fantastic submission.” www.hampton-printing.co.uk 01275 374466 COMMENDED Empress Litho www.empresslitho.com 020 8316 6648 The south London printer was a close runner up, said judges, wooed by Stella McCartney’s Sport Spring/Summer 2013 brochure, which juxtaposed images on coated and uncoated paper and sashayed off two six-colour litho presses – “a great example of a printer executing a challenging design expertly”. FINALISTS Empress Litho Hampton Printing (Bristol) Print 4 Taylor Bloxham The Westdale Press Sponsored by Premier Paper Group...

The latter is a limited edition of 180 images comprising a clamshell box and a set of 34 leaves including 32 facsimile reproductions of the photographer’s work printed using a combination of litho and screen. This gave a high-value, fine-art feel that rubbed off on the judges: “Unquestionably the clear winner in this category, the quality of each sample supplied shone though.” The images were printed litho in four colours with an overall gloss coating. The majority of the photographic leaves also have a super matt special colour border, each colour being a unique ink mix and almost left the judges speechless, but not quite: “simply stunning.” www.pureprint.com 01825 768 811 COMMENDED Art4site www.art4site.co.uk 01233 811664 The meticulous pen and ink details of Sergio Cruz-Duran can be reproduced using only the best equipment and expertise of application. Many giclée printers continue to pursue evolving digital photographic methods, but not Art4site in Ashford, Kent. Use of trusted flatbed scanning technology helped it do justice to Cruz-Duran and this award category in one elegant stroke. FINALISTS Art4site Empress Litho Pureprint Group Sponsored by Denmaur...

Last November, the London company had to produce a giant Meerkat Tales children’s book for a nationwide promotional tour. By giant, the client meant A0-size text pages printed digitally and gloss laminated to emulate a typical children’s reading book. All production was polished off in-house within 72 hours. Impact and timing were crucial for another job: two Jaguar Land Rover presentation books, in a bespoke slipcase, with covers also printed digitally on large-format presses and gloss laminated. This was completed in fewer than 36 hours, but the judges praise was more succinct: “A clear winner in a category rammed with the wow factor.” www.screamingcolour.com 020 7549 3400 COMMENDED Empress Litho www.empresslitho.com 020 8316 6648 Last year’s finalist almost stole the crown this year with products that were, in the judges’ eyes, “awesome – no other word for them”. BrandMe 1993-2013, a designer’s own brochure celebrating 20 years of branding, boasted an 8pp cover on a landscape book without the usual join, coloured cloth spine and “good use of imaginative finishing techniques.” FINALISTS Celloglas Empress Litho Screaming Colour...

Last November, the London company had to produce a giant Meerkat Tales children’s book for a nationwide promotional tour. By giant, the client meant A0-size text pages printed digitally and gloss laminated to emulate a typical children’s reading book. All production was polished off in-house within 72 hours. Impact and timing were crucial for another job: two Jaguar Land Rover presentation books, in a bespoke slipcase, with covers also printed digitally on large-format presses and gloss laminated. This was completed in fewer than 36 hours, but the judges praise was more succinct: “A clear winner in a category rammed with the wow factor.” www.screamingcolour.com 020 7549 3400 COMMENDED Empress Litho www.empresslitho.com 020 8316 6648 Last year’s finalist almost stole the crown this year with products that were, in the judges’ eyes, “awesome – no other word for them”. BrandMe 1993-2013, a designer’s own brochure celebrating 20 years of branding, boasted an 8pp cover on a landscape book without the usual join, coloured cloth spine and “good use of imaginative finishing techniques.” FINALISTS Celloglas Empress Litho Screaming Colour...