This year’s winning formula was down to “good vibrancy and a good balanced entry, with excellent detail throughout,” said the judges of an eclectic but beautifully executed mix of posters. In the first half of 2013, Bombay Sapphire ran a six-sheet nationwide poster campaign. Different variations of the creative were used on a range of formats including several super-large format backlit skins, the largest of which was a 4,400-run litho-printed 4.5x18m series. Samsung also needed a six-sheet poster to promote the launch of its latest handset, but campaign artwork was received with only 24 hours to deadline for delivery of posters. Key to grabbing attention with Diageo’s Parrot Bay posters was use of extreme colours in the artwork. Meanwhile a cross-format campaign marked the launch of the new Fiat 500L. This culminated in large format 96-sheet posters with a ‘grow up’ theme, from a printer that has proved it has come of age. www.smpgroup.co.uk 020 8855 5535 FINALISTS Augustus Martin SMP Group...

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...

Artwork for the Paper Rose cards was supplied via FTP for proofing using Sherwood’s inkjet proofing system. The cards were then litho printed in a six-colour Hexachrome set of vegetable-based inks with an overall semi-matt varnish with offline spot UV varnish. The range of cards was multi-level textured embossed on the face of the card. The Hexachrome print on this range was a key to success and the emboss on the characters made them come to life. Brightness gave the cards shelf presence and helped to drive product selection and sales, while landing top prize and praise this year for the Sherwood Press Group. www.sherwood-press.co.uk 0115 928 7766 COMMENDED Loxleys Print www.loxleys.co.uk 0114 250 1150 The ‘Back to Black’ card was clean, simple, striking and “stunningly printed”, said the judges. Both texture and visual appearance of intricate detail on the thermographic process, which involved clear thermographic print with black ink, was of upmost importance. The cards were printed single-colour litho. FINALISTS Loxleys Print Piccolo Press The Sherwood Press Group Windles Group...

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...

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...