PINE launches print awards competition
Awards of Excellence new offering for members; entry deadline is Friday, Sept. 28
Printing Industries of New England has launched a print awards competition for its members.

The Awards of Excellence program was created to showcase the quality of printed work being produced on a regular basis by many of the trade association’s 430 member companies spread across six New England states.

Proof of the quality of work by PINE members within New England’s $12 billion print marketplace is the recent showing in the Premier Print Awards, the world’s largest print awards competition organized and managed by Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation.

In the just concluded program, 11 PINE member companies garnered 48 individual awards including two Benny Awards, which signify the very best entry in a specific category. In all, more than 5,100 entries were submitted in the Premier Print Awards and only 90 Bennys were presented.

“Our members who have entered have always done well in the national awards program,” said PINE President Jim Tepper. “We’ve established an awards program on the regional level to create an another opportunity for members to further distinguish themselves and their fine work.”

Program details
PINE’s Awards of Excellence program has 18 specific categories, some with subcategories that separate entries of three-color work or less from four-color work or more.

The categories are annual reports, brochures, calendars, catalogs, corporate identity, digital printing (with subcategories for on demand printing, variable data print jobs, and a digitally printed campaign involving multiple pieces), greeting cards/invitations/postcards, labels and packaging, magazines, miscellaneous specialties, newspapers, posters and art prints, presentation folders and binders, self promotion, special finishing, stationery packages, a print innovation category for difficult jobs where printers exceeded client expectations, and web press printing with four subcategories.

There are three divisions based on the size of companies. Division I is for firms with 20 or fewer employees. Division II is for companies with 21 to 99 employees. Division III is for firms with 100 or more employees.

The winning entries will be announced at PINE’s Industry Awards Gala, Thursday, Nov. 1 at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel, in Framingham, Mass. All Best of
Category winners will be entered at no cost into PIA/GATF’s 2008 Premier Print Awards.

Major sponsors include Adobe, Fujifilm Graphics Systems USA., Heidelberg and Xerox.

Completed Awards of Excellence entry form applications must be submitted to PINE no later than Friday, Sept. 28.

Complete program information is available at PINE’s home page, www.pine.org, or by contacting Christine Hagopian, PINE’s director of programming, at 508-804-4152 or by e-mail at .