PIAZ Gala Recap

The extraordinary Unmasked:

PIAZ’s 7th Annual Print Excellence Awards Gala

The Printing Industries of Arizona’s (PIAZ) 7th Annual Print Excellence Awards Gala held January 30, 2009, unmasked the extraordinary in a big way this year. The event, an annual celebration of print excellence in the Arizona graphics community, took place at Tempe Center for the Arts.

Taking top honors this year was Courier Graphics. The company was awarded Best of Show for its own corporate marketing materials, designed and produced internally. Courier also took top honors for Best Magazine with the FBR Open magazine.

Other big winners were Cereus Graphics with five Best of Category winners, Arizona Lithographers with four, O’Neil Printing with three, West Press with one and a Scottsdale Community College student with one.

In addition to all of the festivities, the 2009 Printing Industries of Arizona installed its new Board of Directors. Cathy Skoglund of ASU Print & Imaging Lab takes the chair, with Laura Nelson of AWT as secretary, Melissa Doppler of O’Neil Printing as treasurer and Kevin Bannon of Runbeck Election Services as immediate past chair. The directors are Marcus Newton, Graphics of Tempe; Gary Matchinsky, BCT Tempe; Britt Lachemann, Morgan Stanley; Richard Erickson, Panoramic Press; Simon Beltran, xpedx; Morty Shapiro, Pitman; Steve Woods, Steve Woods Printing; Tami Dobbs, Premier Printing & Graphics; Tony Mancuso, TUI; Mike Chiricuzio, Blue Moon Solutions; Jerry Suk, Direct Digital Printing & Mailing (formally CSA Graphics); and Terry Sutter, Cereus Graphics.

left to right: Jen Saunders, pIaZ president Sandi Neuman and Caroline pilkington share a moment in the lakeside room.

Unmasking the extraordinarily good time — party-goers enjoy the ambiance of the tempe Center for the arts.

best of show Courier graphics PhoENIx, AZ