PRIDE IN PRINT: LOGICK REIGNS SUPREME

Logick reigns supreme at Te Pae for Pride In Print

The industry’s premier event returns to Christchurch

A fourth supreme award win, with a piece called Touchy Feely, placed Logick Print on top at this year’s Pride In Print Awards.

The country’s premier awards took place on Friday night at Christchurch’s new Te Pae events centre attracting a larger than expected audience of industry professionals and supporters.

Touchy Feely also won the Business Print Category. B&F Papers commissioned the work, a promotional pocket book of embellished stocks. Judges called it “an extremely-complex and multi-faceted exhibition of promotional print work”.

David Gick, founder and director of Logick Print, commented on how the company’s small committed team embraced the considerable challenges in the brief to illustrate to the industry “what can be done” on the particularly textured range of Forest Stewardship Council certified stocks.

He said, “We are happy to work with people who believe we can push the boundaries and we certainly did that with that job. We have built that history over a number of years and they have seen the work that we’ve produced and how we have progressed it. I would like to say now there is the trust that if we can say we can go to that next level, they have the confidence that we can produce it.”

He explained how the job presented the opportunity to break new boundaries and “not just produce the same old, same old. With it being a promotional piece, we were able to show Foilco foils to the market and say, ‘Hey, there is a little bit of different inspiration here’.

“We made sure the deboss was out of this world and the same with the emboss with a solid black cover. Also, we made sure that what we did, we did very, very well. We didn’t just want to produce the same techniques and do it as usual; we wanted to push it as far as we could go.”

Logick has received “amazing comments” from the principal client and partners involved in the project. He continued, “They have been particularly impressed with the foiling, debossing and embossing being perfectly executed without damaging the texture of the paper.

“From a print-buyer’s perspective, it’s all of those things that they look for in a job, especially with a heavily-textured and uncoated stock.”

The work has also generated international interest. He said, “It is the first time that, with a promotion, we have had requests from overseas: Europe, the United States, Singapore and Asia. They wanted a copy and we sent those.

“What we do these days is about making sure it is a world-class job. This work has gone all around the world and to get that type of feedback shows we are pushing those boundaries.”

Print In Print judges said: “From a finishing point of view, there are not many jobs that encompass so many different embellishments, all in the one place, and they get them all completely right throughout.

“This is a job that everyone who looks at it says how fantastic it is. There are foils, bright inks, perforating stamp work, binding, creasing and assembly. The whole thing is technically superb, sharp and beautiful.”

New venue gets thumbs up

Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre played host to the premier event on the print industry calendar, when the Pride In Print Awards returned to the Garden City for the first time in five years.

Emcees Justine Smith and Jason Gunn at the Pride In Print Awards

Broadcasting legend Jason Gunn and ‘Seven Days’ star Justine Smith emceed the evening at a rapid clip, riffing off each other with a mix of zappy one-liners, personal stories and crowd pleasers. The larger than expected audience lapped it up and especially enjoyed Gunn’s take on reading the winners lists. At one point, when faced with reciting the names of 17 gold medal winning jobs, he broke into a horse racing commentary worthy of the great Dave Clarkson.

Ruth Cobb, chief executive at PrintNZ, says, “Entry levels were down on 2021, but that was expected because of the extensive lockdown in Auckland at the back end of the year, which meant a lot of businesses weren’t producing work. Then in the New Year, we had the onset of the new variant of Covid-19, so businesses didn’t have the staff to actually put the entries together.

“However, the number of awards given were actually only slightly down, and the standards were still high.

“We are extremely happy with the turnout. Te Pae is a brilliant venue and it was great to be able to gather together and talk with our industry people in person.”

Gold Medal Club

The membership of the Pride In Print Medal Winner’s Club expanded this year.

Fourth win, from left: Logick Print’s Dave and Jan Gick with Penny Savidan and Paula Vasquez from B&F Papers

In the 50 Gold Medal Winners section, Horton Media, Kiwi Labels, Soar Communications Group and Wakefields Digital joined Admark Visual Imaging, Amcor Flexibles Asia Pacific Christchurch, Blue Star Constellation, Crucial Colour, Fuzed, Gravure Packaging, Logick Print & Graphics, Permark Industries, Southern Colour Print and Webstar Auckland.

In the 100 Gold Medal Winners Section, Rapid Labels joined APC Innovate, Blue Star Wellington and Ovato Auckland.

Patron and sponsors

The Pride In Print Awards takes because of the industry suppliers who so willingly support the programme and event.

Fujifilm Business Innovation New Zealand is the Pride In Print Patron.

The awards sponsors are Avery Dennison, B & F, BJ Ball, Currie Group New Zealand, DIC New Zealand, HP, Kurz New Zealand, New Zealand Printer Magazine, Nekkorb, Reproflex3, Paper Source, Ricoh New Zealand, Spicers, UPM Raflatac, and Whakatane Mill (WML).

The Friends of the Awards are Blue Star Group New Zealand, Contact Labels & Print Finishers, PhilStic Labels, Sealed Air Hamilton, Soar Print, and Wholesale Print.

The media sponsor is New Zealand Printer Magazine.