Who would have thought that when we launched the Asian Print Awards seven years ago, just with the view to reward outstanding print quality, that something quite remarkable would happen.
We started out with seven judges for the first awards. Today we have nine international judges, who dedicate 3.5 days of their time to sort through almost 2400 entries.
Well today and seven years of judging behind us, that something remarkable I mentioned above, is that each and every year the samples submitted are not only getting a "bit better" but we are seeing a whole new trend towards and believe this, quality, quality and more quality.
We feel that the Asian Print Awards, together with our Sponsors and Patrons, have in effect pushed printers to produce much higher quality. The reason seems to be that printers are still very proud craftsmen and winning a medal at the Asian Print Awards is like being on the podium at the finish of a Formula 1 race.
It's been observed that time has been taken when selecting jobs that are being submitted, the care and detail to the packaging has been done and in fact, we had two different companies from opposite sides of Asia who actually flew in their staff with samples to Singapore, just to be certain that they arrived safely.
To add to this and to help back up my statement, we proudly welcome two new countries to the elite group of Gold winners and we at the Asian Print Awards would like to welcome Thailand and Indonesia. From past comments and listening to the judges deliberate over the past years, I thought that it would take a year or two more until we had the pleasure of telling Asia that two countries had stepped up to the plate and can also show the world what they can do as quality printers.
On another note, the quality from India has also increased dramatically and printers who take that extra care from India are winning more and more medals, so congratulations to our entries from India - keep up the great work.
This year, the Committee anticipates a more intense competition. Having said that, I would like to offer a gentle reminder, to check your entries for hickies and registration faults prior to submission. It has been noted every year that such preventable errors cost contenders their medals. With that, from all of us at the Asian Print Awards Committee, we wish you the best of luck in the competition!
Paul Callaghan
Chairman Asian Print Awards |
