PIA Reports Tristate Winners of “Premier Print Awards”

Firms from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut are among the winners of the 2012 Premier Print Awards, the world’s most prestigious international print competition.

Printing Industries of America (PIA) says that more than 2,800 entries were submitted for judging in this year’s competition. Tristate winners are listed below. The Premier Print Awards web site presents a list of the 109 Best of Category award winners (“Benny” recipients) as well as listings of companies that received Awards of Recognition and Certificates of Merit.

All Benny-winning pieces will be featured in a full-color publication mailed by PIA to 10,000 print buyers. They also will be recognized at the Premier Print Awards Gala during Graph Expo 2012 in Chicago on October 7. The Best in Show winner will be announced during the awards gala, which also features the InterTech™ Technology Awards and the web2awards.

Our congratulations to the tristate recipients.

Award of Recognition

Earth Color (Parsippany, NJ): Service Catalogs (4 or more colors, printers with more than 250 employees); Programs (4 or more colors)

Compu-Mail LLC (Niagara Falls, NY): Calendars; Direct Mail Campaigns, Business-to-Business

xweet LLC (Long Island City, NY): Media Kits

Best of Category

CRW Graphics (Pennsauken, NJ): Environmentally Sound

Brooks Litho & Digital Group (Deer Park, NY): Booklets (4 or more colors, printers with 20 employees or less)

Compu-Mail LLC (Niagara Falls, NY): Campaign

Conformer Products (Great Neck, NY): Envelopes

xweet LLC (Long Island City, NY): Media Kits

Certificate of Merit

Fusion Cross-Media (Manchester, CT): Customized/Personalize/Variable-Data Digital Printing

All-State Legal (Cranford, NJ): Cards

Earth Color (Parsippany, NJ): Booklets (4 or more colors, printers with more than 250 employees); Product/Service Catalogs (Cover – sheetfed; Interior – web); Product Catalogs (4 or more colors, printers with more than 250 employees); Direct Mail Campaigns, Consumer

Hatteras (Tinton Falls, NJ): Presentation Folders/Portfolios (4 or more colors); Business and Annual Reports (4 or more colors throughout, printers with 101 – 250 employees); Promotional Campaigns, Business-to-Business

Perfect Printing (Moorestown, NJ): Print/Graphic Arts Self-Promotion (Printers with 21 – 50 employees)

Riegel Printing (Ewing, NJ): Booklets (4 or more colors, printers with 51 – 100 employees) (twice); Diaries and Desk Calendars; Other Special Finishing Techniques

American Packaging Corporation (Rochester, NY): Flexographic Printing (twice)

Diamond Packaging (Rochester, NY): Calendars; Specialty Inks or Coatings, Fragrances, or “Invisible” Printing Inks; Environmentally Sound; Cartons and Containers; Print/Graphic Arts Self-Promotion (Printers with 101 – 250 employees)

Hammer Packaging (Rochester, NY): Labels and Wraps—Cut and stack, sheetfed; Labels and Wraps—Rolled products/pressure-sensitive

Island Pro Digital (Hauppauge, NY): Print/Graphic Arts Self-Promotion (Printers with 20 employees or less)

Overnight Labels (Deer Park, NY): Flexographic Printing

xweet LLC (Long Island City, NY): Media Kits

PIA, MFSANY Want To Recruit A Few Good Printers and Mailers for “Postal Boot Camp”

There’s still time—and plenty of good reason—to sign up for the “Postal Boot Camp for Printers and Mailers” to be presented in Manhattan next Tuesday (July 17) by Printing Industries Alliance (PIA) and the Mailing and Fulfillment Service Association of New York (MFSANY).

According to industry statistics, mailpiece designs that are not compatible with automated processing can cost as much as 70% more to mail. The one-day course will help attendees stay out of the trap by giving them an overall knowledge of the relationship between U.S. Postal Service regulations, postage costs, and delivery times. MFSANY and PIA say that seminar will give attendees a better understanding of how direct mail is produced and how it can be processed to USPS standards and regulations.

The seminar leader is George Heinrich, a.k.a. “the Postal Professor,” a nationally recognized auhority on direct mail and USPS operations. Among the topics he will cover on Tuesday are “Speaking Postal” (BMC, SCF, NCOA, CASS, DPV); classes of mail; shape-based processing; barcodes and automation; presort and discounts; data management; and quality addressing.

The program will take place at the 101 Club, Park Avenue and 40th Street, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The $125 fee includes breakfast, lunch, and breaks. A brochure with complete details can be downloaded from the MFSANY web site.

To register, e-mail MFSANY’s Jim Prendergast (jwpdirect@gmail.com) or PIA’s Kim Tuzzo (ktuzzo@Pialliance.org). Registration requests may be faxed to 212-217-6824 or 716-691-4249. For online registration, go to www.mfsany.org or www.pialliance.org

Places are limited, and the program will not be presented again this year.

 

Steve Forbes Accepts 26th Prism Award from NYU-SCPS at Record-Setting Event

Steve Forbes (right), chairman and editor-in-chief, Forbes Media LLC, accepts the Prism Award from Mike Federle, COO, Forbes Media LLC.

The graphic communications industry continues to struggle with declining sales, squeezed profit margins, restricted access to capital, and business pressures of every imaginable kind. But, none of that has dampened the enthusiasm of those who support the Prism Awards, a high-profile achievement recognition program that rings with optimism every year under the auspices of New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS).

On June 21, the event marked its 26th anniversary with a record turnout and another record for revenue generated on behalf of the M.A. program in Graphic Communications Management and Technology at SCPS. A large part of the draw was the presence of this year’s Prism Award recipient: Steve Forbes, chairman and editor-in-chief, Forbes Media LLC. The ceremony, which took place at Gotham Hall near Herald Square, also featured the presentation of an Alumni Achievement Award to Michael J. Mulligan and a Student Achievement Award to Eunic M. Ortiz.

The Prism Award has been given annually since 1986 in recognition of distinguished leadership in the graphic communications media industry. The Prism Award luncheon is the industry’s longest-running and most successful educational fundraising event, having collected millions of dollars for graphics studies since its inception.

This year’s ceremony was emceed by M.A. program advisory board co-chairs Martin J. Maloney (Broadford & Maloney) and Kathy B. Presto (Williams Lea North America). Prism Award committee chairs were Francis A. McMahon (Océ North America) and Laura C. Reid (Hearst Magazines).

All proceeds from the $750-per-seat event fund scholarships for students enrolled in the M.A. program in Graphic Communications Management and Technology, which has been in existence since 1981. Every year since then, many high-ranking industry executives have served on the M.A. program’s advisory board as curriculum consultants and as providers of internships and career guidance. The program, managed by academic director Bonnie Blake and assistant director Ansley Dunn, also enlists industry professionals as adjunct lecturers.

Enrolled in the cross-disciplinary program are working professionals as well as full-time students, including a significant number of international participants. Topics of study include executive leadership, entrepreneurial thinking, finance, global marketing, managing the media mix, and graphic communication technologies.

Michael J. Mulligan (left), recipient of the Alumni Achievement Award, with Martin J. Maloney, co-chair of the advisory board for the NYU-SCPS M.A. program in Graphic Communications Management and Technology.

Mulligan, the Alumni Achievement Award recipient, credited the program with helping him to reimagine the mission of Advanced Business Group Inc. (ABG), a New York City digital printing company he founded in 1992. Billing itself as the city’s leading digital print provider for business, ABG offers a full range of quick-turnaround production solutions and marketing support services. Mulligan said that attaining an M.A. in the program led him to rethink his role as the CEO of the company that he started and continues to transform.

Accepting the Student Achievement Award, Ortiz described herself as “the epitome of the digital consumer.” Professionally, she is a senior account executive at Fleishman-Hillard, where she develops online, digital, video, and social media campaigns for clients in corporate, government, and technology- related industries. She also has served as a Web, digital, and social media manager for the New York City Council.

Maloney congratulates Eunic M. Ortiz on her receipt of the Student Achievement Award.

Ortiz said that what she wanted in graduate studies “was a program where I could not only learn another level of leadership and management skills, but a program that would be up to date on the work I was involved in daily. I needed a program that could keep up with me.”

“The experience I’ve had while in the Graphic Communications Management and Technology program has exceeded my every expectation,” she declared.

Among the media properties managed by Steve Forbes are the namesake bi-weekly magazine, with a circulation of more than 900,000; the RealClear group of Web sites, including RealClearPolitics.com, which together with Forbes.com are said to reach 33 million readers every month; and 21 local-language licensee editions of Forbes publications for readers around the world.

The Prism Award recipient also has written or co-authored four books and was, in 1996 and 2000, a campaigner for the Republican presidential nomination.

Forbes told the Prism Award audience that while there are few “playbooks” to guide people in their career and life choices, a good education can help everyone to cope with the inevitable uncertainties ahead.

“The true source of wealth in an economy is people’s minds,” Forbes said, adding that the ingenuity of educated people is what gives value to oil, microchips, and other commodities prized by business and society.

He advised the students in the audience to accept the fact that at some point, “a crisis will hit you” during the pursuit of entrepreneurial ambitions. When it hits, he told them, the question to ask is, “What is the purpose of communications? What are you trying to achieve?” With the help of a big-picture focus, Forbes said, “you’ll have a little more serenity—just a little more—in terms of going forward.”

Still an advocate of the political and social changes he called for during his quests for the Republican presidential nomination, Forbes briefly addressed the subject of health care and its future after the Supreme Court’s pending decision on the national health care plan put forth by the Obama administration. According to Forbes, the controversy surrounding the health care debate misses the point.

“Why is the demand for health care seen as a crisis, and not as an enormous opportunity for entrepreneurs?” he asked. “How in the world do we get the patients in charge again, like the consumer is in charge of everything else?” Permitting the purchase of health insurance coverage across state lines would be one way of spurring entrepreneurial competition and “turning scarcity into abundance” in the health care marketplace, Forbes said.

GCSF Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary with Scholarship Grants to 27 Students

First-time and multiple recipients of GCSF scholarships on stage with GCSF trustees in the Joseph Urban Theatre, Hearst Tower, New York City.

“We saw that there needed to be a future workforce for the graphic communications industry, and we saw that we needed to do something about it.”

With that simple but far-reaching plan in mind, Bill Dirzulaitis and the other founding members of the Graphic Communications Scholarship, Award and Career Advancement Foundation (GCSF) set out to finance their vision of a self-sustaining scholarship fund for the industry’s next generation of creative talent. On June 20, GSCF marked the tenth anniversary of the realization of that goal by presenting $40,000 in grants to 27 students commencing or continuing college-level studies in graphic communications.

The presentation ceremony at the Hearst Tower in Manhattan also featured the bestowal of a GCSF Service Award to Dirzulaitis as well as the recognition of Matthew McDowell (Pantone Inc.) as this year’s recipient of GCSF’s Champion of Education Award.

The student scholarship winners either attend or are entering colleges and universities with degree programs in graphic communications. Their areas of study include advertising, design, interactive media, printing, publishing, journalism, digital asset management, and photography.

Conceived by a small group of metro area industry members who wanted to coordinate fundraising for graphics education, GCSF is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit group that channels 100% of the money it raises to scholarships. To date, the group has awarded $313,000 in 94 grants endowed by a long list of graphics industry donors. Most of the 2012 recipients are in their second, third, fourth, or fifth years of qualifying for the stipends.

GCSF has no professional staff and relies entirely on the voluntary efforts of its officers and trustees. Its scholarship selection committee picks recipients by examining their SAT scores, grade-point averages, portfolios, letters of recommendation, and application essays.

GCSF also provides advisement, mentoring, internships and work-study opportunities for students enrolled in graphic studies degree programs at Pratt Institute, New York University, Rhode Island School of Design, The School of Visual Arts, and Carnegie Mellon University, among other institutions. (See video.)

As Pantone’s national sales manager, McDowell has spearheaded that company’s steadfast support for GCSF since its earliest days. In his acceptance remarks, he told the student recipients that in order to stand out among the 720,000 graphic designers now at work in North America, they would have to work hard at building their portfolios, their reputations, and their brands.

“Become lifelong learners,” he said, “and be sure to be proud of your work.” McDowell also urged the recipients to “network, network, network” at the many industry meetings and events where participation by students is welcome.

David Luke (left), president of GCSF, congratulates Matthew McDowell (Pantone Inc.) on his receipt of the foundation’s Champion of Education Award.

“Bill made it happen,” said Mark Darlow, a GCSF founder and trustee, of Dirzulaitis’s leadership in getting the foundation off the ground. Accepting his service award, Dirzulaitis—a president of the New York metro area’s principal trade association for 15 years—said that one of the drivers was the realization that while the industry was changing rapidly, its traditional workforce was aging at the same pace.

Meeting in borrowed space and keeping handwritten records on tablets (the paper kind), the founders raised and distributed $5,000 worth of grants in the first year. They also consolidated a number of existing scholarship funds that were not being actively managed. Since then, said Dirzulaitis, who served as the foundation’s first treasurer, GCSF has raised more than a half a million dollars to underwrite industry education.

Bill Dirzulaitis (left), founding treasurer of GCSF, accepts a Service Award from GCSF trustee Mark Darlow.

GCSF’s present slate of officers includes David Luke (president), Steve Kennedy (vice president), Ellen F. Hurwitch (second vice president), Jerry Mandelbaum (treasurer), Nick Patrissi (secretary), and Richard Krasner (immediate past president). The foundation (www.gcscholarships.org) may be followed on Twitter as @GCSF1.

Much Changed, On Demand Conference & Expo Returns to NYC

Those who remember the On Demand shows in their heyday as digital print equipment expos would have had some difficulty recognizing the event bearing that title at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center last week. Although the name remains, not much else of On Demand’s original look, feel, and purpose is still there. The event has moved in a different direction, and hard-copy output doesn’t appear to have made the move with it.

Questex Media Group, the producer of On Demand, says that the conference now is dedicated to ‘the technologies that monetize, optimize, and control content.” Co-located with On Demand at Javits was another Questex property, info360, a seminar program for IT professionals. Questex says that together, On Demand and info360 constitute “the largest enterprise IT event in North America.” Each conference was supported by exhibits, with info360 accounting for about twice as many of the 120-plus booths as On Demand.

On Demand’s profile has changed in other ways as well. It no longer shares venues with the AIIM conference, its previous expo companion, which now has a separate event of its own. Its days as a traveling show, likewise, seem to be behind it. On Demand also has been produced in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., but a spokesperson for Questex said that New York City, with its heavy concentration of IT professionals, probably will be its permanent home from now on. But this does not necessarily mean another engagement at Javits. When On Demand returns next year, said the spokesperson, its conference setting probably will be a hotel.

Last week (June 13-14), the program was organized around four tracks: content creation, content delivery, marketing technology, and social and mobile business. On the expo floor, in a sliver of the space that On Demand once occupied at Javits, the stands and the pipe-and-drapes variously belonged to four “technology pavilions”: mailing and fulfillment, cross media, digital workflow, and what Questex calls “SoMoLo.” This denotes, according to Questex, social, mobile, and local platforms for content creation and distribution. (A special program focused on this niche, dubbed SoMoLo@NY, was co-located with the info360 conference.)

Given the sharp shift in emphasis, it wasn’t surprising that the show floor bore little resemblance to the equipment-heavy displays of earlier editions of On Demand. HP and Kodak had booths, but anyone looking for Indigo or NexPress presses in them searched in vain—both companies used their space to promote scanners and document management solutions, not digital production printing. Makers of conventional printing equipment were not represented at all, having long ago failed to gain traction in the market segment for which On Demand was first conceived.

Nevertheless, there were a few familiar elements from earlier, more production-centric On Demand shows, and even a few pieces of production equipment. These were courtesy of Atlantic, a provider of imaging, printing, and office support services, which had a Konica Minolta bizhub C8000 press, a Ricoh Pro C651EX press, and a wide-format inkjet printer in operation on the floor. Spiel Associates, Graphic Whizard, Duplo USA, and Spiral Binding James Burn USA, all stalwart exhibitors at metro area trade shows, added their presence and their offerings of production equipment.

Two printing trade associations also did what they could to preserve some of the flavor of the original On Demand. Printing Industries Alliance (PIA), representing graphics businesses in New York, northern New Jersey, and northwestern Pennsylvania, was on hand to promote its upcoming Franklin Event and other activities for firms in the region. Printing & Graphics Association MidAtlantic (PGAMA) used the opportunity to talk about its Addy Award-winning PrintGrowsTrees campaign.

The On Demand conference program, which consisted of about 30 sessions, stuck mostly to content creation and distribution in digital form. A few of the presentations addressed hard-copy production: for example, “Hybrid Workflows: Making Digital and Offset Work Together.” A session titled, “From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg: Merging Cross Media Marketing and Print,” also acknowledged print’s place in the media mix.

Featuring 70 sessions organized into eight tracks, the info360 program covered a range of IT-oriented subjects including information sharing, social media, workgroup collaboration, and online content strategy. The companion program, SoMoLo@NY, focused on leveraging its trio of media for outreach to consumers.

We wish Questex and its partners success in their efforts to reposition On Demand for a new audience in a redrawn media landscape. But, its change in character also is a bit disheartening for those who can recall the days when the metro area’s print and graphic communications industry was capable of supporting production-focused trade shows of its own.

Graph Tech, Graph Expo East, Graphic Communications Day, and other local events have come and gone as venues where the big iron and the big grey boxes could hold sway. But now that On Demand has evolved beyond providing that opportunity, it’s hard to see how a show dedicated to production technology could ever be put on in the region again. The expense and the logistical difficulty probably have stopped the presses permanently as exhibition assets for the tristate area.

For another perspective on what has happened to On Demand, see this commentary.

 

 

Dwight E. Vicks, III to Receive John Peter Zenger Medal at Franklin Event

Dwight W. Vicks, III, President of Vicks Lithograph & Printing (Yorkville, NY) has been named by the Printing Industries Alliance’s Franklin Committee as recipient of the John Peter Zenger Medal at its 60th Franklin Event celebration on September 19, 2012 at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers (5:30-10:00 pm).

The Zenger Medal, by an open-industry nomination process, is awarded to an individual employed in the graphic communications industry within New York, northern New Jersey and northwestern Pennsylvania who has exemplified outside of his or her professional role exemplary character in the form of selfless courage, charity, activism or service.

Mr. Vicks was nominated for his work in supporting thyroid cancer research including the establishment of the International Thyroid Oncology Group (ITOG). which Dwight serves as Treasurer and Secretary. His wife, Jean, was diagnosed with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) in 1999, when very little was known about this rare form of cancer and afflicted individuals were faced with few options.

His personal investigation of the disease uncovered little information about it, and the doctors and medical facilities that were trying to develop treatment protocols were scarce and geographically dispersed. Dwight then decided to cut back on his industry and community involvement and devote all his time, energy and resources to thyroid cancer.  In 2005, he resigned his position as Treasurer of Printing Industries of America, even though there was an excellent probability that he would have been elevated at some point to its Chairmanship.

Through contact with the physicians and institutions, he was able to bring this small medical community together in regular informal meetings to discuss treatment options and clinical trials. In 2007, Dwight was the driving force behind the establishment of ITOG, a non-profit organization comprised of endocrinologists, oncologists, thyroid surgeons and radiation specialists from North America, Europe and Australia. As of this date, the ITOG membership consists of over 50 of the world’s leading physicians and research scientists who focus on the treatment of thyroid cancer that has metastasized outside the thyroid gland.

In 2011, Dwight was named by Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, one of the top cancer facilities in America, as a member of “The One Hundred” for his unflagging optimism.  He has quietly and singlehandedly raised over $500,000 in the race for an MTC cure and subsequently started a broader fundraising effort called “Team Jean” which is already halfway to its goal of raising an additional $500,000 in 2012 and anticipates a similar target in 2013.

For more information on how to contribute to “Team Jean” or to register for the Franklin Event, contact either PIA President Tim Freeman (tfreeman@PIAlliance.org, (716-691-3211) or Vice President Vicki Keenan (vkeenan@PIAlliance.org, (908-233-4124).

City Tech’s Department of Advertising Design and Graphic Arts Will Hold Third Annual Portfolio Review on May 24

The Department of Advertising Design and Graphic Arts (ADGA), New York City College of Technology (City Tech), will conduct its third annual student portfolio review on Thursday, May 24, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. The review will take place in the Times Square offices of Adobe Systems Inc., the host of the event.

More than 90 graduating ADGA students will present their work to City Tech faculty and industry professionals in a series of 45-minute sessions. ADGA hopes to attract enough outside attendance so that each student’s portfolio can be critiqued by two or three experts in related fields.

“As in previous years, one of our goals is to gather information that will help us keep our curriculum relevant to the current needs of industry and its employing companies,” said M. Genevieve Hitchings, assistant professor, ADGA. “Portfolio reviews also let students practice their interview skills and receive honest feedback on their work in a non-competitive environment.”

“Most important, portfolio reviews also give senior-level students an opportunity to network with potential employers,” Hitchings said.

The reviews will begin at 3:30 p.m. and run at 45-minutes intervals until 7:15 p.m. At 7:30 p.m., ADGA will announce three winners for the most outstanding portfolios.

Industry members wishing to take part in the reviews should RSVP to MHitchings@CityTech.Cuny.Edu. Pre-registration is necessary for admission to the space being provided by Adobe at 1540 Broadway, New York, NY, on the 17th floor (entrance on 45th Street).

ADGA has promoted the event with a postcard (above) designed by one of its students, Alfredo Lopez, who specializes in web and mobile design, online advertising, and brand identity. Printing was provided by Duggal Visual Solutions, which ran the job on an HP Indigo 5500 digital color press at its production center in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Duggal, a supporter of City Tech, also has hosted field trips that introduce ADGA students to many of the latest technologies for graphic imaging and reproduction.

ADGA held its first portfolio review at the Openhouse Gallery in SoHo  in December 2010. Last year, the event took place at the Type Director’s Club in midtown Manhattan.

With an enrollment of about 1,300 students, ADGA is the largest academic department at City Tech. It offers degree programs in the career tracks of advertising and graphic design, interactive media, broadcast graphics, illustration, and graphic arts management.

ADGA graduates have gone on to successful careers at Condé Nast, The New York Times, Hearst, Essence Inc., Deutsch, EURO RSCG, DraftFCB, Grey Advertising, and many other firms.

New Video from Spiel Associates; Open House Next Week

Spiel Associates Inc. has produced “An Introduction to Spiel Associates,” a new video detailing the binding and finishing solutions that it sells and services. These include numerous innovations of its own manufacture. The company has been doing business as a provider of bindery equipment in Long Island City since 1963. Its inventory includes plastic coil binders, punching equipment, perfect binders, creasing machines, drills, perforators, stitchers, and collators. It will hold an open house at its plant on March 7 and 8. (See Industry Events for details.)

NYU-SCPS Names Steve Forbes Recipient of 2012 Prism Award

The Advisory Board of the NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies (NYU-SCPS) Graphic Communications Management and Technology program will present the 2012 Prism Award to Steve Forbes, chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media LLC. The Prism Award is presented annually in recognition of distinguished leadership in the graphic communications media industry.

Sponsored by the Master of Arts in Graphic Communications Management and Technology program at NYU-SCPS, the 2012 Prism Award will be presented to Forbes during the 26th Annual Prism Award Luncheon at Gotham Hall on Thursday, June 21.

Previous NYU Prism Award recipients include: Thomas J. Quinlan III, president and chief executive officer of RR Donnelley; Vyomesh (VJ) Joshi, executive vice president, HP’s Imaging and Printing Group; Cathleen Black, president of Hearst Magazines; Antonio M. Perez, president and CEO of Eastman Kodak Company; Anne M. Mulcahy, chairman of Xerox Corporation; and Janet L. Robinson, president of The New York Times.

The net proceeds of the Prism Award Luncheon help to fund student scholarships for the NYU-SCPS masters degree program in Graphic Communications Management and Technology. Since its inception, the Prism Award Luncheon has raised millions of dollars for scholarships for students in the program.