GLS Cos. Wins the Best of Show Award at GPA's Print and Design Contest; Other Winners Named

CHICAGO—January 29, 2015—GPA is proud to announce the winners of its 2014 Print and Design Contest, which is designed to recognize outstanding work by GPA’s customers. Companies across the country submitted their entries on GPA substrates to compete in seven product categories for Best of Category. From the seven winning entries, one is chosen as Best of Show.

This year’s Best of Show award goes to Minnesota-based GLS Cos., named one of Printing Impressions’ top 100 printing companies in America in 2014. Taking home the win in the Ultra Digital Papers 1 category, its entry is a self-promotional mailer created entirely in-house to showcase the capabilities of printing B2-sized sheets with its new HP Indigo 10000 press—the third one installed in the United States. The company planned its promotional campaign in advance of the press’ arrival, and developed a digital variable comic book story written by Pam Griffith and illustrated by Steve Barry from in-house agency Next. The piece utilizes augmented reality, 22 different placements of variable data, and has a unique folded construction that makes the piece even more engaging. GPA’s contest judges hailed the winning entry as a representation of the future of print.

GLS tested different papers for this project that called for exemplary image quality, a finish that offers richness without shine, and enough substance to fold well without adding excessive bulk or weight. GPA’s Ultra Digital 80# White Matte Text fit the bill perfectly, since it is a premium sheet engineered for unsurpassed image quality, press performance and overall versatility.

“A great deal of thought went into the ideation and implementation of this promotion. When we saw the finished piece and our customers’ reactions, we knew we had a winner. Taking home the top award in GPA’s Print and Design Contest is a great honor for us and a tremendous reward for our team that worked so hard to make this successful marketing campaign a reality,” explained Jim Benedict, marketing director at GLS.

The Best of Category winners are:

• Chromatic Inc. Lithographers of Glendale, CA—Ultra Bak Plus and Ultra Bak Classic Pressure Sensitive Papers­­­­­­­­­
• Primary Color of El Segundo, CA—Ultra Film Pressure Sensitive Synthetics ­
• Spangler Graphics/RR Donnelley of Kansas City, KS—Ultra Film Non-Adhesive Synthetics
• Bennett Graphics of Tucker, GA with design by Chris Hyde from Cypher Creative–Ultra Digital Papers II
• The John Roberts Co. of Minneapolis—Ultra Digital Pressure Sensitive Papers
• The Standard Group of Lititz, PA—Ultra Digital Synthetic Substrates

This year’s contest was judged by a panel of three industry experts: Deborah Corn, principal, chief blogger and intergalactic ambassador to The Printerverse for PrintMediaCentr and host of #PrintChat, a weekly Twitter discussion on all things print; Michael Johnston, president at Top Graphics in Maryland Heights, MO, and creator of GPA’s Print Trial Process; and Dean Petrulakis, senior vice president of business development at Rider Dickerson who spearheads printForum–Rider Dickerson’s educational resource for marketers. Entries were evaluated on uniqueness of design, number of substrates utilized, complexity of production, application use and quality of printing.

GPA’s Print and Design Contest is a great opportunity for printers and end-users to showcase their best work and gain industry recognition. For a printed piece to be eligible, it must be from an actual job or promotion that was printed by a GPA customer on a qualified GPA substrate. Now in its ninth year, the competition grows bigger and better each year, yielding new and unique examples of the opportunities available with GPA substrates.

About GPA
GPA is the premier source for specialty substrates and solutions for offset, digital printing, and wide-format inkjet printing. Products include coated and uncoated papers, pressure sensitive and specialty papers, synthetic films and substrates exclusively engineered for HP Indigo and other digital presses. GPA is an HP Indigo Preferred Partner and a Diamond Partner of Dscoop (Digital Solutions Cooperative).

Source: GPA.