In-Print Contest

It's time to enter In-Print 2009, the only printing contest exclusively for in-plants. Jointly sponsored by In-Plant Graphics and IPMA, the contest is an excellent way to show off the quality of your printing. Not only does the contest have categories for both "Offset" and "Non-Offset", we have a new category for projects printed using both techniques.

The deadline is January 30, so start collecting samples now. Go through your printed work and pick out examples that are perfect in every way — great registration, crisp folds and no hickeys. Selecting flawless samples is the best way to ensure that your pieces make it through the first round of scrutiny by our eagle-eye judges.

Winners will be selected in early spring by a panel of experts. They will award Gold, Silver and Bronze awards. One Best of Show winner will be selected from all of the Gold winners. The winner's name will be revealed at the awards dinner during IPMA's conference, taking place this year June 7-10, in Rochester, NY.

To pick the winners, judges consider the degree of difficulty required to print a job, and often consult the entry forms to see which equipment was used. (i.e. A four-color job printed on a single-color press might outweigh a similar job printed on a four-color press.) On the other hand, some jobs with excellent printing, fail to win prizes due to poor stitching.

For a glimpse of what the judging is like watch this video.

Tips

Over the years, the judges have provided a number of helpful tips on what makes a winning entry. One thing the judges love to scrutinize is the folds on entries to make sure both halves of the sheet line up perfectly. They often eliminate entries that are cracked along the folds because they were either folded against the grain or folded without first being scored. This is the most common reason pieces are eliminated. Also, many entries were eliminated in the past because poor quality copies were submitted, when better copies almost certainly existed.

Here are some other reasons that entries were thrown out. Did you have any of these problems with your entries?

• Holes and missing dots in solids, possibly due to a piece of dust landing on the plate during platemaking
• Spots and specks, especially in company logos
• Poor ink coverage
• Color variation from page to page, particularly noticeable in company logos or headers that appear on consecutive pages
• Color variation between stationery, envelopes and business cards
• On multi-page forms, the lines on each page must line up with those on other pages
• Out of register printing
• Front-to-back registration off
• Doubling: when ink from the first blanket transfers onto the second blanket and gets printed on the paper again as a ghost image
• Mottling: spotty, uneven printing in solid areas
• Too much powder used, which leaves a gritty, unpleasant feel on the paper
• Bad folds
• Track marks on paper
• Inserts that don't fit together right
• Items placed in the wrong categories
• Design problems like: bad letter spacing; crooked lines of text; fuzzy photos
• Pages printed upside-down

On the entries in our non-offset categories, here are some of the problems judges encountered:

• Images were not centered
• Roller marks on page
• Color consistency changed from page to page
• The darkness of the toner in the text portions of the piece changed from page to page
• Unfolded press sheets were submitted, not a finished product

One more tip: Pieces that include a number of different parts (e.g. a direct mail package filled with loose pages, or stationery submitted with a business card and envelope) have not fared well in the past. You increase the chance that the judges will find an error. It's best to enter the single piece of which you are most proud.

For example: One in-plant entered a direct mail package filled with loose pages, some of which had enough blemishes to disqualify the whole entry. But if the pocket folder had been submitted by itself, the judges agreed, it would certainly have won in the folder category. So pick your categories wisely. And simplify.

Often, many in-plants enter the contest right at the deadline. As a result, they don't properly inspect their entries and submit the best copies. This has cost several in-plants prizes, since if they had only sent a copy with better folds and crossovers, they would have won. Instead they were eliminated. Many items have been tossed out for infractions as small as a missing dot in the middle of a solid, or cracking on a fold that hadn't been scored.

You should examine all four copies of your entries in detail--don't just grab any four from the top of the shelf. Look at the folds and registration. Are they perfect? Are there any visible hickeys? Look carefully, because if you don't take the time to scrutinize your entries, be assured, our judges will.

The best advice is to get your press operators involved. Show them the entry form when it first appears each November. Get them interested in saving flawless samples--and put them aside far in advance of the deadline.

Also, and this is extremely important, when filling out the entry form, please check off the correct category. A brochure is not a folder. IPG utilizes interns to sort the entries and they generally aren't familiar enough with printing to question the category you select. So when judging day comes and the judges see your brochure in with the folders, it is often disqualified--especially if they have already judged the brochures.

Similarly, don't enter process color work in the one-color/multi-color category. (You should know the difference by now.) Your mistake often goes unnoticed until judging day, at which point it's often too late to switch categories.

Awards

In-Print winners will receive elegant plaques, which will be presented at the next IPMA conference. From all of the Gold Award winners, the judges will pick a Best of Show winner, and that in-plant will receive a crystal obelisk.

Here's a list of Best of Show winners through the years:

• 2008 - Conoco Phillips
• 2007 - Conoco Phillips
• 2006 - University of Delaware
• 2005 - University of Missouri-Columbia
• 2004 - University of Delaware
• 2003 - University of Missouri-Columbia
• 2002 - Phillips Petroleum
• 2001 - Boeing
• 2000 - SAFECO
• 1999 - University of Missouri-Columbia
• 1998 - Hitachi Data Systems
• 1997 - Boeing
• 1996 - Phillips Petroleum
• 1995 - Brigham Young University
• 1994 - Phillips Petroleum
• 1993 - Boeing
• 1992 - USAA
• 1991 - Boeing
• 1990 - Boeing