Chicago, IL – GPA is proud to announce the winners of their 2014 Print & 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 Companies, named one of Printing Impressions’ top 100 printing companies in America in 2014. Taking home the win in the Ultra Digital^® Papers 1 category, their entry is a self-promotional mailer created entirely in-house to showcase the capabilities of printing B2-sized sheets with their new HP Indigo 10000 press – the third one installed in the U.S. They planned their 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 their 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 their 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 & 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,” said Jim Benedict, Marketing Director at GLS.

The Best of Category winners are:

Chromatic Inc. Lithographers of Glendale, CA – Ultra Bak^® Plus & 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 Company of Minneapolis, MN – 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 & 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.