LOS ANGELES—The Americas Printing Association Network (APAN), which is composed of over 15 regional graphic communications associations from across the country, will be announcing the winners of the Americas Print Awards competition during a live broadcast on YouTube at noon PT on October 24, 2023, at Youtube.com/@americasprintawards.

The Americas Print Awards is a celebration of print that recognizes the “best of the best” printed pieces in the U.S. During the awards broadcast, which is sponsored by Canon, viewers will get a 4K experience complete with detailed video imagery and explanations of each piece.

For the Americas Print Awards competition ten of the associations that are members of APAN each submitted the printed pieces that won top honors at their regional printing competitions. These physical entries were sent to the Printing Industries of America, Inc. (PIA), which is serving as the host of this year’s event. A panel of three industry experts then tackled the incredibly difficult task of narrowing these 101 entries down to just 18 winning entries, including the coveted “Best of Show” award.

As Cathy Skoglund, PIA’s Director of Member Services for the Southwest States and Chair of the Americas Print Awards explains, “Our three judges are true printing experts, with extensive knowledge of all the different technologies it takes to create a piece, and the challenges associated with each of these technologies.”

A look behind the scenes

A lot goes into running an awards event like this. The 20 judging criteria include level of difficulty, visual impact, creativity/originality/flair, composition and innovation. Here’s an outline of the process…

Regional competitions are held.

Top regional winners entered into the national contest. Entries physically shipped to offices of that year’s event host (in this case, PIA).

Entries logged and properly stored.

Entries examined by staff to answer any questions the judges may have.

Judging room set up, with each entry presented anonymously to ensure the judges do not know what company or region it came from.

Judging takes place. In the morning the judges each go through every entry on their own, studying and learning about each piece. After lunch the judges go through the entries together, winnowing things down until the winners are selected.

Winning entries filmed. At the awards ceremony, after each winning entry is announced, viewers will see a video of the piece. While a hand model opens the pages and shows off the details, a voiceover will provide a description and talk about what makes the piece such a standout.

Awards show takes place. Of course, there are a lot of technical issues that need to be addressed in order to broadcast live on YouTube.

“I’ve been a part of print competitions for 27 years,” Cathy shares. “When I stood in that judging room after everything was set up, my passion for print took over! It was simply incredible to stand in a room with 101 of the best of the best entries from across the country. I literally got goosebumps. With some pieces I took one look and thought that its ingenuity and craftsmanship were immediately obvious. With others, those things didn’t stand out at first glance. But after I read the description, understood the piece’s purpose and saw what it does, all I could think was ‘holy moly, this is incredible!’ The judges definitely had a difficult job.”