Winners of the Contra Vision 3rd International Wrap Artists™ Competition announced at SGIA Expo

Contra Vision are delighted to announce the winners of our Contra Vision 3rd International Wrap Artists™ Competition.

Contra Vision, the UK based originators of see-through graphics, established this prestigious competition to honor the best examples of window graphics worldwide, timed to coincide with SGIA in New Orleans.

There were some wonderful entries from across the globe including Europe, North America, South Africa, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

The main categories for entries were building wraps, vehicle wraps, point of purchase and interior design (best internal application), together with two special awards.  All entries must have been produced using either Contra Vision® products or Contra Vision licensed materials.

The prize for all six winners was a specially commissioned glass sculpture and $1000 (US) and travel expenses for the overall winner which we can reveal was Omnigraphics from Auckland, New Zealand, for their building wrap promoting the Rugby World Cup, with the strapline, ‘The World’s here to play’.  Entries could be made by either the creative team from the client company or the printer who produced the finished product.

Our judges included a range of specialists from the creative and print media, including Duke Zimmerman, CEO of Zimmerman Fine Art and for many years on the board of SGIA, Stan Kilpin, Editor of Image Magazine in Australia, Val Hirst, Editor of Sign Directions in the UK, and Lisa Tomlinson, Planning Director of McCann Advertising UK.  Lisa commented, ‘as Head of Planning for a large UK advertising agency, it has been fascinating to see how see- through graphics is being used worldwide to extend corporate and brand campaigns.’

Best Building Wrap
Omnigraphics won best building wrap for an office block in the Auckland city Centre, creating a mega-billboard promoting the Rugby World Cup slogan ‘The World’s here to play’.  The overall campaign which also featured a large scale wrap showing New Zealand rugby players on the  KMPG building and matching images on train windows was a spectacular example of how see-through graphics can extend a campaign across a whole range of eye-catching media.

Best Application, Interior Design.
The Wacoal project which won the Best Interior Design Application is a ‘total window’ retail graphic of Contra Vision® ORS™ on non-perforated, self- adhesive polyester. It has won because Dainippon SCREEN’s solution is a world first in window graphics, being see-through and displaying a different image outside the shop to the image facing inside.  The inside facing design is dominant during the hours of darkness, which makes for great advertising,  but can easily be seen through during daylight hours, when the outside image is clearly visible. This creates a really striking interior image in the hours of darkness this greatly adds to the ambience of the store. Wacoal is the leading sportswear brand in Japan.

Best Vehicle Wrap
The Kellogg’s ‘Crunchy Nut ‘double decker bus side advertisement uses Contra Vision® Performance™ perforated window film with Grayliner™> It combines creativity with humor, reflecting the campaign theme of the lengths people will go to for Crunchy Nut cornflakes in a format which produces a high visual impact. The wrap was printed and produced by VGL Graphics in Reading, England.

Best Point- of-Purchase
The best Point -of -Purchase award uses Contra Vision® licensed product, D-view, supplied by Doro-tape and printed by Sheridan and Co, who used perforated material in conjunction with clear glass. This allows the best view of the displayed jewellery while the stylish graphics featuring  Mappin and Webb’s ‘A Very British Affair’ campaign theme, draw the eye to the windows, allowing Mappin and Webb to differentiate their store on a busy pedestrianized shopping street. An additional factor was also the security aspect of using one-way vision graphics which allowed in-store security staff to monitor passers-by.

Special Awards

Most innovative use of Contra Vision® material or licensed product.
The winner for most innovative product goes to White Lazq, Belgium for their eye- catching wrap of a ferry in Rotterdam.

The wrap was designed by Benno Brand of Media Advies.BV of The Netherlands. The Contra Vision XR non perforated graphic was printed by White Lazq, this is a striking use of one-way graphics on public transport, something we would love to see replicated worldwide.

Lifetime Achievement award.

The Lifetime Achievement award goes to Charlie Vendeville, principal of Imaging Sciences.

Charlie has been printing Contra Vision® products since the late 1980’s And has long been one of our dedicated “Contra Visionaries".

The overall winner

The judges were unanimous in their choice of the winner and felt “The World's here to play' campaign by Omnigraphics succeeded brilliantly in making the best use of the possibilities of see-through graphics and brought these striking visuals successfully to a world- wide media audience, for example as a background to news coverage of the event.

Steve Spear of Omnigraphics commented.

"Winning this award is huge for New Zealand. We rarely get to compete on a world stage but we do like to punch above our weight, for us this is something we can really show off in New Zealand.  Working with Contra Vision really helped us bring the project to fruition and supported us through the whole planning process, the application procedure was so much easier than with other material we tested, this is critical when you are working 50 meters up in the air. We looked at a number of products and Contra Visions were definitely the best; the results speak for themself."

We feel confident that these shining examples of see-through graphics represent some of the best wraps currently being produced world-wide, and Contra Vision is delighted to have provided the technology which created this market.

For further information please contact Jo Bentley, [email protected]
or call  +44 (0) 7757 037043