India shines at Fespa 2015
While Indian print firms failed to strike a ‘gold’ at the Fespa Awards 2015, it certainly did the country proud with a handful of silver and bronze medals in various application categories. The winners of the 2015 Awards were announced at Fespa’s Gala Celebration Dinner held at Flora Köln, Cologne, Germany on 19 May 2015. Totally eight Indian companies took home 10 awards
12 Jun 2015 | 4064 Views | By Rushikesh Aravkar
The lenticular poster depicts 3D Mandala Art created from a geometric design with metallic effect. The 22x22inch size poster is printed on Fujifilm Acuity Advance.
The process: The digital vector art was corrected as per final requirement in vector editing software and was converted to bitmap graphics. The image was then cut into different layers to give depth and interlaced in a lenticluar software. The interlaced file was printed directly on 40lpi lenticular lens sheet. The final printed sheet was mounted on a silver foil to give metallic effect and framed.
The print run was five copies. The most difficult aspect of the job, according to Sandip Thanawala of Neat Graphics was to convert complex vector graphics into 3D and to give different depths to different elements of the art.
Spectrum deployed 13 screens to print more than 5000 copies of the Eon cigarette poster in two different sizes 11x17inch and 17x22inch. The intricacy of the job involves use of four transparent colours, opaque special colours , mirror ink and braille vanish.
The process: Reverse printing on 500 micron polycarbonate sheet. The challenge was to achieve high definition printing with absolute water tight registration using 85lpi screen. It is a front and back printing job and since the artwork is dark, reproducing the vibrant colours was the most difficult aspect of the job.
The technical highpoint: Overprinting braille varnishes on three different patterns
The original: Released as a merchandise of Dibakar Banerjee’s Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, the limited edition serigraph is heavily inspired by the popular culture and popular art and icons of Kolkata.
The challenge: The challenge was from both the design and the print aspect. To begin with, we had to extract objects from its context and blend them with other subjects for contemplation to convert it into pop art. In terms of the process challenges, bright primary colours, bold outlines, and contrasting tones were to be used to formulate the serigraph.
The process: Different screens were used for each colour, especially the contrasting ones. A mixture of soft and hard colours was used. The registration and colours are maintained by manually printing the serigraph. Care was taken to ensure no overlapping of colours.
Tech-specs: In 12 days (with separation + printing), 300 editions of the serigraph were printed on American cartridge, 280gsm. 25 tones of colours were printed using 120 and 140 (nylon bolting) screens
The original: Wide and open landscapes created with oil colours.
The challenge: “Shri Natu Parikh’s painitng has unique Indian spiritual elements and brings together the beauty of colours, composition, light and perspective.” Marvel had the onerous task of including bold blocks of colours and strong diagonal lines with various shades and tones.
The process: The serigraph was created using the brush and knife technique.
Tech-specs: The oil colours effect was created using 42 tones of colours /screens on Natural Evolution White, 280gsm and Mesh 80, 120 (nylon) 140 (polyester). Over 30 days, Marvel produced 300 editions.
The original: The original acrylic on canvas is marked with minute detailing like miniature paintings, several figures, fresh colours, bright shades and strong composition.
The challenge: To maintain the colour harmony with registration and transparency. “To bring the transparency feel, we worked over it, again and again. It was difficult to control and balance it overall.”
The process: Like the artist, Marvel has used layers of thick colours and various sizes of brushes. “Thick layers of blue, red and gold have been used in certain parts while the golden colour used in the hair has been achieved through embossing.”
Tech-specs: Released as the official merchandise for the Yash Raj Films cult, Marvel created 300 editions over 90 days (with separation + printing). 63 tones of colours /screens have been used on the 280gsm Natural Evolution White paper.
Glow | Perfect Packaging
Glow is an immitation jewellery box printed on a 350 gsm white board with silver film lamination.
The process: The packaging job involves four-colour printing on an offset press while UV special effects were created using screen printing.
Wrinkles UV – 63 mesh
Bubble UV – 63 mesh
Abrasive UV - 76 mesh
Spot UV - 165 mesh
Ceramic decal of Radhakrishan | Om Decals
The decal of Radhakrishan transferred on ceramic tiles is a seven-colour job. The artwork was printed on a transfer paper using Grafica’s cylinder press and then transferred on to a 12x18inch ceramic tile. This was followed by baking the tile at 800 deg Celsius in order to cure and fix the inks on the tile. Following this, glitter was applied on the selective parts of the artwork. At the end, it was coated with a protective layer. Om Decals produced 1000 such copies.
In the picture is a round neck T-shirt, which was printed using as many as 28 screens. The most difficult aspect of the job was to achieve high density with repeat registration.
This T-shirt carries two images of Michael Jackson embedded into one. In the picture, the same T-shirt when looked from two different angles appears to carry two different images. It is a 14-colour design. According to Samir Jansari, the USP is to achieve this effect with manual screen printing.
The decal of Radhakrishan transferred on ceramic tiles is a seven-colour job. The artwork was printed on a transfer paper using Grafica’s cylinder press and then transferred on to a 12x18inch ceramic tile.
This was followed by baking the tile at 800 deg Celsius in order to cure and fix the inks on the tile. Following this, glitter was applied on the selective parts of the artwork. At the end, it was coated with a protective layer. Om Decals produced 1000 such copies.
The Zanasi Jet 4000 is a screen printed membrane switch. The USP is creative appearance and user-friendly interface with selective gloss and matte effects within the highlights created with subdued dot effect.
This was manually printed with 11 impressions using a monofilament white polyester 120 T screen. The product is a data entry interface MMI. The customer was enthralled with the layout as he found it not only visually 3D but also symbolically illustrative for user convenience.
Protolab printed 100 copies of the 29.7x24.9cm switch. According to Sanjay Mehta of Protolab, understanding a customer from their operator perspective is always the difficult aspect as it has to succinctly blend with the design, shape, colour and form.
This feature was published on 12 June, 2015.