The Screen Print Man

The SGIA has announced the winners of the international 2014 Golden Image Award Competition during the recently held SGIA Expo in Las Vegas, USA (22-24 October 2014).

 

Mumbai-based DTG printing company, Tarun Print Tech, topped the list of awards (Indian companies) with 13 awards – six gold, three silver, three bronze and one Honourable Mention; while the Vasai-based automobile decals, dials, signage maker, Classic Stripes, bagged 13 awards – two Gold, five Silver, three Bronze and three Hon’ble Mention.

 

 Vasai's Spectrum Scan won eight awards – two Gold, one Silver, three Bronze and two Hon’ble Mention and PRS Permacel (Ambernath), manufacturers of automobile decals scored six awards with two Gold, one Silver, two Bronze, and one Hon’ble Mention.

 

Guntur-based Santi Arts Hi-Tech Medias bagged four- one Gold, two Silver and one Bronze; and Pune-based Keetronics (India) brought home one Gold.

 

“It is a pleasure to note that these companies have now become regular winners in international award competitions such as FESPA and SGIA,” said Bhargav Mistry, MD, Grafica.

 

At the award ceremony, top winners, covering 50 main categories, were honoured with SGIA's People's Choice Award, Best of Show-Garment, Best of Show-Graphic, Best of Show-Digital, and Best in Show-Digital Creativity.

 

The SGIA says that its annual competition was aimed at celebrating print excellence. The award competition covers almost every item printed, using screen and digital technologies. According to SGIA, hundreds of entries were evaluated by an elite team of imaging professionals.

 

The SGIA Expo witnessed over 22,000 registered attendees and 541 exhibitors. The entries of winners of the Golden Image competitions were displayed in the Golden Image Gallery for public viewing. 

 

According to me, only handful of Indian printing companies have participated / won awards at the SGIA. A testimony of this are the six award-winning companies who are the only ones who regularly send in entries.

 

Mike Young, screen printing expert, member of ASDPT & SGIA, USA, in 2013, wrote "The question is why were there only six companies from the Indian printing community participating in a prestigious competition when there are so many world class printers within its boundaries? For those who do not think their everyday work is up to international scrutiny, I suggest they simply enter only three samplings of their best work in the appropriate categories and see what happens.”

 

Quoting Noel D’Cunha of PrintWeek India, who as a pre-cursor to the PrintWeek India Awards’14, wrote:

 

“Ten Reasons to Partake in PrintWeek India Awards 2014

 

1. Showcase your print:

 

2. Challenge yourself: 

 

3. Shout about your achievement:

 

4. Attract and retain talent:

 

5. Prestige and recognition:

 

6. Bring the differentiation quotient:

 

7. A chance to look back:

 

8. Snapshots from the jury:

 

9. Time to connect:

 

10. Time to celebrate … receive the award!

 

This, I believe, applies for each competition and every award.

 

In that context, here are some interesting feedbacks of past award winners in SGIA’13 & FESPA’13 & 14:

 

Participating in awards is very important for any company regardless of its size. One gets to know where the company stands. It is kind of introspecting with your products. One can know where it stands and what the chances to improve are and how we can improve. There are lots of challenges and opportunities – the only thing is to identify it. Also, one can explore new clients and markets and overall it helps in building a platform to expand your business gradually on international level.

 

Winning awards like these you get noticeable on the international circuit. You gain trust and recognition amongst your international and domestic clients which certainly helps in creating strong brand of your product and company. It’s a matter of pride when you represent your nation by winning on international platform competing with companies and products from various nations around the globe. It has benefited to us in many ways. Since last 1.5 years we have been receiving many inquiries from the clients abroad for the distributorship of our products and our sales in international market has also rose quite notably. In turn it has helped us expand our business nationally as well as internationally. It shows the kind of consistent quality we produce. Our motto has always been to produce the best of quality with affordability. We try to do innovative things within the set limits and till date we have succeeded in it. It shows the faith from the international buyers and judges who are experts of their respective fields. Hence, it helps you in having faith in yourself to create even better, unique and innovative products. It certainly motivates you to do better.

 

Chaitya Dhanvi Shah.

Marvel Art Gallery, Ahmedabad

 

Entering and participating Intl Competition is the only way to compare your own self with the outer space. You are doing best at your place or in your specified geographical limit's which is richly bound by the century old traditions and customs. But at the Intl level, you can’t judge your perfection unless you compare it. You can apply this formula to any industry or field, a competition will gradually degrade the market as people will tend to modify/skip the process parameter's out of fear of competition (which is 90% of time in terms of product price), however a Healthy competition will always help to upgrade the entire industry, field and communities (monetary as well as non monetary benefits).

 

The only thing that matters is that you can appreciate yourself on your work. You can get appreciation of your work from others. But very there are very few moments when & where you can appreciate your effort's & your time invested. Self Appreciation is the key factor for Self Motivation. You motivate yourself to achieve something and then appreciate yourself for it and then you have the same story repeating for the other goal's/aim's. It’s like a chain reaction. 

 

When we are regularly participating in any competition, it means a lot to me, my entire team who are continuously working very hard for quality with available technology, and finally outputting what we call as CREATION. It makes sure that our company always remains strong. Customers like the quality and they appreciate it. We have satisfaction of giving our best, and our team has eagerness to learn more. Due to continuous winning of award, customers and staff have full confidence in our capability and that is how we are able to maintain and increase our reputation in the industry and in social life.

 

When you compete with others you become competitive, but when you compete with yourself, you are on a path of perfection. When you do both, you will definitely be amongst the best and the international awards competitions such as Fespa and SGIA are opportunity to evaluate your quality standards.

 

Bharat sethia

 

Tarun Print Tech Group.

 

It is indeed a pleasure and proud moment for us to win so many awards. We do love to compete, but our competition is with ourselves, our last product is our benchmark and we try to improve on it. We participate in international competitions to prove what India is capable of doing. I think it is very, very important to send entries to international competitions for a very simple reason that unless we participate, we cannot benchmark ourselves against the best in the world. Today, because Indian printers are winning awards at the global level in competitions like SGIA USA, the 'Made in India' brand has gained recognition and big brands are ready to give us not just opportunities but also preference for their jobs requiring international quality standards. I feel this is the biggest plus point. The more awards we win, the more we can inspire members of the printing fraternity in India to also look beyond borders and expand their horizons. Over the years, gradually other printers have also begun to send entries for international competitions and this is precisely what our goal has always been. Finally, if Varsha Transprint gets featured in the awards lists at international competitions, it sets a high benchmark that others can aspire for and work towards achieving.

 

 

Jignesh H. Ruparelia

 

Varsha Transprint, Mumbai

 

 

It is not less than winning medals at Olympics. We are happy that we are part of that winning Indian team. Yes for us winning at international print contest is all about contributing to the pride of India.

 

Surely more and more companies are producing award winning jobs because they are adopting the automation and keeping the pace with advance technology. Winning the award for our calendar which was appreciated by competitors and clients, was a great satisfaction.

 

Anuj Desai,

 

Image Care, Ahmedabad

 

The International awards are showcases of global benchmark and the display of our capabilities. The opportunity to demonstrate our product range on a global platform is commendable and necessary for India to portray its talent and resource. After all, who does not like to be appreciated. Winning accolades and laurels is pat on our back, because in the given limited resources available and constraints, we still get recognition for the finest of products produce, using high end technology.

 

We, the industrial print solution providers in India, have come a long way and yet we have miles to go. It is the bounty of awards that India received at Fespa-2013 which proves that our hardwork is creative and comparable with the best.

 

Sanjay Mehta

 

Protolab Electrotechnologies, Navi Mumbai

 

It is very important from a business as well as social point of view. Firstly, winning awards on an international platform provides us new business opportunities. Secondly, a trust is built between the company, its vendors and its clientele in the operational setup. I personally feel very motivated and so does our staff. It gives great satisfaction and boosts confidence and morale. It reinstates my faith in investing in new technologies and manpower. Actually receiving the award on stage is an out of the world feeling, which cannot be explained on paper. It is euphoric!

 

Prashhant Mittal & Team

 

Prayag Advertisers, Hapur (UP)

 

Winning at SGIA and similar competitions mean a lot to us. Screen printing is one of our core businesses and we are one of the Indian major players in this industry. So we feel great when we are appreciated at global level for our key strength. It also brings in conviction to our valuable customers whom we serve as we go by our motto of delighting our customers. It adds to our good will in the market and to the trust which our customers hold in the name PRS Permacel and enhances our brand image.

 

Although India is a novice in screen printing, participating in competitions at international level forms a platform for the Indian participants to show their capability and prove their mettle in a subject which is very new to them. It also demonstrates that such humongous talent is breeding and getting nurtured to compete with participating MNCs. In the longer run such international platforms will encourage us to hone our printing skills nearly reaching to perfection as we see in our international counterparts. It will also bring in use of new technology for printing, innovative and creative ideas rather developing new materials on which printing can be done. This may also create a potential for huge printing market in India serving to MNCs. At last we can say that India is emerging forward in screen printing and we look for more and more platforms to show our potential.

 

Rajesh Vaity

 

PRS Permacel

 

General Marketing Manager

 

(comments made in the past on winning SGIA Awards’12).

 

Since there were many entries in this kind of competition coming from all over the world, we always get an opportunity, to check where we stand as far as the quality is concerned as compared to other counterparts internationally. Winning the award bring is a pride for the entire team, it helps us to motivate the team, to do more better next time. It also helps us to gain a new position in our industry, which helps us to get good customers on our list.

 

Rajesh Kulkarni

 

Keetronics (India), Pune

 

We are proud that our made in India product has been appreciated on international platform. It is a morale booster to our entire team. Getting international awards would mean an international endorsement, because the entry was being judged on merit of quality and creativity by international screen printing experts who are supposed to be neutral while judging.

 

Kashyap Thaker,

 

Perfect Packaging, Mumbai.

 

 

It's a healthy competition, why not participate in it? When you submit entries to such awards competitions, you are judged by experts. When you win awards it is a big achievement, and it boosts morale of our team.

 

Sameer Jansari

 

Pramukh Embroidery, Mumbai

 

Amazing, surprising, astonishing, astounding…. So many words can come to the lips when you evaluate progress of the Indian graphic and textile screen printing, purely based from the quality point of view, within such a short time… let us say in the last fifteen last years!

 

His Tips:

 

Many people like to know what to do with one – or more – Awards/recognitions, national or international? Use it for your internal and external marketing! That is what I did with my… 350 Awards in the past with my company Graficaza…Internal marketing: To win Awards will make your people, your staff, your suppliers and manufacturers proud of what they did and still do in or for your company, big or small.

 

External marketing: You will show your customers how good you are in front of your competitors Indian or from other countries. As you know, in advertising, your customers want the best help, through the image you produce, to sell their products. This is true also in decoration, fashion, fine art. They will be also proud of these recognitions and their most natural and evident thanks will be to give you more orders, more difficult jobs and then more challenges, artistic and technic.”

 

Michel Caza, France,

 

Past President FESPA.

 

(This comments were written by him after SGIA’12 Awards competition)

 

PrintWeek India readers may ask this long blog on the aspect of ‘Awards’. Well, as the year ending is just two months away, another international awards competition is lined up – FESPA’2015.

 

So over to FESPA AWARD 2015!

 

Here is the link http://www.fespa.com/awards/about.html

 

 

- OPEN TO ALL: Screen, Digital, Specialists and "Multi-technologies" users for printing, sign and POP making, textile, decoration and industrial applications

 

- OPEN TO ALL : members and non-members of any Association member of FESPA.

 

More details in my next blog on FESPA awards.

 

I urge once all printers (offset, commercial, packaging, digital, textile printers included) to take part in the forthcoming FESPA Awards 2015. Remember, normally offset/packaging printers do not participate in FESPA. But why hesitate, there are value addition categories (not the kind of spot UV – matt/gloss) for offset/packaging printers who do lot of UV special effects on their job.

 

I quote what Bhargav Mistry, said: “If you are a first timer then make it a habit of participating in national and international competitions in future, with a true spirit of entrepreneurship and healthy competition. It is surely an opportunity to celebrate excellence in screen printing which is now a most versatile printing process.”

 

Bhargav further said: “Remember, under the principle of 'healthy competition', participation is primary and winning awards is secondary. My friend Mike Young said ‘One may be merrily surprised and, like they say about playing a lottery – you can't win if you don't' play!’”

 

So, come on, let's go for it – participate in FESPA'15 Awards Competition! Let this be your 'NEW YEAR RESOLUTION'. Let this new enthusiasm prevail forever.