Winners of PrintWeek India Innovative Printer of the Year 2013

Parksons Graphics (Mumbai)
Tel: 91-22-6198 1900 / animesh@parksonsgraphics.com

AND

Spectrum Scan (Mumbai)
Tel: 91-22-6660 4612 / amit@spectrummail.com

The Innovative Printer category saw a close fight among the contestants, two of whom topped the chart with equal points. Last year’s winner Parksons Graphics and Vasai-based Spectrum Scan were declared winners, for the usability factor and for creating a product that emphasises the “wow” factor.

Parksons Graphics, the Mumbai-based company, which picks up three Awards this year, had a winner in the ACK Media’s Trolly Bag. Parksons, which promotes itself as a solution provider, says, “It’s our duty to understand the pain areas of our clients, and during one of our visit to ACK Media, we stumbled on a problem of theirs.”

According to Parksons, ACK Media wanted to market around 300 titles of their Indian classic titles, mythology, bravehearts, visionary, fables, etc together. They also wanted to add 10 hard case books of comics into this pack. The challenge was: how to pack these and display it in their book stalls?

Parksons fabricated a box using four-ply double wall heavy duty corrugated, 300gsm three-M-duplex board, and printed the titles with illustrations (in four-colour) on the outer side of the box, with its Heidelberg XL 105. All the titles were placed in the box. Since the box was around 45kgs, four castor wheels were fitted to the box to make it mobile. The fabrication of box makes it a multi-purpose items. The lid of the box has been created in such a way that it can be pulled out and used as a handle for the trolley. The box can also be used as a chair and a table to write. “This is not only a solution but a marketing triumph,” says Parksons, because ACK Media could sell a large number of its titles to NRIs.

Spectrum Scan’s The Cadbury thermoformed large-format is a high-impact display item. The back-lit, print and formed backlit signage was designed in-house. The pre-press included colour and graphic correction and pre-distortion to compensate for thermoform distortion. Semi-automatic screen printing machine was used to print the PET G acrylic sheets. In-house thermoforming machine was used to form the shape of the bottle. CMYK colour was used to produce and a special colour was used to compensate for the distortion of colour and day and night effect.

Spectrum Scan recently opened an experience lounge, what it claims is, an unique concept. It is called the Bazaar, a 2,500 sq/ft showroom of POP and POS items. It has also installed an interdeck- six-colour + coater (28inch x 40inch) Roland press and a new custom-made 5 x 10 thermo-forming machine. “This technology has opened up new markets and opportunities and we are now looking at the next exciting investment,” says Amit Shah of Spectrum Scan.

According to the judges, the two ideas by itself would not have made it an award-winner, but the ability to leverage its use beyond display, has taken it to that level. “Innovative products with a purpose,” said one.

Commended
Jasmine Art Printers (Navi Mumbai)
PrintExpressions (Gurgaon)
Shree Printwell Offset (Rajkot)
Spectrum Scan (Mumbai)
Thomson Press (India) (Faridabad)
Vibgyor Arts (Kolkata)

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