One hundred and twenty-seven award-winning pieces of printed work were displayed before an appreciative audience of about 1,000 converting professionals May 5 at the FFTA Excellence in Flexography Awards Banquet. Gold medals—first place awards—went to 32 package-printing jobs. Silver medals were given to another 42 entries. Bronze medals were presented to 35 contenders and non-denominational awards went to 12.

Six of the gold-medal winners also took Best-of-Show in their respective category. They include LSK Label Co. for Kendall Jackson Collage Cabernet Sauvignon (Narrow Web); Banner Packaging for Superman Boys' Briefs from Fruit of the Loom (Mid Web); Printpack Inc. for Bugs Bunny and Friends Fruit Snack (Wide Web); Lewisburg Container for Hoover Steam Vacuum, Farrington (Combined Corrugated); and SCI for Marsan Food Teriyaki Chicken Bowl (Preprinted Linerboard).

FTA president Mark Cisternino detailed the selection process. "Every single entry was scored by two separate teams of judges. One three-person team evaluated six different variables under the "degree of difficulty" heading: how tough the job was to execute. The second three-member panel graded each piece on five different variables addressing the "level of execution:" how well the job was actually printed. Entries were scored from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest), and the results were entered into a spreadsheet for tallying.

"After all entries in a category were scored, results were sorted from highest to lowest," Cisternino continued. "In each category, the top-three point-getters were considered for an award. Judges used their discretion in designating gold, silver and bronze medal recipients."

Dave Horsman, a level of execution judge from Canflexographics, and the only judge who could claim to be an FTA Hall of Famer, said, "A dozen or so entries came by my table that were some of the best narrow-web printing I've ever seen."