Flexographic Technical Association (FTA) Excellence in Flexography Awards were bestowed on 156 winning entries March 20 at the group's 2005 Annual Forum in Orlando, FL. Judged for the aggressiveness and complexity of the graphics, the winners were recognized as well as for their print quality and integrity of dots and solids.

In all, 45 gold, 41 silver, 46 bronze and 22 non-denominational awards were spread across 10 categories. New to the 2005 FTA Awards, two student projects were recognized with medals for "outstanding achievement."

More than one quarter of all submissions was judged as wide-web jobs. Out of 75 diverse mid-web entries, 19 went on to receive medals. And from a mountain of 113 narrow-web submissions, 37 awards were given to a variety of prints ranging from bubble-gum wrappers to wine labels.

As usual, the most difficult task of the awards judging was naming the six top prizes—the best of shows for the narrow-web, mid-web, wide-web, corrugated, preprint and envelope categories. This year's best of the best include:

• Wide Web—Arizona Tea with Lemon Flavor 12-pack 11.5-oz. cans—Robbie Manufacturing Inc.
• Mid Web—Ralston Foods® Berrry Treets cereal bag—Ralcorp Holdings
• Narrow Web—Strauss Veal Italian Style Veal Meatballs—Belmark Inc.
• Combined Corrugated—Point Amber Classic Beer 12-oz. bottles—SSCC-Castle Rock Display Group
• Preprinted Linerboard—Little Tykes® MagiCook Kitchen—Weyerhaeuser Co.
• Envelope—Grattan Bath Gift Set Offer—Washington Envelopes Ltd.

As best of show in wide web, Robbie Manufacturing's Arizona Tea with Lemon process, film job (A) earned praise from both judging teams for its quality of print and innovative use of color. "We were impressed with the fact that it wasn't standard CMYK," says Arleen Neustein, Excelsior Packaging Group, Wide-Web Team A, degree of difficulty judge. "The printer modified its tones and ink colors to achieve something that was a dead-on match to customer-supplied samples of products printed using other methods." Joe Tuccitto of Dunwoody College of Technology, who judged degree of difficulty for Wide-Web Team B, offers, "The colors used to make the highlights in the ice were very creative. It looked like it was going to melt right off the sheet."

Mid-Web Level of Execution Judge Milton Ramos, Huhtamaki Consumer Packaging, viewed Ralcorp Holding's process, film Berrry Treets package (B) as the epitome of high-quality flexo. "This package jumped at everyone," he says. "Even before looking at it in close detail we knew that it was a winner. The bright colors and sharpness caught our attention. This job is flexo at its greatest."

Amid foil-stamped, embossed, glossy and matte finished labels, a folding carton job—Belmark's Strauss Veal Meatball process, paperboard entry (C)—stood out on top in narrow web. "The black background really set off the colors and the food image," says John Young, Robbie Manufacturing, a narrow-web degree of difficulty judge. "We were impressed that most of the text was reversed out of the process builds and that the printer did not use pin lines around this text. The register was dead on. The line colors were also trapped very well and were sharp and crisp."

"Overall print quality made these two entries stick out from the rest," comments Mark Coffman, American Color Graphics, a corrugated/preprint degree of difficulty judge, on the top winners in these two respective categories. Level of Execution Judge Kevin Chop, Matthews International, praised SSCC-Castle Rock's Point Amber corrugated, line entry (D) for "excellent registration, excellent vignette reproduction, quality of screen reproduction, and a match to contract color proofs." For Weyerhaeuser's Little Tykes® process entry (E), he cited tight registration over a large web and repeat, consistency of print quality over entire web, separations of multi-ethnic skin tones, and excellent image engineering.

Washington Envelopes' detailed image of a sophisticated soap and bath set over a complex background texture for its Grattan Bath Gift Set Offer (F) made the envelope best of show an exceptionally intricate print. "This year's best of show ranked the highest in degree of difficulty," confirms Cenveo's Tom Kowalski, a degree of difficulty judge.

John McDonald, of Lipson Alport Glass, says of the graphic design category, "Consumer products companies recognize the need to connect with consumers in ways that extend far deeper than arresting visual graphics. Capturing the consumer's attention is simply not enough."

This, he and other judges concur, was evident in the submissions and most notably the winners. Ralcorp Holdings' Ralston Foods Berrry Treets cereal bag and Thai Containers Group's Treasure Box took the gold in graphic design.

"Walking through the print entry area and looking at the samples, there weren't many designs that didn't include process or screened images," notes Alan Jeffcoat, Pen & Inc. of Milwaukee, also a graphic design judge. "The use of vibrant color, creative typographic solutions, and high quality images coupled with knowledge of flexography offer expanded opportunities for designers to push the boundaries of what's achievable in flexo."

Up and coming flexo-printing students were recognized for the first time in FTA Excellence Awards history with two honors. "Outstanding Achievement" medals went to Clemson University for its Children's Puppet Theatre, and to Dunwoody College of Technology for the Marco Polo Saki label.