Three South African digital printers beat off fierce local and international competition to scoop top honours at the recent 2019 HP and Dscoop Inkspiration EMEA Awards.
HOSTED during the Dscoop Edge EMEA HP partner conference in PortAventura, Spain, the annual HP and Dscoop Inkspiration EMEA Awards showcased top-quality work from HP Graphic Arts customers. It was also a celebration of how print service providers across the EMEA region are turning creative personalisation and customisation ideas into reality.
Submissions were narrowed down to 38 finalists across seven categories, with three South African HP Indigo customers included in the list: Didget Print, Minit Print and Ren-Flex, all based in Gauteng. Each entry was displayed in a special Solutions Showcase, located alongside the Dscoop Edge conference event, and attendees could vote for their favourite using the dedicated Dscoop app.
With final votes cast, Ren-Flex and Minit Print were announced as overall winners in the Self-Promotion and Folding Cartons Categories respectively.
Despite being a relative newcomer to the digital packaging space, Ren-Flex has been making significant inroads with creative print for leading brands in the dairy, ice cream and FMCG sectors.
Winning the overall Self-Promotion Category award for their funky cooler box entry was a real honour for the Ren-Flex team, and just recognition that South African print service providers (PSPs) can compete, and win, against the very best in the world.
“The fun, colourful cooler boxes produced on our HP Indigo 20000 with Mosaic SmartStream Design software were our first Inkspirations entry. They were developed with seven original design files to suit specific customer profiles,” explained Erika Hearnshaw, marketing director for Ren-Flex. “Attending the event and receiving our award was a huge honour, and I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to network like-minded people who “get” digital print,” she added.
Acknowledged for the second consecutive year, the team at Minit Print, Pretoria, once again proved their expertise in digital print, both in terms of commercial printing and labels and packaging.
“This is our third Dscoop experience, and our second win in a row,” explained Carike Smit, design specialist and creator of the pack design for Aroma Coffee, which won the coveted Folding Carton Category.
“At our first Dscoop conference in Lyon, three years ago , we were looking for new ideas from around the world that we could bring back and adapt on our own HP Indigo commercial digital press,” continued Smit. “It was quite an overwhelming experience as we realised just how little exposure we had had to the possibilities in digital print. It was certainly a “wow” moment and we returned with inspiring ideas for photo printing, general commercial printing and more. We refined these ideas over
time to develop our own style and began using them very effectively for self-promotion purposes as well as for commercial work,” she added.
In 2018, the Minit Print team attended the Dscoop Vienna conference, collecting their first Inkspirations Award with a striking paper and print sample book, inspired by ideas from their first Dscoop experience.
“Fast forward to 2019, and we had a clear mission to find something different in Spain. Networking with media partners and PSPs from around the globe was top of our agenda and we discovered a host of new papers and print applications that will enable us to keep pushing boundaries in the future,” continued Smit. .
Lynda Finke, co-owner of Didget Print – overall finalists in the Flexible Packaging Category, echoed Carike Smit’s statement. “Dscoop provided the perfect platform for finding new ideas and, with the opportunity to have one-on-one meetings with a host of HP partners and HP global directors, we were given up-to-the-minute information on global trends and all-new value-added print and finishing technologies,” affirmed Finke. “Getting to know other players in the local digital print industry a little better at this year’s event was also a rewarding experience, and we’re already collaborating on several new projects.”
