Auckland printer wins the old-fashioned way

Southan Print Ltd has won runner up to the Supreme Award along with best for Specialty Products and best for Screen Printing Process at tonight’s Pride In Print Awards at Auckland’s Sky City Convention Centre (press release attached).

The entry, titled “Portia,” is a photographic portrait of a girl with her Cello. It was screen printed onto canvas to resemble a fine art print.

Southan Print’s Cyril Southan says the client, a wedding photographer, wanted a one-off piece of art, not a digital print, and that’s what they got.

“She didn’t want digital as she felt it would look too commercial,” he says.

Based in East Tamaki, Southan Print has been in business for four years. During this time, they have won five gold awards and two process wins, which, with more than 900 entries every year, is quite an achievement.

One of the awards’ judges Tim Upton says the finished print is real art; the skin tone is perfect as are the “wisps of hair on the girl’s arms and face,” all of which are all in perfect registration. He adds that the portrait was the only piece of work in its category of Specialty Products that wasn’t driven by technology but by skilled hand application, “the old fashioned way”.

“The piece was printed the way screen printing has been done for 70 years, and it stood out from everything else in its category because each colour was overlaid separately to produce a perfect print. It’s very hard and very skillful to get that sort of detail right. It’s so good to see craftsmanship like this.”

The annual Pride In Print Awards, now in its 25th year, is the printing and graphic arts industry’s premier awards.

Awards’ manager Sue Archibald says it is only the second time the Supreme Award has had a runner-up entry. However, she emphasises that Pride In Print is about promoting excellence in printing, and all category winners were at the top of their game.

“The judging criteria has been tightened up this year because of the excellence of most entries, and some were only separated from a top award by a hair, as was the case with this entry.”

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