PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Qualprint, a division of Quality Printing Co., will be accepting two Benjamin Franklin Awards in Chicago on Sept. 11, awards akin to the Oscars for the graphic arts industry.

The "Benny" is the highest honor in the 2011 Premier Print Awards, the industry's largest and most prestigious worldwide printing competition that recognizes outstanding achievement in print production. (Benjamin Franklin, of course, being one of the nation's foremost printers back in the day.)

The award-winning Qualprint is getting two for the categories of Magazine Series and Cross Media Promotion for its work in Briefings on Talent & Leadership, a quarterly publication of Korn/Ferry International, a top global provider of talent management solutions.

"You can't produce an award-winning magazine without ferocious attention to detail, consistency, state-of-the-art technology, and great people," said Joel Kurtzman, editor-in-chief of Briefings on Talent & Leadership. "That describes Qualprint. They're really, really good. It shows in the quality of the product we produce. We've found they'll do whatever it takes to do the best job possible. They're willing to push harder and even experiment when necessary."
 
The Premier Print Awards are the printing industry's oldest and largest worldwide graphic arts competition, hosted by Printing Industries of America. In its 62nd year, the annual contest recognizes those responsible for the creation and production of superior print communications.

"The Benny winners represent the best our industry has to offer," said Michael Makin, president and CEO of Printing Industries of America.
 
This year, more than 3,200 entries were received from printing and graphic arts firms from around the world, and judges awarded the Benny to the top entry in each category.

"Everyone at Qualprint contributed to winning this prestigious award," said John G. DiSantis, president and CEO of Qualprint. "It's an honor to be recognized by the industry and the world as a company that produces award-winning print. This is a win for Qualprint, Korn/Ferry International, Insight Design, and the dedicated team that makes each issue of Briefings on Talent and Leadership such a success."
 
The Bennys will be awarded at the Premier Print Awards Gala at the Chicago Marriott Downtown.
 
For more information about Qualprint, contact June Roy-Martin at 413-442-4166.

No one should be surprised to learn that Quality Printing Co. of Pittsfield has once again scored an award for its beautiful work.

What's even more satisfying is that it won for its most recent annual calender, "A Closer Look at the Berkshires," which was dedicated to the late Joel Librizzi.

The Printing Industries of New England gave it a Pinnacle Award for Best in Category for the 2010 calendar, which features some of the best local photography in the Berkshires. Librizzi, a longtime photojournalist for The Berkshire Eagle, had been a judge for Qualprint's calendar competition for more than a quarter-century before he died last year.

The past May, the calendar picked up a silver in a national calendar contest, the second year in a row "A Closer Look" had struck silver.

Qualprint also won a PINE award of merit for work it did for Berkshire Money Management in the association's regional Awards of Excellence Competition on Nov. 12

The presentations were made at PINE's 2010 Industry Awards Gala held at the Newton Marriott with hundreds of industry professionals in attendance. The Awards of Excellence Competition attracted more than 200 entries from 35 printing and imaging companies across New England competing in a variety of printing and graphic communications categories such as best annual report, direct mail campaign, corporate identity package, and more.

Panels of three judges with extensive experience in printing and print production were brought in to examine the wide range of work submitted. Tim Burton of Burton & Mayer, Menomonee Falls, Wis.; Paul Schmitz of Schmitz Press, Sparks, Md., and Art Stowe, former president of the Printing & Graphics Association Mid Atlantic were the judges. Each entry was judged anonymously on its own merit in a category with similar printed pieces.

The judging criteria included: registration, clarity and neatness, sharpness of halftones and line drawings, richness and tonal qualities of color, paper and ink selection, ink coverage, difficulty of printing, effective contrast or softness, overall visual impact and bindery.

Qualprint's 2010 calendar nabbed a silver award from the 2010 Calendar Marketing Association.

We especially like the calendar full of Berkshire scenes was dedicated to the late Joel Librizzi, a professional photographer who served for 26 years as one of the calendar contest judges for the company. Joel, who died in June 2009, spent his career as a photojournalist at The Berkshire Eagle. He was well known as a talented artist and generous friend.

The National Calendar Award was given in the division of Most Creative Marketing Application for a custom/corporate calendar. The annual full-color calendar is produced, printed and distributed each year by the company. It's printed on FSC certified stock using soy-based inks.

The calendar was designed by Lisa Kirchner, a graphic and digital production artist at Qualprint, and more than 10,000 have been circulated throughout New England.
Winning criteria included the quality of photographs and graphics and complete execution of the calendar subject and theme. The images appearing in the calendar are chosen in an annual photography and art contest sponsored by Qualprint for the past 27 years.