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.

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Bookloft and the American Institute for Economic Research are sponsoring an event with financial journalist and local author Eric J. Weiner. Weiner will be at AIER's headquarters Friday, Sept. 24, at 7 p.m. to speak and to sign copies of his new book "The Shadow Market," published by Scribner.

America's economic confidence has been deeply shaken by the Great Recession. But while the media has focused on such factors as consumer-debt levels, unemployment, and the government bailout of banks, an entirely different phenomenon has arisen — the arrival of the "Shadow Market," a multitrillion-dollar network of super-rich, secretive, and largely unregulated financial vehicles that are quietly buying up the world, piece by valuable piece.

Weiner reveals in his new book how these investors, many of them foreign countries, are increasingly controlling the global economy and seizing power from the United States in ways that our government cannot stop and about which the average American knows nothing.

Weiner has covered business and economic issues for 15 years as a writer and editor. A former columnist and reporter for Dow Jones Newswires, he has written for The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Village Voice, and countless other major publications. He is the author of the critically acclaimed "What Goes Up: The Uncensored History of Modern Wall Street as Told by Bankers, Brokers, CEOs, and Scoundrels Who Made It Happen." He is also a contributor to the news and opinion website The Huffington Post. He and his family live in Great Barrington.

The talk is open to the public. AIER is located at 250 Division St. Call The Bookloft at 413-528-1521 or AIER at 413-528-1216 for more information.

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.

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The redesign of the American Institute for Economic Research's "Research Reports" has scored an EXCEL Award for production designer Jonathan Sylbert.

He was one of 175 winners representing 91 associatons recently selected by Association Media & Publishing from 1,000 entrants. Winners were chosen for taking bold chances in a variety of categories. Other winners included AARP, National Education Association, The Conference Board and the American Cancer Society.

Sylbert worked at Rudolph de Harak & Associates, a graphic and industrial design firm in New York City, prior to moving to the Berkshires. He has worked at AIER since 1996. He is also chairman of the Monterey Select Board and president of the Monterey Preservation Land Trust.

AIER won the bronze award for the Most Improved Newsletter to Newsletter. Sylbert was the project leader for AIER's comprehensive redesign that was six months in the making and included input from many AIER staff members and selected outside experts. The redesign, which was for both Research Reports and Economic Bulletins, was introduced to readers in January 2009.

AIER is one of the oldest economic research organizations in the United States. Founded in 1933, it is an independent, non-profit organization; AIER's unbiased research and publications address a wide variety of economic issues including personal finance, monetary policy, business cycles and property rights.

A local custom printer is partnering with a technology startup to offer customers in Berkshire and Hampden counties a new way to publish their printed material online.

Excelsior Printing Co.  in North Adams will be the exclusive provider of Flip Page Publishing's 3D publishing technology. Excelsior will be able to offer customers a three-dimensional version of printed collateral on their Web sites through a plug-in created by Flip Page and delivered through Excelsior.

It will allow customers to "effectively communicate in cross-media channels," said David Crane, Excelsior's owner and president.

The technology allows the read to zoom in and out, print and share documents as well as, of course, "flip" the pages. Flip Page Publishing is based in Branford, Ontario.
 
"The Massachusetts marketplace is a new venture for Flip Page Publishing and we feel it is full of opportunity," said Flip Page's President Brent Palmer.

Excelsior has been in business for 118 years and is a provider of custom and innovative print and distribution programs throughout North America. Excelsior became Berkshire County's first Forest Stewardship Council certified "green" printer in 2008.