The L9 group of international label associations
are pleased to announce the results of the 2017 L9 World Label Awards (WLA)
competition judged by an international panel of judges representing each of the
participating associations. The judging took place in Brussels the day before
Labelexpo Europe at the exhibition venue. The L9 is an alliance of global label
associations formed to jointly formulate policies and collecting strategic
information of global interest to the worldwide label industry.
The current class structure includes 22 classes
covering all the principal printing processes and market applications. The
results are listed in class order with the Winners announced first followed by
the Honourable Mention (HM) awards.
All of the L9 label associations are invited, each
year, to submit entries for the World Label Awards. This ensures that the
competition has a truly international flavour. We were pleased to welcome
representatives from the Indian Label Association (LMAI) who were taking part
for the first time in several years. Other associations involved in the 2017
competition included FINAT (Europe), TLMI (USA), JFLP (Japan), FPLMA
(Australia), SALMA (New Zealand) and PEIAC (China).
In order to be considered for entry in this
prestigious competition a label converter must first have won an award in their
“local” association’s competition as this is the only route to entry. Each L9
association is permitted to submit one entry in each class, entries from
individual converters are not accepted. Winning an award in the WLA competition
is highly valued throughout the worldwide label fraternity signalling that the
label converter has achieved real excellence in label production. The awards
not only reflect the achievements of the production departments involved in
producing the label, they are also used as a valuable marketing tool. No wonder
they are often referred to as the technical Oscars of the global label
industry. The jury spends a considerable time examining and debating the
technical and aesthetic features of each label including converting and
finishing technology. “Never will a label have been examined in such detail,
even by the converter’s QC department. We expect a high standard of printing at
this level and we also look for the quality of the design of the label”
comments Tony White, chairman of the judging panel. “We continue to be
surprised by the quality of the entries year on year” he continues.
The judges for the 2017 competition included Tony
White (FINAT) Chair, Mike Buystedt (TLMI) Vice Chairman, Harveer Sahni (LMAI),
Tony Wheeler (SALMA), Andrew Maxwell (FPLMA), Mr Masaaki Yoshitake (JFLP) and
Ms Jean Li (PEIAC).
Best of the Best
This is the fifth year that the L9 World label
Awards Association has included 5 additional awards representing the “Best of
the Best” entries from the principal printing processes selected during the
judging process. The awards will be presented at the Tarsus Global Awards event
which will be held during Labelexpo 2018 in Chicago in September 2018. The
winners were selected from the winning entries in the L9 World label Awards
competition from the following classes: Flexography, Letterpress, Offset Litho,
Combination Printing, Digital Printing. The plaques will be presented and the
winners revealed at the awards ceremony and are perceived as the “Oscars of the
Oscars” of the international label industry.
