Boutique printer Print Panther (Oakville, Ontario), the first company in Canada to install Konica Minolta’s MGI JETvarnish 3DS and iFOIL system, has won seven Premier Print Awards and will be officially recognized this September 30 at the awards ceremony in Chicago, Illinois. The ground-breaking finishing technology takes advanced finishing to the next level and offers the Canadian print industry an exciting range of new market opportunities, said the OEM. The Premier Print Awards competition is an annual event organized by the world’s largest graphic arts trade association, the Printing Industries of America (PIA). With over 3,000 entries each year, the PIA Premier Print Awards is the most prestigious international print competition in the world. Entries are reviewed and assessed by a panel of expert judges, who then select winners across 26 predefined product categories. This year, Print Panther received a total of seven awards including one Certificate of Merit (awarded to entries that are deserving of recognition for their high-quality printing and design), as well as six highly esteemed Awards of Recognition, which are awarded only to the finalists in each category.
“Print Panther continues to lead the way in the digital foil and varnish market,” said Norm Bussolaro, Senior Director of Marketing at Konica Minolta Business Solutions (Canada). “It’s no surprise to us, given some of the amazing work they’ve produced, that they be recognized by the Printing Industries of America. They continue to demonstrate their exceptional command of digital and specialty printing applications, and are surely deserving of the industry-wide recognition that comes with receiving a Premier Print Award.”
According to Christine Yardley, President of Print Panther, “our vision to foresee the potential and embrace the power of the MGI technology has allowed us to differentiate our offerings and build out a different kind of print shop. The custom finishing that we do in-house truly sets us apart. We can now manage complex projects flexibly, more efficiently, and in less time. Our digital focus is really giving us an edge in the marketplace.”
Konica Minolta’s MGI technology has been acknowledged by industry experts as genuinely disruptive and has been featured recently on the covers of several industry publications. In fact, the list of applications for Konica Minolta’s MGI JETvarnish 3DS and iFoil technology will grow exponentially as the analogue foil and varnish market converts to digital, according the Konica Minolta. The MGI JETvarnish takes advanced finishing to the next level by providing digital spot UV coating in plain 2D and 3D formats, plus embossed and foil textured effects – all in a single pass. Moreover, the digital spot UV coating is 100% variable-data capable – including barcode reader options enabling custom spot-varnished prints with unique graphics, text and numeric data, for runs from one to thousands of sheets.
Konica Minolta Canada celebrates Print Panther’s big win at the world’s most prestigious international print competition
