FESPA has redeveloped its Awards programme, making it an annual competition and opening it to any print service provider, anywhere in the world.

The FESPA Awards 2014 opens for entries this week at www.fespa.com/awards. The global competition will culminate in a prize-giving ceremony on 22nd May 2014 in Munich, the penultimate night of FESPA Digital 2014, where printers, brand owners, suppliers and FESPA board members will come together to celebrate the very best of print excellence.

There are 10 application categories to consider: Instore; Outdoor; Interior; Functional decoration; Garment; Integrated; Sustainable; Special effect; Fine art; and Vehicle decoration.

The FESPA Awards will be judged by an independent panel comprising print buyers, printers and other print experts, as well as professionals involved in commissioning print. Judges already confirmed are: Sarah Sowers, Innovation Manager for NikeID; Folker Wrage, Chief Creative Officer at McCann Erickson Istanbul; and Erwin Deproost, Design Operations Manager for Philips BG Consumer Luminaires.

The judging criteria will be: excellence in execution of print quality; technical expertise relevant to the application; appropriate use of techniques, design, media; creativity with regard to the application (choice of print and techniques to meet the objectives of the project); and the return on investment for the end user of the printed work. All entries will receive constructive feedback from the judges, consistent with FESPA’s commitment to championing best practice and continuous improvement for printers.

In addition to the application category awards, two awards will be voted for online by FESPA’s print community; the Hall of Fame Printer of the Year, which will be selected from nominations to FESPA’s 2014 Hall of Fame, and the People’s Choice Award.

The final award is the President’s Innovation Award, which will be given to the entry which all judges agree to offer the most outstanding example of innovation across all categories.

Shortlisted entries to the FESPA Awards 2014 will be showcased on the FESPA website from 20th March 2014 onwards, from which time the print community will be invited to vote online for the People’s Choice award.

All shortlisted entries will also be exhibited at Messe Munich during the May 2014 FESPA Digital exhibition. A gallery of the winning and highly commended work will then continue on a year-long global tour, to be showcased at FESPA exhibitions in Africa, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil and Asia, attracting an international audience of printers and print buyers, including brand owners, agencies, and creative and interior designers.

FESPA Head of Events, Duncan MacOwan comments: “FESPA’s mission is to inspire our community, and the people that buy print, by sharing amazing examples of print’s capabilities. By opening the Awards beyond our immediate member community, we hope to attract a broad global portfolio of entries, with examples of innovative print across the whole gamut of wide format applications. This is the only truly global awards scheme in wide format print. By entering, printers have a unique opportunity to achieve worldwide recognition for their business and their work, and to showcase their skills to a receptive audience of peers and print buyers. The exposure that comes with a FESPA Award win could catapult a print business to new growth opportunities.”

MacOwan continues: “We’re confident that many of the entries will amaze those who see them, from the judges to those who browse them at fespa.com and see them close-up at our exhibitions. Our vision is that the FESPA Awards should motivate printers to push the boundaries of what they produce, and help our community to remind the world of print’s tremendous potential as a promotional, decorative and functional medium.”