It was my great pleasure to be invited to Chair the judging of the 2012 Thai Print Awards in this the 7th year of competition.

This year our independent judging panel consisted of 3 international visitors, Myself & Team leaders Robert James from Australia & Andrew Walmsley from England plus invited local experienced judges & several new members to ensure our knowledge and expertise was shared and will continue for the future.

The Judging process is conducted under very strict guidelines; all entries are judged by number and if any individual judge has knowledge of an entry or perhaps his company made a submission the judge must stand aside during the judging of that Category. All medalists are selected by individual judges votes and the results calculated by the Independent Chairman.

The Judges registered several categories for special mention: Embellishment: The Gold medal winner had a special “Wow” factor.

Sheetfed Magazines: large numbers of excellent entries Packaging: an excellent range of top quality entries.

Gravure: A hard category to judge due to the exceptional quality.

Digital: This sector continues to grow both in numbers & quality.

We were disappointed to note a vast number of entries had obviously not been quality checked prior to submission as many “Basic” print faults were evident, surprisingly these included poor registration in some Digital submissions. Also there were numerous submissions that could not be considered as they did not comply with the entry rules, the worst offenders being in the Label & Tag category.

Unfortunately these mistakes led to a several Categories not achieving Gold medal status. For next year`s competition we strongly recommend all companies double check the Print Quality & Entry requirements prior to submission.

We compliment the awards organizing committee for the excellent management of the entry process and the co-ordination of the judging days, our special thanks to the Awards Chairman Pasakorn.

Our thanks to all the 2012 entrants for without you there would be no competition.

The judging team congratulates this year’s medal winners and we wish you every success in the Asian Print Awards.