Ultimate Digital was highly commended for its Kids’ Ink entry
The Innovation Excellence Awards 2018 held on 26 June at Stationers’ Hall in London saw Parkside Flexibles take the Innovator of the Year award and packaging specialist Ultimate Digital secure a Highly Commended.
Parkside, which won the Novel Manufacturing Technology category, secured the win for its Park 2 Nature, a range of compostable laminate structures to replace traditional plastic packaging.
Ultimate Digital was awarded for Kids Ink, a web-to-print service that allows schoolchildren to create artwork on a tablet and have it uploaded and printed onto a personalised lunch bag. Printed on the HP Indigo 20000 digital press, linked to the portal via Ultimate’s own Smartflow software, the lunch bags are made of anti-bacterial plastic making them suitable for repeated use with food. The company’s business development executive Emma Winton reported that a number of schools were funding the production themselves, while others were sharing the costs with parents.
Sun Chemical won the Novel Product Design category for SunMotion, a signage and display system that simulates motion by sequentially illuminating a series of fluorescent inkjet-printed layers that are otherwise invisible. The system is considerably cheaper than LED display panels, albeit less flexible. Sun Chemical was also highly commended for a range of compostable flexo inks for food packaging, as was Esko for its XPS Crystal flexo platesetter technology.
Hobs Group was highly commended for its work with its VRCUB3D cardboard pop-up cube, which provides a lightweight and portable VR environment. Mixed reality (VR images superimposed on real world views) was a winner for LoopSpace, an app for a mixed reality headset, developed by DoubleMe, which allows people to meet and collaborate in a virtual space.
Other winners included Bloomsbury Publishing, which won the Creative Means of Communicating with Target Audiences category, and Zeshan Qureshi, which won New Communication Programmes that Enhance Social, Educational and Community Development.
Chairman of the awards Jonathan Drori said, ‘This has been a bumper year for the Innovation Excellence Awards. With a very strong field of entries, from small and large organisations and from every one of the Stationers’ Company’s sectors, the judging panel had a difficult yet enjoyable job. The judges were very pleased to see how the industry is taking its effect on society and the environment so seriously.’
‘After considerable debate, the judges’ unanimous choice of overall Innovator of the Year is Parkside Flexibles. Its winning entry will doubtless have a positive impact on the environment. The judges were particularly impressed by both the eye-catching attractiveness of the product and the tenacity of the team, noting the long period of research culminating in Park 2 Nature.’
