UD’s GCC brings home the gold

Among the GCC staff members who worked on the winning pieces are (holding awards, from left) Ed Rapp, Dawn Cox, JoEllen Rathbun, Bob Johnston and Len Heller; (second row, from left) Becky Ramos and Sandy Margerison; (third row) Cameron Thayer and Connie Wallace; (fourth row) Crystal Dutton, Carol Harris, Holly Williamson and Dan Slaten; (fifth row) Bill Nester and Paul Fahringer; and Rodney Brown at the right.

12:20 p.m., July 11, 2005--Five publications printed by UD’s Graphic Communications Center and designed by the Office of Public Relations won top kudos from the six judges on the panel of this year’s InPlant Printing Conference, held June 26-29 in Chicago.

Winning awards were the 2005 UD engagement calendar, the 2004 President’s holiday greeting card, a brochure for UD’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, the concert program for Xiang Gao’s inaugural performance with the Ceruti violin in 2004 at Wilmington’s Grand Opera House and an informational brochure for the PR Office.

The calendar, greeting card and Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics brochure each won gold awards; the concert program won a silver award; and the informational brochure received a “judges’ recognition” award.

The UD publications competed against 545 other entries, and, according to Rodney Brown, manager of UD’s Graphics Communication Center, ran neck and neck with submissions from some of the nation’s largest academic institutions, among them the universities of Missouri and Utah and Louisiana State University.

“Last year, we won ‘Best in Show’ for the [2004] engagement calendar,” Brown said, “and we were in the running for that award again this year, but in the end, we were beat out by Utah.”

Brown explained that the pieces were judged on the quality of their printing alone, but he emphasized that their design--whether an overtly judged criterion or not--played a critical role in their final production.

“I think the awards we received really show the quality of our work and the ability of our staff at UD, from the designers to the printers,” he said.

Barbara Broge, assistant director of the Office of Public Relations and the designer of the engagement calendar, said that she enjoyed the project for the design challenges it offered. “I am sure that GCC's expert printing of these colorful artworks caught the judges' eye in the competition,” she said.

“With GCC's expertise, the registration was precise, the brilliance of the colors really translated well, and the production aspects of the project ran smoothly,” she added.

Broge also designed the brochure for the performance at the Grand Opera House.

Barbara Stein, art director in Public Relations, designed the President’s holiday card, and said that her confidence in the quality of GCC’s workmanship enabled her to concentrate on design elements rather than production concerns. “GCC always gives meticulous attention to the many aspects of the printing process,” she said, “so I was confident they would perfect all facets of the holiday card, from registration, to graduated varnishes, to flawless color fidelity.”

Monroe Givens, associate director of public relations for creative services, designed the other two pieces that won. He said that the award for the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics brochure was a particular triumph because it was a digitally printed piece with a very quick production turnaround.

“Normally I order offset printing,” Givens said, “but we didn’t need a large run on this job, and we were rewarded with a piece from GCC that looked as good and classy as if it had been printed with an offset. The same quality and effectiveness were there, only the Graphics Communications Center was able to turn the entire job around within a day.”

Brown said that he was very pleased with this year’s winning sweep.

“We were up against some very big players with in-house printing facilities--and not just academic institutions, but large insurance companies and corporations like Boeing,” he said. “As far as our printing quality and workmanship, we did exceptionally well.”

Article by Becca Hutchinson
Photo by Kathy Atkinson

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