The FINAT Label Competition – the Europe-based association’s annual showcase of the best in creative and technical label design and print –– has produced a sparkling line-up of winners this year. Now in its 36th year, the competition embraces all of today’s labeling and imaging technologies, and welcomes entries from around the world.

The panel of judges, chaired by Tony White of AWA Consulting, evaluated 255 entries submitted from 18 countries, and selected 81 award winners, including special recognition for the “Best in Show” award and a “Judges’ Special Award.” Awards were organized in five main groups, with relevant sub-categories, covering marketing and end uses printing processes, non-adhesive applications, innovation and digital printing.

Best in Show
Marzek Etiketten + Packaging, Austria, was awarded the “Best in Show” title, along with the top prize in the Marketing and End-use Group of categories, for a label on a pack of Kaisersemmeln oven-ready bread rolls. The label was printed offset litho in six colors plus silver with the addition of a screen-printed lacquer. The judges applauded this entry as “a well-deserved winner.”

Printing Processes Group
In the Printing Processes group of categories, Turkish printers Çiftsan Etiket Ambalaj took the top prize with a label for Hugva Revitalising Day Cream, of which the judges said: “Delicate looking… The lightly-shaded background was the perfect contrast to the brand logo and the description of the product.” This four-color (plus foil) label also won the category prize for rotary letterpress.

Digital Print
Digital print technologies are relative newcomers to the FINAT Label Competition, and the judges commented that the “very high standards which can be achieved” were demonstrated admirably by Digital Printing Group Winner Label’Or, Belgium, for a label on packs of Hamreepjes diced ham, which took both the group award and the category award for dry toner print.

Non-adhesive Labels
The Non-adhesive Labels group includes shrink and stretch sleeves, tube laminates, and other current options. Çiftsan Etiket Ambalaj again took the group prize, and the award for tags and labels in this category, with their tube label on Farmasi Energising Hand & Body Cream. The entry was printed using HP digital imaging and a silk screen lacquer. It featured a “sharp rendering of the main illustration of fruit” which the judges particularly liked.

Innovation Award
Each year, the judges highlight special achievements in innovation within the industry, and this year Schreiner Group, Germany, starred, taking the Innovation Award with a complex, high-performance miniature Schreiner LogiData RFID label, (rfid) DistaFerr Mini (UHF), developed specially for metal substrates. Its “special construction,” the judges commented, “includes a filmic layer, a foam protection layer, and it is produced in a fan folded configuration.”

Judges’ Special Award
A “Judges’ Special Award” was also made to Çiftsan Etiket Ambalaj, in recognition of the company’s highly-skilled screen printing results on the label for Marièn Argan Hair Shampoo, which also won the Cosmetics category in the Marketing and End-use Group. This ‘opulent’ label, the judges said, “showed that the press operators had total control over this process.”

‘Lively, creative, and technologically-diverse’
The expert international panel of judges for the 2016 FINAT Label Competition found it difficult to make a final decision when awarding the group and category winners and “highly-commended” entries. “Testimony,” said Tony White, chairman of the judges, “to our lively, creative, and increasingly technologically-diverse industry today.”

The awards were presented during a special ceremony at the recent FINAT European Label Forum in Amsterdam which was attended by business leaders across the label industry supply chain.

Additional judging will take place later in the year to select FINAT entries for the 2016 L9 World Label Awards competition, which will be judged during Labelexpo 2016 in Chicago, USA, in September.

For more images of FINAT’s award-winning labels, check out the L&NW slideshow.