World Bank, ASU In-plants Win HP Inkspiration Awards

When HP announced the winners of the HP Inkspiration Awards for the Americas at Dscoop in San Antonio, two in-plants were among the 21 HP customers singled out for their innovative work. The World Bank won in the brochures category and Arizona State University Print and Imaging Lab took the top prize for brand identification.

The winning World Bank infographic.

World Bank GSD Printing & Multimedia sent in a single submission to the contest: a folded infographic poster about the World Bank's impact in Rwanda, printed with the in-plant's HP T-230 production inkjet press.

"Our submission was an interesting story, as this was a job originally planned for wide-format printing given the long length of the infographic piece," relates Jimmy Vainstein, senior project manager. "The job was for 1,500 copies, full color on 80# cover stock. This meant a long time to print on wide-format, in addition to manual cutting and hand folding.

"Given that this was a rush job, we decided to move the piece to our production facility and run it on the HP T-230 high-speed inkjet press," he continues. "The press can easily handle cover stock even running in-line with our Hunkeler finishing.

ASU Print & Imaging Lab's award-winning book showcases the quality of work customers can expect when utilizing the ASU Print Lab.

"The whole job was run and shipped in a little over an hour," Vainstein notes. "In normal circumstances this would have been a small job for our high-speed inkjet press, but given that it would have taken days to produce in wide format, this became an innovative solution. We are definitely proud of this accomplishment."

Meanwhile in Arizona, the ASU Print & Imaging Lab is also very proud of its HP Inkspiration Award, which honors a book the in-plant produced to showcase the quality of work customers can expect when utilizing the Print Lab – which comprises five full-time professionals and 26 college students. The book was produced in-house, from concept and design, to print and binding, by students who only have a year or two of experience in printing. The artwork on display was created by student employees to demonstrate the quality and wide array of specialty papers offered. It allowed students to show their creative skills while utilizing the lab’s capabilities.

ASU Print & Imaging Lab's award-winning book showcases the quality of work customers can expect when utilizing the ASU Print Lab.

The book, aimed to promote ASU’s in-house print laboratory to the 17,000+ internal clients of university, was directly targeted to the top 250 print buyers. Each book featured a variable letter with variable messaging bound in the front, specific to each recipient.

"This book not only challenged our students creatively, utilizing one, two and three hits of white ink, split wire-o binding, intricate embossing, matte foil stamping, variable data messaging, collating variable sheet sizes, angle cutting and printing on 13 different substrates," remarks Director Cathy Skoglund, "but also gave them experience cleaning, manipulating and managing data. This book is truly innovative."

IPG congratulates both in-plants on their awards.