Chinese company receives printing awards in Chicago

The Chinese high-end art printing company Artron Art Group took home eight Benny awards, the top honors of the Printing Industries of America's (PIA) Premier Print Awards (PPA), here Sunday.

Artron also won 25 Awards of Recognition and 17 Certificates of Merit in the PPA competition for the highest quality printed pieces in various categories from around the world.

"China is becoming a world force in the printing industry and has certainly demonstrated once again that it has produced brilliant work, beautiful color, great representation of artistry and the country should be very proud," PIA President and CEO Michael Makin said.

Wan Jie, Artron's board director, said that they started sending products to the PIA in 2003, and have won awards every year since.

Wan attributed his success to the development of new techniques, technologies and materials.

"Printing today has surpassed the level of being a low-grade processing industry, it is now intertwined with information technologies and the Internet," he said. "This combination has endowed the traditional printing industry with a brand new lustre."

The PIA said that judges this year honored a total of 1,713 pieces with one of three awards, 115 Best of Category (Benny) awards, 383 Awards of Recognition and 1,215 Certificates of Merit in the PPA competition.

The PIA is a nonprofit trade association which advocates the U.S. printing industry. It is also the world's leading graphic arts trade association which aims to provide representation, training, education, research and publications to the printing industry.

The PPA is the world's largest and oldest annual competition in the printing industry. Since the 1950s, it has been recognizing organizations and individuals who show excellence, a commitment to quality and outstanding achievements in print media. Endi