McGrath Printing|Custom Apparel, Crystal Lake, Ill., has received four 2018 Graphics Excellence Awards (GEA) from the Great Lakes Graphics Association (GLGA).
McGrath’s Follow the Action gift set received the highest honor of the Gutenberg Best of Category for Special Innovation Awards in Printing, Award of Excellence for Cartons and Containers and Certificate of Merit for Specialty Printing-Other. The GEA competition is one of the largest regional printing competitions in the nation, according to the company.
For the fourth accolade, McGrath received the “People’s Choice Award” at the awards dinner, held May 23 in Addison, Ill. The Follow the Action gift set includes hunting and fishing designs on quality shirts and coffee mugs, and is packaged in a die-cut box, with matching graphics offering an almost three-dimensional look.
“We leveraged our expertise in printing with decorated apparel to better provide our clients a turnkey solution for their branding and corporate identity needs,” says Kevin McGrath, founder and president of McGrath Printing.
Each entry was judged on its own merit in a category with similar printed pieces by an experienced panel of out-of-state judges. Criteria for judging included registration; crossovers; clarity and neatness; sharpness of halftones and line drawings; richness and tonal qualities of color, paper and ink selection; ink coverage; difficulty of printing; effective contrast or softness; finishing; bindery; and overall visual impact.
“Follow the Action product lines evolved from my passion for fishing,” McGrath says. “Designing the art for the apparel and creating the packaging to complement the entire gift set was fulfilling. We had to invest in patents and copyrights. By blending the two service lines, this continues to be a good decision for our clients. Today, our team is honored to receive these industry awards for innovation, craftsmanship and quality.” — D.S.
