Artrite Screen Printing wins Pride In Print Supreme, and Mellows wins Print Apprentice of the Year

An original screen print creation, described as a “genuine labour of love” by judges, has earned Onehunga-based Artrite Screen Printing the 2023 Pride In Print Supreme Award.

Te Henga Sunset also won the Specialty Products/Limited Edition & Fine Art Prints Category award and Screen Process award at Auckland’s Cordis Hotel.

Artrite Glenn Taylor, managing director, described the accolade as simply “overwhelming”. “I’ve been in the industry a long time – I started as a 16-year-old, coming straight from school to Artrite – so to get this now is pretty special,” said Taylor. Taylor added that the Supreme Award win fully vindicated the company’s strategic decision to “stick with the knitting” in screen print versus other modes. “An artist will come up to us with an original work, and our job is to break down that job into single layers and try to recreate that job precisely as the painting. Art is a big thing, and we’re having to compete against a digital market. We’re always evolving and learning new things. We’re still finding better inks, better machinery, better techniques to achieve what digital can’t do – we’re trying to achieve a painting look, that people say ‘how is this done?’” Taylor said artist Matt Payne had expressed a “mindblowing response” to the work. “He’s with us for most of the process, too, so it’s a real collaboration of him and us. We are privileged to work with so many talented artists from New Zealand and overseas, and it’s just really opened up a goodwill for us – we love what we do, and we have a passion for our craft. It never feels like a job!”

Pride In Print judges described the work as an “incredible example of true print craftsmanship and artistic collaboration”.

“It required the hand-mixing of 33 colours and production of film layers, which the artist needed to sign off each time,” said judges.

“With colours prone to change during repeated screen pulls, only 30 could be completed at a time before a clean-up was required – with colours then needing remixed, film layers reproduced, and artist sign-off sought again.

“Taking three weeks and about 2000 hand pulls to complete; the result was an original screen print, produced with great detail and wonderful colour consistency over all areas.

“So many things can go wrong in those processes, yet it was so beautiful – we were blown away.”

“This screenprint was a genuine labour of love.”

Display Associates head graphic designer Catriona Mellows was named BJ Ball Papers Print Apprentice of the Year at the 2023 Pride In Print Awards. Mellows has previously been named the joint Digital Print Apprentice of the Year. Humbled by the honour, she warmly thanked all parties. “If you had told me six years ago when I started my job as a ‘lacky’ that I would be up on stage, I wouldn’t believe you – not only that, but I won an award!” said Mellows. Thank you not only for this amazing honour but for the career, for letting me earn a wage while learning so I could buy my first home with my partner, for igniting that creative spark in me that has made me the person I am today. Thank you to Display Associates for the huge risk you took with a 20-year-old whose only credentials were ‘she was good at art at high school’. Thank you so much; it has been incredible!” Mellows also paid tribute to the Display Associates team, which she described as a “family”.

Display Associates was founded by Dorothy Symes in 1975,  hand-painting signs and eventually moved into screen print. Nearly 50 years later, her son Blair is running the business with screen-print now only a fraction of work done at the company. Mellows added, “I feel like it’s not just me who has won this award but all of us because everyone was too willing to help me. Every Friday at 5 pm, we gather round the applicating table with a beer in hand and share ideas, and, if we’re lucky, Dorothy will come down with cheese rolls!”

Looking ahead, Mellows says she is excited to be continuing to grow and expand in her career, and is now training a young school leaver who has joined the company. “I hope she will follow in my footsteps and start her own apprenticeship very soon. I would be honored to be able to coach and teach her through this and give her the same chance and opportunities my supervisor once gave me. “I am also very excited to be starting the Diploma in Print Management and I hope to gain more insight into how running a print business works. My absolute dream would be to have my own print business where I could focus on designing and creating my own brand.”

Having worked with a number of designers over the past 30-plus, Display Associates manager Blair Symes says Mellows has impressed with a constant positivity and maturity above her years. Mellows is also the first employee to complete an apprenticeship at the company. “The sign and display industry, with the time constraints involved at times, can be a fair bit of pressure for results but she applies the same passion for the design whether she is working with a one-man tradie wanting a new logo for his business or dealing with the chief executive of a company wanting to rebrand,” says Symes. “Cat’s positivity – and alternative sense of humour – are a real boost for our company. She is currently training a new design cadet and doing a great job. Sharing her experience of her apprenticeship with the other staff has inspired another staff member to enquire about taking one on. When any future potential apprenticeships candidates start, I will always reference how Cat completed hers.”

Congratulating Mellows, PrintNZ chief executive Ruth Cobb emphasised that print remains a “craft”. “I get reminded of that every time we do our Print Apprentice of the Year interviews and they talk in such technical and passionate detail about their jobs,” said Cobbs. Cobbs emphasised the need for print industry companies to commit to training, noting “we need to grow our own”, in response to labour and skills shortages.