Dominic Papineau, Quebec Accounts Manager
It was a very special moment for Friesens on June 1 as we received the inaugural Mention Gutenberg Hors Québec award at the Gala Gutenberg 2023. The Gala Gutenberg Awards are in their forty-first year,
celebrating the best print products produced in Quebec. The Mention Gutenberg Hors Quebéc award was created to recognize print products printed in Canada but outside Quebec. The award is presented to the
printed piece that received the highest score in all categories combined.
Here is what was said about the winning piece produced at Friesens:
The spectacular and beautiful photos have been meticulously processed in order to obtain an identical result to the file and the proof.
Observe the images of the double pages, which are in perfect registration. Also note the alignment of the photos in the middle of the binding, which gives us an almost perfect assembly. Printed using vegetable-based inks on a 50-inch press, the rendering invites us to discover this vast territory.
I have been attending this event to support our print industry for the past four years. Until this year, I was attending as a spectator because to be eligible for the contest, printers submitting pieces must be a Quebec-based printer. We are grateful Gala Gutenberg opened a new category for printers coming from outside the province, and, of course, Friesens jumped at the opportunity to enter.
The winning book we submitted is a wonderful book by Sylvain Harvey Publishing, titled Québec Vu d’en Haut. The uniqueness of the book is not just the printing reproduction, done on one of our 50-inch Manroland presses, using Garda Gloss 100 lb. white paper, but also the perfect register of the crossovers on the spread pages. It was a challenging design, but attention to detail and meticulous care in all steps
helped to create a wonderful finished product of which we could all be proud. It was a tremendous honour to receive the award on the stage and say some words on behalf of our six-hundred-plus employee-owners. I was not prepared for a speech, but I did it on behalf of Friesens, and I think it turned not too badly . . . especially since I got to do it in French! Way easier! There are a lot of great printers in our country, so to be awarded this honour was a real testament to the work and dedication we have for book manufacturing.
One of the unique things about the date of the event was the news release that morning of Lakeside Book Company acquiring Marquis Book Printing Inc. Of course, as one of their largest competitors, I had plenty of questions asked of me about the sale. But my only and best answer was always to repeat that Friesens is now the most important and the biggest Canadian printer of books throughout the country! It felt good to have Friesens applauded enthusiastically when the Gala Gutenberg announced the award
went to Friesens, a Canadian printer!
