In-House Branding, an interior design, décor and printing specialist company, recently won two awards in The GAPP Awards, a competition recognising excellence in printing across 60 categories of printed products. The competition is open to all manner of printed materials ranging from the conventional, mainstream items through to the more niche and novel printed items, with the main stipulation being that the entries must be produced in a commercial production run for a paying customer and they must be printed and produced in the Southern African market.
In the first year in which it entered the competition, In-House Branding walked away with a Winning Achiever Award for its submission ‘Tiger Blanket’ produced for Jugomaro Predator Park, but more importantly it won a Silver Award for its submission ‘Macaw Scatter Cushion’ produced for Angelic Jay. Both these submissions were entered into the Large-Format Interior Décor Category.
As the name of the category suggests, the entries were printed on large-format printers using the dye sublimation printing method. In this method of printing the image is printed onto transfer paper and then transferred by heat press to fabric. The heat press uses a combination of heat and pressure to transfer and seal the image to the fabric.
Not only was this the first time In-House Branding had entered the competition – which was launched in 2016 – but it more importantly, the company only recently started handling its own printing. The company was founded a little over a year ago by partners Jason Brett and Julia Dos Ramos, both of whom had many years of experience in the design and décor markets. When they joined forces and founded In-House Branding they continued to focus on the design facet of their products offering and out-sourced their printing requirements.
As demand grew, they opted to incorporate the printing as a means of controlling both the quality and turnaround times of their service to their customers. This required that they source and install their own equipment. Following an extensive investigation of the available solutions in the market, they opted for a large-format printer and heat press from local printing and cutting systems specialist Advanced Machinery which manufactures its AM.CO.ZA range of solutions from industry-leading components and systems.
Jason commented, ‘We looked at a number of systems and solutions and while they all offered one benefit or another, we found that the products from Advanced Machinery offered a number of specific advantages. They consist of readily-available components which are each internationally recognised as leaders in their own right, they are manufactured and assembled to the highest standards, they have the right price point to make them suitable for the local market and they are backed up by local service and support.
‘The AM.CO.ZA printer and heat press, as well as the controlling software are easy to learn and to use. Also, when we needed help or assistance, a technician from Advanced Machinery was available to assist us, either in person or online to sort out the problems or to help us gain the information and experience we required to be able to achieve the desired result. All of these are factors which made the AM.CO.ZA printer and heat press so attractive to us.’
In-house Branding Leadership
Using the AM.CO.ZA printer and heat press, In-House Branding was able to take the designs created for its clients and turn them into high-quality printed and finished décor items which met the brief and at the same time are functional and aesthetically pleasing, but also of the highest technical standards.
Eric Yin, managing director and founder of Advanced Machinery commented, ‘We are very proud of the achievements of In-House Branding at The GAPP Awards 2022. We are happy that they used one of our printers and heat presses to produce these winning entries and we wish them continued success in their business and in future GAPP Awards events. In-House Branding is proof that even a small company with just three people can produce work of the highest quality which can win awards.’
Based on their success at The GAPP Awards 2022, Jason and Julia have decided to enter into the next competition, which takes place in 2024, and will be evaluating the merits of all the work they produce to determine which jobs will be suitable and of high enough quality to be entered at that time.
Via businesstech.co.za – How In-House Branding produced award-winning prints with AM.CO.ZA
