In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) and In-Plant Impressions (IPI) recently announced the winners of the 2024 In-Print™ Awards Contest and Missouri State University made the list.

The university won a gold medal in the Variable Data Project (VDP) category for its Senior ACT/SAT postcard.

In-Print™ is the only printing contest exclusively for in-plant printing operations. Jointly sponsored by IPMA and IPI, the contest allows in-plants to showcase the quality of their printing, binding and finishing. An In-Print™ award is one of the highest honors in the printing community.

The project

Mark McCarty, manager of printing and postal services at MSU, submitted the award entry.

The VDP category considers print quality, degree of difficulty in the finishing and placement of the variables within the project.

According to McCarty, variable data is something that “merges an art file and a data file.” It makes unique pieces with each card displaying different text, photos or other graphics as it is printed.

The postcard was created for the office of admissions. It was a collaboration among staff in admissions, creative services and printing and postal services.

A meaningful award

McCarty said this award means a lot.

“It’s an affirmation of our department’s hard work to produce quality products for the campus community,” he added.

There were close to 400 pieces submitted from shops all around the country, ranging from universities to businesses in manufacturing, health care, financial and electrical cooperatives. According to McCarty, some of these companies have budgets in the millions, so to “compete and win against them is a great honor.”

Awards will be handed out to the winners at the national conference this June in Des Moines, Iowa. McCarty plans to attend.

“It’s a great educational and networking event. Picking up our gold award is an added benefit,” he said.