Printing Contests — Judging is Art and Science

But just when you think a piece is being judged on purely cold technical elements, along comes a panelist with a different perspective. Sam Ingram, a professor of graphic communications at Clemson University, evaluates not only the technical aspects but also what he terms the “emotional factor.”

“On the first look, I’m going to look at the technical things—the folios line up, the densities, all the usual suspects on our objective rating list to ensure they’re all in place,” he says. “Then, there’s that emotional piece where you say, ‘Wow, the printers, the designers, the client—look at what they did.’ It worked, which means there was a lot of effort that went behind the piece.”