Best of Show Winners Revealed

In a ceremony last week in Kansas City, the winners of the In-Print 2012 Best of Show awards were revealed. The University of Minnesota was honored with the top award out of all the Gold winners in the offset categories, while the University of North Texas won its third consecutive Best of Show award for the non-offset categories.

“I just can’t tell you how excited we are about this,” UNT's Jimmy Friend told IPG after accepting his award. “This is absolutely awesome.”

Equally enthused was Dave Hoel, of the University of Minnesota.

“This is pretty exciting,” he remarked. “I’m proud for all the people back in Minnesota. (Watch a video of Friend and Hoel reacting to their awards at Wednesday night's ceremony.)

The two winners were announced at the end of the awards ceremony, after all of the Gold winners were recognized. Prior to the ceremony, all of the Gold, Silver and Bronze plaques were on display at a reception, along with samples of the printed pieces that won.

To reveal the winners, IPG Editor Bob Neubauer played a video for the crowd showing the judges selecting the Best of Show winners (links below). The non-offset contest was a nail biter, with the UNT piece actually getting eliminated at one point and then being brought back in, in the final minute (forcing Friend to retract the text he had just sent, lamenting UNT's loss).

On the offset side, the winning U of M piece beat out a photo-filled book from the University of Oklahoma. The two pieces were initially tied, with two judges voting for each. Watch the video to see the interesting way that tie was broken.

• Watch a video of the judges picking the offset Best of Show winner
• Watch a video of the judges picking the non-offset Best of Show winner