2023 World Label Competition winners unveiled

The L9 group of international label associations announced the winners of the World Label Awards (WLA), which was judged by an international panel of judges selected from each of the participating associations. The L9 is an alliance of global associations formed to jointly formulate policies and to collect strategic information of global interest to the worldwide label industries.

This was the 19^th year of the completion and was the first one since 2019 due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

All member associations are invited to submit entries in any of the 22 classes of the competition, ensuring representation of the worldwide label industry.

This year, 69 entries were received from associations that included FINAT (Europe), JFLP (Japan), TLMI (USA), FPLMA (Australia), SALMA (New Zealand), LMAI (India) and CPF (China - formerly known as PEIAC). After careful observation of each entry, 23 winners and 14 HM awards are announced.

‘The judges examine each entry carefully. With the considerable technical developments introduced during the past few years and quality levels improving the judges are continually challenged to make the correct decision regarding the award-winning entries. The technical background information provided by the printer often makes a difference when selecting the award winner,’ commented Tony White, chairman of judges.

The judges for the WLA 2023 included: Steve Wood (FINAT), Steve Schulte (TLMI), Jon Murray (FPLMA), Harveer Sahni (LMAI), Masaaki Yoshitake (JFLP) and Menke Feng (CPF).

Meet the winners:

Class 1: Flexo Line

Winner: TLMI McDowell label, RLG company, USA for ‘Australian Gold, Adorably Black’

HM: FPLMA Multi-color, Australia for ‘Rock Paper Scissors’

Class 2: Flexo Line/Screen

Winner: TLMI Label King, USA for ‘Pure Project Fernprost – Vienna-style lager’

Class 3: Flexo Colour Process

Winner: FINAT DGS Baski Teknolojileri, Turkey for ‘Dalin Düş Bahçesi’

HM: JFLP Sunny sealing, Japan for ‘the Character label sold at the Anime event’

Class 4: Flexo Wines/Spirits

Winner: FINAT MCC Label Paarl, South Africa for ‘Mirari hand-crafted citrus gin’

HM: TLMI McDowell label, RLG company, USA for ‘Clyde May’s straight rye whiskey’

Class 5: Letterpress Line

Winner: JFLP Takeuchi Shiki Seisakusho, Japan for ‘POSTALCO image label’

Class 6: Letterpress Line/Screen

Winner: FINAT Ҫiftsan label and packaging, Turkey for ‘Green World hand and skin disinfectant’

Class 7: Letterpress Colour Process

Winner: JFLP Sato, Japan for ‘promotion of Suminsai event’

Class 8: Letterpress Wines/Spirits

Winner: JFLP Otsuki seal printing, Japan for ‘Japanese Sake label’

Class 9: Offset Litho Line

Winner: FPLMA Multi-color, Australia for ‘Long Rays Pacific tonic 275ml’

Class 10: Offset Litho Line/Screen

Winner: LMAI Pragati Pack, India for ‘Black Bull Oral Deca’

Class 11: Offset Litho Colour Process

Winner: JFLP Shinwa label, Japan for ‘Komahime cafe au lait base’

Class 12: Offset Litho Wines/Spirits

Winner: FPLMA James Print, Australia for ‘Mon Cinq Pinot Grigio’

HM: TLMI Multi-color, Napa Valley wine & spirits, USA for ‘One Stone Cabernet Sauvignon’

HM JFLP: Shinwa label, Japan for ‘Japanese Sake Suisei’

Class 13: Combination Line

Winner: FINAT MCC Label Paarl, South Africa for ‘Tête De Lion’

HM: LMAI Kumar labels, India, for ‘Teacher’s Highland Cream’

Class 14: Combination Line Screen

Winner: TLMI McDowell label, RLG company, USA for ‘P6’

HM: FINAT Ulrich Etiketten, Germany, for ‘Thalheim Heilwasser Prickelnd’

Class 15: Combination Colour Process

Winner: LMAI Any Graphics, India for ‘Vintage stores 1837

Winner: JFLP Kyoto seal label, Japan for ‘Sakura tea’

HM: FINAT Etisan Etiket, Turkey, for ‘Eyüp Sabri Tuncer natural olive oil hair cream’

HM: CPF Suzhou Jiang Tian printing, China for ‘Changbai Natural Snow Mountain mineral water’

Class 16: Combination Wines/Spirits

Winner: JFLP Marushin, Japan for ‘Japanese Sake Yumehotaru’

HM: CPF Tianjin Koret, China for ‘Pelee-K’

HM: FINAT MCC, Australia for ‘Coconuts! Mr. Black coconut rum coffee liqueur’

Class 17: Digital Printing

Winner: LMAI Any Graphics, India for ‘Mode Jack jeans’

HM: FPLMA Ultra label, Australia for ‘Drip by ARMD’

Class 18: Digital Printing Wines/Spirits

Winner: TLMI AWT labels and packaging, Anaheim, USA for ‘Rancho la Gloria jalapeño lime infused tequila’

Class 19: Screen Printing

Winner: FINAT Ҫiftsan label and packaging, Turkey for ‘Parfix acryic system liquid power monomer’

HM: CPF Meisheng print, China for ‘Maxim - Bel Canto thermal transfer composite black chain tech’

Class 20: Gravure

Winner: FINAT Multi-color Cwmbran, United Kingdom for “Chang 25^th anniversary front label 620ml’

Class 21: Booklets

Winner: TLMI McDowell label, RLG company, USA for ‘Le remedie’

HM: SALMA Kiwi labels, New Zealand for ‘Win 1 of 30’

Class 22: Innovation

Winner: FINAT Schreiner group, Germany for ‘CPT patch (plasma patch for the treatment of chronic wounds)’

Best of the best 2023

Since 2012, the L9 World Label Association has commissioned five additional awards to represent the best labels in each of the main printing processes. These awards were selected from the winning labels following the completion of the main judging in the following group classes: flexography, letterpress, offset litho, combination printing and digital printing. The winners will be announced before the end of this year.