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Month: April 2022

April 2022 Featured Graphics: PIA MidAmerica 2022 GraphEx Awards

Posted on by Madi

Printing & Imaging of America (PIA) hosts annual Graphic Excellence Awards (GraphEx Awards) which recognize our industry’s outstanding technical achievements in innovation and print production. Earlier this month at the regional awards (MidAmerica) we received advanced notice of 10 awards on entries our talented customers allowed us to enter.

Best of Category:
Art reproductions digital- Tetris Austin by Mila Sketch
Calendars, booklet digital- Arielle Austin Calendars
Posters digital- Sara by Janis Fowler
Wide format (40” or more) display graphics digital- Fluence BioEngineering
Wide or grand format, interior/exterior scapes- Blue Sushi
Wide or grand format, special installation- Plank Seafood Provisions

Award of Recognition:
Announcements & invitations digital- Open Door Preschools Fall Fete Invitations- designed by Buie&Co
Art reproductions digital- Aeons by Jona Burkhalter
Calendars, flat digital- Miller IDS 2022 Artists’ Calendar
Menus digital- Angie’s Mexican Food Restaurant Menu
  
At the regional award event in Dallas we were surprised with an additional 3 awards that are listed below. While these pieces won Best of Category in their specific area, the following awards are open to all “best of category” award winners, so the competition for them is much more intense.

Regional Awards
-Division II (companies with 26-75 employees): Silver award for Tetris Austin by Mila Sketch (art reproduction)
-Best of Central Texas: Platinum award for Plank Seafood Provisions (environmental graphics originally submitted for “wide or grand format, special installation”)
-Best of Digital Printing: Bronze award for Sara by Janis Fowler (art reproduction).

The environmental graphics installation at Plank Seafood Provisions in the Domain has been submitted for national judging and we hope that the praise for this creative design and installation will continue! Thank you to our amazing customers for trusting us with your projects and visions and to those who allowed us to enter their work into the GraphEx contest!

Congrats to all who won!

If you would like to get started on a project with our graphics team, reach out to Sydney Donelson at CSSR@MillerIDS.com.

April 2022 Featured Artist: Jeff Kovalcik

Posted on by Madi
Jeff Kovalcik moved from his hometown of New Braunfels to Austin in 2002 where he finished his BA in studio art at the University of Texas in 2006. His career would meander a bit before he took a detour into the funeral profession where learned the importance of permanent memorialization. During this time, he was still making art but only as a hobby.
 
“I had been experimenting with scratchboard and had seen the realism achieved by other artists and I was enthralled by their work.”
His first scratchboard pet portrait began as a Christmas present in 2013 to memorialize a family pet. Little did he know, that after sharing that first portrait online, he would soon be dedicating his work to a new medium that captures detailed lighting and hyper-realistic textures unlike any he had tried before. After a few years of practicing his craft, he knew that he wanted to provide this service for pet lovers everywhere.
 
Thus was born, Kustompawtraits.com, Kovalcik’s endeavor to create custom and lifelike portraits of our little furry ones. He hopes to contribute to the pet loving community, by creating lasting art for their homes. The results are photorealistic and the black and white aspect allows a unique high contrast, perfect for portraiture.
 
“My goal as an portrait artist, is to create meaningful art that will capture the personality, the twinkle in the eyes, that little mole on their cheek, the spots on their fur and all the other little intricacies that bring your pet to life. I look forward to providing this service full time for years to come and hope I can create some truly unique “pawtraits” and relationships along the way.”
 
“I believe my first encounter with Miller Printing was when I was with the funeral home and drove a company vehicle down to their previous shop to get a window decal affixed to the side. Years later I had a show up at Kerbey Lane Cafe and wanted to get my work professionally scanned for better documentation. I remembered Miller, so I brought in a bunch of work and Dana Burton did such an amazing job. Sooo much better than my old iPhone 4s taking pics! Crisp blacks, and the crazy detail of the scans were sooo cool. So now, every time I finish one of the pet “pawtraits” or any of my other scratchboards I bring them down to Miller so Dana will take care of them.”
 
Contact Jeff:
Facebook: Kustom Pawtraits
Instagram: @kustompawtraits
TikTok: Kustompawtraits
Website: kustompawtraits.com
 
Contact our fine art specialist, Dana Burton, for more information on fine art scans and reproduction.