OUTPUT

Sad news recently that Etta James, chanteuse extraordinaire, has popped her stilettos. Much underrated and generally overlooked, a singer whose best-known work is At Last, president Obama's choice for his inauguration. But Etta didn't get to sing it, and didn't even get much recognition during her lifetime. Recognition is a skittish creature and it's the sort of thing that printers and display makers can get through various means. We are of course talking about the positive variety.

The usual way is to enter into one of the heaps of industry awards gigs that generally cost. Victory in such events is subject to two fundamentals: how many other companies enter into a particular category, and who is doing the judging. The category thing is particularly entertaining, ranging from the obvious: 'Best colour quality on a vinyl banner' through to the meaningless: 'International Dork of the Year'. Far better is to have a process that gives recognition to industry shakers in a manner that isn't contrived or all basically about revenue generation.

Take what FESPA has recently set up. The association is encouraging people to sign up for its Hall of Fame which will include printing industry lackeys and leaders from all over the world. People can nominate who they like and everyone gets a vote if they want to see a particular nominee featured at the FESPA Digital 2012 Hall of Fame in Barcelona this month. It may sound a bit close to cheesy, but compared to the dusty and frankly uninspiring awards schemes that abound in the industry, this one sounds a lot more fun. And it's much more likely to be meaningful since it is essentially recognition by one's peers. There have already been over 300 nominations from 37 different countries, so it seems to be very popular.

The Hall of Fame is intended to be a sort of elite club of top printing companies, but entrants can be recognised for anything from an invention to a stance on sustainability or any other such contribution to the sign-maker's craft. Voting is online and the final shortlist will have only ten names on it for each country. Visitors to the show, which is after all what this Hall of Fame is all about, can then vote on site for their choice of Printer of the Year 2012.