M&R Printing Equipment Announces First Quarterly Winner of the Inaugural Digital Squeegee Awards Competition

M&R Printing Equipment announces the first quarterly winner of the inaugural 2021 Digital Squeegee Awards competition. The first DS Innovators Award of 2021 goes to Culture Studio of Chicago for a print of a growling bear. 
 
Their winning 12x12” print was produced with an M&R DS-4000 Digital Squeegee on an M&R STRYKER Oval Automatic Printing Press. Their use of multiple special-effect inks — combined with the high-quality digital CMYK output of the DS-4000 — can only be achieved with hybrid printing.
 
All award winners will be announced quarterly and celebrated on M&R’s website, social media channels, and throughout the decorating industry. View the designs in greater detail at mrprint.com/dsawards.
 

About the Digital Squeegee Awards 

The Digital Squeegee Awards is a year-long celebration of garment decorators who excel at hybrid printing on the DS-4000 DIGITAL SQUEEGEE Hybrid Printing System, released by M&R in 2018. This award contest is open to any printing company in the U.S. that produces hybrid prints using an M&R DIGITAL SQUEEGEE.
 
Throughout 2021, M&R will present eight awards — two awards per quarter — in recognition of the best hybrid screen printing techniques by garment decorators, as decided by a panel of artwork judges. The two Digital Squeegee Awards per quarter are the “DS Innovators Award” and the “DS Production Skills Award.” 
 
The DS Innovators Award celebrates the creative and innovative use of hybrid printing technology. The award will be presented to printers who stretch the boundaries of what the DIGITAL SQUEEGEE and hybrid printing can produce. Submissions should include out-of-the-box thinking and extra creativity. 

The DS Production Skills Award will honor printers who show an advanced understanding on how to execute hybrid prints during regular production runs. These entries should represent high-quality, technically skilled production printing.
 
About Hybrid Printing 
Hybrid printing is a garment decoration process that combines digital printing with traditional screen printing. The advantage of hybrid printing is that it merges the quality of full-color printing with the cost savings of a screen printed white underbase. The white underbase is screen printed, and the DS-4000 prints full-color CMYK on top. This process produces rich, vibrant garment decorations at a high-production pace of 400 shirts per hour. The DS-4000 DIGITAL SQUEEGEE attaches to a compatible automatic screen printing press, such as an M&R COBRA, M&R CHALLENGER III, M&R GAUNTLET III or M&R STRYKER. 
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