How it was done

We started our annual trawl of printing firms three years ago, in a bid to encourage and reward those which best serve the design community, acknowledging that the best results are invariably born through partnership between craftworker/ technologist and creative. We aim to foster mutual respect between the parties concerned and to put up role models on the print side for other companies to emulate.

The overall aim of the qualitative survey is to alert designers across the board to the best suppliers, in the eyes of the best designers. To this end we have trawled opinions from some 44 design consultancies specialising in print, including annual reports, brochures, stationery and direct mail. The sample was hand-picked, drawn largely from key players identified through Design Week’s Top 100 and Creative Survey charts (DW 31 March and 14 July respectively), the idea being to perpetuate best practise throughout print design.

All participants were asked to complete a questionnaire, naming their favourite printers for various types of work and indicating why. They were also asked to say what they thought were the key attributes of a good printer.