Carol McIntosh (centre), manager of printing and digital services, shows off the silver award in the digital category of the Sappi North American Printers of the Year Award with Phil Lavelle (left) of Sappi Fina Papers, and Orlando DiNicolantonio of Arriva Papers.

When some people win an award, they celebrate with a party.

The staff in Printing and Digital Services? They celebrate by staying at work late to keep on top of their long to-do list as the new school year nears.

Still, while doing so, they did bask in glory of scoring silver in the digital category of the Sappi North American Printers of the Year competition for the 2013 Campus Life standing calendar they created.

The calendar is given to all staff and faculty, and other members of the Brock community.

It’s the first time the department has ever submitted one of its creations for an award. Manager Carol MacIntosh was encouraged to submit the calendar, which the department produces every year, by a salesman who spotted its award-winning potential.

It was one of 2,500 entries – 200 of which were in the digital printing category alone.

“I didn’t even know the Sappi awards existed,” McIntosh said. “I thought we’d never win. There’s a lot of high quality items done by large commercial printers.”

Award judge Malcolm Kief said in an online video showing the Brock entry that he was “blown away” by the quality of the digital entries because this was the first year he couldn’t tell the difference between them and those in the offset printing categories.

“The pieces were so spectacular,” he said. “To me, this was the year that I saw digital as this direct quality competitor to offset. We were really blown away.”

McIntosh stressed the calendar was a team effort, with nods to all her staff, including Dennis Ceci, who did the graphic design work for it. She was also grateful to University Marketing and Communications for supplying the photos.

“It’s a boost to morale,” Ceci said. “It does give Brock University recognition as well. It’s pretty neat.”