By Liz Stevens, writer, PostPress

During the 2026 FSEA Gold Leaf Awards, the Gold Award for “Best Use of Digital Embellishments – Client/Self Promotion” was awarded to 2025 – The Cover Album, a beautifully executed compilation of art student portfolio covers. The piece was produced by Print Panther Direct, Oakville, Ontario, Canada, a full-service digital printing agency, in collaboration with students and faculty at the School of Graphic Communications Management at Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Ontario. Production was facilitated by Konica Minolta, Mississauga, Ontario, a global company offering production and industrial print technologies, office technology, information management and more.

The album contains 30 portfolio covers designed by the graduating class of 2025, created to present the students’ work as they leave the University and begin careers in the professional graphic arts arena. A square album with black wiro binding in three hinges, its front cover is an elegant, understated matte black with a tactile black-on-black image of a panther’s face with the barest of color, spot gloss and raised gold type. The back cover is matte black with tactile gold type and decoration. The album’s divider pages are translucent vellum with minimalist black type. It’s packaged in a diecut matte black box with black-on-black type and spot gloss.

The portfolio cover pages showcase each student’s aesthetic taste with imagery, type and composition – with artwork ranging from minimalist type and understated decoration, to abstract designs, to fauna and flora, to rich and bold imagery. Each composition combined four-color process printing with a range of embellishment techniques, including spot UV, foil, metallic and color underlays, and metallic or color overlays.

Print Panther Direct’s Christine Yardley, president, explained that every year the Toronto Metropolitan University’s graduating Graphic Communications Management students present their portfolios as the culmination of years of learning, creativity and craftsmanship. “At Print Panther Direct,” she said, “we have the privilege of producing embellished portfolio covers for the graduating class of 176 students, helping each student make a memorable first impression as they launch their careers.”

For the 2025 graduating class, the aim was to celebrate not just the individual covers, but to showcase the remarkable body of work created by the students as a whole. “Rather than producing the usual sample book,” said Yardley, “we created The Cover Album, a keepsake publication featuring 30 portfolio covers.” The brochure was inspired by the format of a classic vinyl record collection, presenting each cover as if it were an album worthy of collecting. “The concept reinforces the idea that every student’s portfolio represents their own creative voice,” she added, “while together they form an extraordinary collection of emerging design talent.”

The project began with a review of dozens of student portfolio covers created for the graduating class. Thirty designs were selected based on their creativity and originality and based on how effectively they showcased the possibilities of embellishment. “The layouts were designed to let the student work remain the hero while maintaining a cohesive editorial feel throughout the publication,” said Yardley.

A premium 130# coated stock with soft touch lamination was selected to reproduce the fine details and vibrant colors while providing the stability required for precise digital embellishment. The brochure was digitally printed on the Fujifilm Revoria PC1120, used for its exceptional color accuracy and allowing each student’s design to be faithfully reproduced.

“Once printed, the sheets were transferred to the MGI JETvarnish 3D Evolution,” Yardley explained, “where dimensional spot UV and digital foil were applied to each cover. Because every featured cover required unique embellishment effects, the production showcased the flexibility of digital finishing, allowing each design to receive customized treatments. The finished piece then was trimmed, assembled and wiro-bound.”

All of the graphics featured throughout the publication originated from the graduating students’ original portfolio cover designs. “The editorial design of the brochure was created to showcase those covers in a gallery-style format,” said Yardley, “celebrating each designer while maintaining a unified visual identity inspired by collectible album artwork.”  The specialty effects and embellishments included raised spot UV, digital foil, metallic inks and hot pink. “Because every featured portfolio was different,” she said, “the embellishments varied from piece to piece, demonstrating how digital finishing can be customized to complement individual creative concepts.”

Yardley added, “This project demonstrates the capabilities of fully digital embellishment technology. The combination of the Fujifilm Revoria PC1120 and the MGI JETvarnish 3D Evolution made it practical to produce a single publication featuring 30 completely different embellished designs.”

During planning, the greatest challenge was ensuring the diverse designs came together as a cohesive publication. “Every featured cover had its own visual language, color palette and embellishment strategy,” Yardley said.

The response to the piece was overwhelmingly positive. “Graduating students appreciated seeing their work recognized in a professionally produced publication,” said Yardley, “while educators, industry partners and clients viewed the piece as both a celebration of emerging talent and a demonstration of what is possible with modern digital print and embellishment. More importantly, The Cover Album became exactly what we intended – a keepsake. Rather than being viewed as another promotional brochure, recipients held onto it as a collectible celebration of creativity, craftsmanship and the next generation of print designers.” 

For more information, visit www.printpantherdirect.com.