• The best in printing
• She began in 'Sama'
• Over to 'Radio Sri Lanka'

The best in printing

Any eye-catching show card advertising Wall’s ice cream (printed by JF&I Printers), the neatly printed LMD monthly magazine (Sarvodaya Vishva Lekha), an attractive poster announcing Tilak Samarawickrema’s exhibition (Gunaratne Offset), the elegant John Keells Holdings Annual Report (Mortlake Press), the well illustrated book, Field Guide to Common Trees & Shrubs in Sri Lanka (Gunaratne Offset) were among the best print jobs done last year by Sri Lankan printers.

These and many more high quality printed materials were exhibited at the “Print Sri Lanka ’98" Exhibition held at the Art Gallery recently.

Entries from 38 printers comprising work done in 1997 vied for awards in 16 categories. The total number of entries amounted to 775. It was obvious from what was exhibited it would not have been an easy task for the panel of judges to select the winners. Awards were in three different grades - Award of Excellence, Award of Distinction and Merit Awards in that order. In many categories there was more than one merit award given. Among the winners were lesser known names, an indication that more and more are getting into the field.

The large volume of promotional material turned out by printers warranted a new category to the competition this year. It was for Point of Sale Material other than posters. In marketing jargon these comprised danglers, streamers, show cards, display boxes, dispensers and the like.

A fine example of quality is the AirLanka in-flight magazine, Serendib, which is now printed locally (by JF&I Printers) maintaining the same high quality that was seen when it was printed abroad.

While the Association and the principal sponsor, Coates (Lanka) Ltd., deserve a big ‘thank you’ it was a pity that it was limited to a weekend. If it was extended to cover a week day or two, it would have benefited students and others interested in seeing the best in printing in Sri Lanka.

She began in 'Sama'

It was a pleasant surprise to find a stalwart of the Kala Pela following our column in far away New York and reminding us that the ‘Grand Old Lady’ Denawaka Hamine did not make her debut in ‘Sath Samudura’ but in G.D.L. Perera’s ‘Sama’.

Vimal Waidyasekera writing from New York says: “Denawaka ‘Antie’ to all of us at Kala Pela was introduced to the Sinhala Cinema as Nonnohamy, the manipulative aunt in our maiden effort ‘Sama’ 38 years ago. She was introduced to the stage by GDL in his second play by the same name in 1958 and thereafter in ‘Mehew Lokeka’ and “Totupola’, both award winners”.

Thank you, Vimal for your clarification.

Over to 'Radio Sri Lanka'

It’s been a long way from the days of ‘Colombo Calling’. The SLBC (Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation) now identifies itself as “Radio Sri Lanka”.

For many years it was “Radio Ceylon”. That was the time broadcasting was a government department. With the change over to a corporation in 1967 it became the CBC (Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation) and with the inauguration of the Republic (1972), the name changed to Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation.

Broadcasting in Sri Lanka is now in its 74th year. Officially broadcasting was inaugurated on June 27, 1924.

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