{"id":22527,"date":"2026-03-19T20:17:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T20:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/?p=22527"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:06:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T00:06:54","slug":"introducing-the-2026-sign-awards-judging-panel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/2026\/03\/19\/introducing-the-2026-sign-awards-judging-panel\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing the 2026 Sign Awards Judging Panel"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Introducing the 2026 Sign Awards Judging Panel<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Michelle Henry
<\/strong>New Guest Judge<\/em><\/h5>
Michelle is joining us for the very first time as a new guest judge, bringing international expertise and a fresh perspective to the judging panel.<\/div>
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Michelle is a proud fourth\u2011generation signwriter with a lifelong connection to the craft of signage. With a career spanning hands\u2011on signwriting, fabrication, large\u2011format production, and running an award\u2011winning sign company, she brings both deep technical knowledge and a genuine passion for the industry.<\/p>

Alongside her work leading Make It Happen ANZ which is a specialist training and consultancy service for the Sign & Print sector, \u00a0Michelle has spent the past three years judging the UK & Ireland Sign and Wrap Awards, gaining valuable experience evaluating work at an international level.<\/p>

Michelle loves to see entries that demonstrate creativity, craftsmanship and ideas that drive the industry forward. She believes great signage is a blend of skill, innovation, and storytelling where the brand is at the heart of everything and she has a keen eye for the details that elevate a piece from good to exceptional.<\/p>

Judging, she admits, is quite the commitment. It takes more time than most people realise and often leads to a few healthy debates with fellow judges. But for Michelle, it\u2019s always worth it. She is truly passionate about this industry and believes that those who champion excellence deserve to be recognised and celebrated.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Nick Kapica
<\/strong>Returning Guest Judge<\/em><\/h5>
Nick joined the judging panel for the first time in 2024 and has done such a great job we asked him to come back in 2025 and again in 2026 for one final year.<\/div>
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Nick is an independent consultant with a transdisciplinary approach that blends graphic, spatial, and urban design to craft holistic experiences within the built environment. His journey began in London\u2019s fringe theatre scene before studying in Visual Communication at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication. He worked for The Independent Newspaper before his curiosity led him to Berlin during the 90s, where he played a pivotal role in shaping the vibrant club scene and later establishing the design studio SV Associates.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Logan Sutton
<\/b>NZSDA President & Returning Judge<\/em><\/h5>
Logan in the current President of the NZSDA, and judged the awards for the first time last year.\u00a0<\/div>
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Logan is also the Creative Director of Future Grafix<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, a multi-award-winning sign shop in New Plymouth. At age 18, Logan partnered with his uncle to open Future Grafix. Twenty-four years later, Logan has transformed the business into the successful and innovative signage company it is today. Logan now runs the business alongside his wife Krystal.<\/div><\/div>
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Find out more about the awards and how to enter them on the\u00a0official awards website here!<\/a><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting to know the judging panel means you can tailor your entries to align with their specific expertise and know what techniques and details they might be looking out for. Read on to see the 2026 judging panel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nzsda-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22527"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22542,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22527\/revisions\/22542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}