This week the Orientation & First-Year Programs web site received national recognition, being named the 2007 Outstanding Orientation Web Site at the annual conference of the National Orientation Directors Association.
Beth, Nicole, Bill, and Dan in OFYP played major roles in making sure this project was the success that it has become. Congratulations—it has been a pleasure working with you on the new page template, taxonomy, and site navigation.
Two projects from our office were recognized with Maroon Awards at this year's Communicators Forum conference. Awarded to projects of exceptional merit, the prizes are determined by a jury of peers from the design, public relations, and media/publishing industries.
The first award was for the Wish You Were Here faculty recruiting web site (multimedia category):
The second award was for the Uncharted Territory 2006 Communicators Forum annual conference materials (campaign category):
Today I received some very pleasant news about a project that my class did last semester: a poster that we designed won first place in its category in a national competition. To quote the email I received from our printer:
Good news! We entered the "Dollar Redesign Poster" in the 2007 In-Print Competition, cosponsored by the national In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) and In-Plant Graphics magazine, and won Gold (First Place) in the poster category! More than 550 pieces were entered in the competition. Five judges scrutinized every piece, inspecting the quality, using loupes to check for poor registration and imperfections. We are thrilled to have won a printing award but I'm certain the interesting design of your poster captured the judges attention and contributed to our success. Thanks!
While I am proud to have facilitated this project and consulted on the design and pre-press processes for the poster, my congratulations go out to the 19 students in the class who did the fabulous dollar bill designs for this project—without these, we would not have had a poster to design! Also, my profound thanks to our printing consultant Joe Sobota, who provided us with excellent customer support, a generous 2 hour tour of his facilities, and the printing expertise that enabled the project to win this award.
Paivakirja (diary—or "day-book"—in Finnish) is what I have considered to be a major "pre-thesis" project for my MFA degree. Built around the idea of a journal, it contains text, photo, and map content compiled during a research trip to Finland in May 2002.
I designed the book last semester with an eye toward Finnish traditions. The front and back cover is 1/8-inch thick birch plywood; I have never seen a book with a wood cover, but wood is so revered in Finland that I thought I would give it a try (and in spite of wanting to sound modest about my work, I think it looks fabulous).
The book is built out of individual paper folios stiched to an accordion binding, so the book stretches out when opened. Each folio is a mini-book in itself; a translucent tri-fold shell around white stock paper pages, with a color paper liner for contrast and a sense of privacy. Consequently, it takes some work to open each folio—it's nearly inconvenient. This is to reflect the hidden nature of Finns (stereotypically, at least). Like this book, it sometimes takes some effort to get at the core of a Finn. Each folio has an entry for a day from the trip, and a separate color paper liner (not of my design, but purchased at Paper Depot in Minnepolis).
Paivakirja was submitted to the juried annual design show competition of the American Institute for Graphic Arts, Minnesota chapter (AIGA Minnesota), and won an award in the student category. While I have previously received some recognition for other work, an AIGA design award is an especially exciting achievement because the work is juried by your peers, so I was thrilled to have the project selected for this annual design show.
The intranet site designed for Woolpert LLP was recognized by the Society of Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) with an award for first place in its category. The national awards ceremony was held in Orlando, FL.
Screen shots of the site's main pages are below (click thumbnails to enlarge):
As Marketing Coordinator for Bentz / Thompson / Rietow Architects, my responsibilities include preparing proposals and presentations for new projects, and award applications for completed projects. This month the office was awarded a Preservation Award by the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission for the design of the 510 Groveland residence (pictured above).
