Award-Winning Design

So you may have noticed I’ve won a few awards over the years.

I started entering competitions my first year out of art school. Although I’d won a couple of student competitions, I wanted to play in the sandbox with the big kids; cut my teeth going toe-to-toe with big corporations who had shareholder budgets and entire teams of experienced designers.

Entering competitions was intimidating at first. Will I lose because of a design decision I didn’t get to make? What if I submit the most amateur crap the judges have ever seen? Should I give the judges context for this entry? I still get butterflies when I enter competitions.

2010 – American Graphic Design Award

The first award ever was for the Bayou Bucks website design. Launched in 2009 after about six months of collaboration with the client and his web developer in Lafayette, LA, this was one hell of an undertaking since all imagery was my own. As of April 2020, the website design is still in production.

2011 – American Graphic Design Award

This ad for the Jewish Film Festival program book nabbed the second award. The dots, once connected, say “connect.”

Fancy.

2012 – American Graphic Design Award

This third award was for the entire effort designed for North Georgia College & State University’s Capital Campaign (read: fundraiser). It included a webpage (pictured), 16-page booklet, letterhead, editorial spread design, and logo.

Then I took a break.

I redesigned my website after that third award, taking on a much more casual theme: a circus or county fair. I coded the entire thing by hand in HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Adobe Flash. Proud of my efforts, I made this blue ribbon to playfully advertise the accomplishments.

For a few years I didn’t enter any contests. Satisfied with design achievements, I focused on creative writing and storytelling. Then winning lost its luster; I told myself Graphic Design USA was just handing awards to anything anyone sent in. But I knew better: in 2010, I’d actually entered two clients’ work.

2017 – Health & Wellness Design Award

This logo for a by-veterans-for-veterans prosthetic limb company earned the fourth design award. The Health + Wellness Award competition was a bit smaller, and focused on industries often overlooked in design competitions.

2017 – American Graphic Design Award

Destin Brewery nabbed the fifth award for the can label designs. Each label reflects something local to Destin: fisherman’s delight, emerald waters, the Marler Bridge, and scuba diving.

2018 – American Graphic Design Award

Most recently earning national accolades is this quarterly report designed for the Doolittle Institute. I can’t show you the inside because it contains sensitive information. 🙂

Things I should’ve entered

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