Delighted, but not surprised.
That was the mood in the Community Journals offices when Bill Rogers, the executive director of the South Carolina Press Association, visited last week to drop off our latest batch of PALMY awards.
This year, the Community Journals’ design team won 23 of the awards, which recognize excellence in advertising and product design, and encourage creativity in advertising sales, layout and copywriting.
But we’ve always recognized that same excellence in all of our products – from UBJ and the Greenville Journal to At Home and TOWN magazines. In many cases, the ads you see in those pages are designed – in collaboration with the advertiser – by the same extremely talented team that is responsible for the art direction and design of the editorial portions of those publications.
The same thought and effort go into designing an advertisement that go into designing a news or feature story. And the goal is the same: Communicate an idea effectively through a combination of words and images. A good ad tells a story and inspires action, just like a good editorial article should.
None of this happens in a vacuum, and none of it is the result of just one person’s work. The key is collaboration – between the writers, designers, editors, photographers, marketing representatives and local businesses, all adding their voices to shape the overall message. Increasingly, now there is collaboration between all of us and the readers. What do you need to know about? We’ll let you know. What do you want to know about? You let us know.
We’re extremely grateful to the SCPA for the public recognition. But it confirms what we’ve known here all along – we’ve got some of the best design talent in the state. We’re very lucky to have Kristy Adair, Michael Allen, Greg Beckner, Whitney Fincannon, Paul Mehaffey and Tammy Smith on our team. Leaf through a print copy of UBJ, and pick up a few of our other products, and I think you’ll agree.
