Staff wins record 20 awards in annual comm competition

PULLMAN – WSU staff received a record 20 awards in the 2009 communication awards competition sponsored by the District VIII Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

 

The 20 awards won by WSU bests the previous record of 14, set last year.Among the honors was WSU’s second consecutive Grand Gold Award, presented to the top entry in the visual design category, for “Our Health Depends Upon the Health of Animals,” a brochure that promotes the School for Global Animal Health (SGAH) designed by Allen Johns.

 

WSU staff also received six Gold, six Silver, and seven Bronze awards for communications that included Web sites, publications, special projects, writing, illustration, video and the university’s primary external communications publication, Washington State Magazine (WSM).

 

The awards will be presented at a CASE VIII Awards reception Feb. 20 in Seattle. WSU’s Grand Gold entry will compete at the conference with the top winners in other categories for the Virginia Carter Smith Grand Crystal Award, which honors the district’s top communications project of the past year.

 

“I am very proud of the University’s communicators and their accomplishments. These awards are richly deserved recognition of the excellent work produced by our communications professionals and also the role University Relations plays as the source for strategic communication counsel, outreach, and services for the WSU system,” said Tim Pavish, vice president for University Relations.

 

“We share these honors with all of our colleagues throughout the WSU system who collaborated with us to advance the understanding of and support for the University’s mission around the world,” Pavish said.

 

Promotional work for the SGAH took top honors among the university’s entries. The
brochure that received the Grand Gold also earned a Gold Award in the fundraising and special event publications category. The SGAH Web site, http://globalhealth.wsu.edu, earned a Silver Award.

 

The team of Marilyn Reed, Anna Sherwood, Guy Palmer, Terry McElwain, Darin Watkins, Lynne Haley and Johns created the brochure. Jason Bittle, Stephen Locker, Reed, Sherwood, Palmer and Watkins developed the Web site.

 

Gold Awards were also presented for two other Web sites: one about WSU research on clean technologies and one about how to use the university’s branded Web templates. Cindy Hollenbeck, John Gardner, Sherwood and Bittle and the team of John Vleck, Adam Murphy, Thom Dieterich, Bittle and Locker, respectively, created the sites.

 

The WSU Foundation also received a Gold Award in the fundraising and special events publication category for the university’s case statement package of materials. The creative team for the project included the Foundation’s Brenda Wilson-Hale, Jeff Puckett, and Trevor Durham, and consultants Gerhardt & Clemons, Inc. (Kris Clemons, Beth Nagy, Rae Stith) and Janis Johnson (lead writer).

 

Washington State Magazine received a Gold Award for a series of photographs that accompanied an article titled “The Home of My Family: Ozette, the Makahs, and Doc Daugherty” published in its spring 2008 issue. Freelance photographer Zach Mazur took the photos.

 

David Hoyt received a Gold Award for an illustration he created for a postcard to promote WSU’s week in Seattle activities.

 

A series of videos to market the fall 2008 Innovators lecture series received a Silver Award. The creative team included Ray Rhamey, Adam Ratliff and Michelle Poesy. To see the videos visit “Event Previews” under each entry at http://www.theinnovators.wsu.edu/.

 

Marketing activities to promote Imagine Tomorrow, a competition for high school students throughout the state, received a Silver Award in the projects and programs category. The team of Tena Old, Grant Norton, Craig Parks, Dave Bahr, Devon Anderson, Bob Hubner, Shelly Hanks, Sherwood, Reed, Rhamey, Ratliff and Johns collaborated on the project.

 

The other Silver Awards were given in the periodicals category: Washington State Magazine, published by University Relations; Murrow Communicator, published by the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication; and Revolutions, published by the Center for Distance and Professional Education (CDPE). The CDPE creative team consisted of Debbie O’Donnell, Emily Mowrer, Richard Miller and Brian Maki.

 

The WSM team included Tim Steury, Hannelore Sudermann, Cherie Winner, John Paxson, Larry Clark, Hanks and Hubner. Erica Austin, Paul Mark Wadleigh, Jean Taylor and Eric Limburg produced Murrow Communicator. The CDPE creative team consisted of Debbie O’Donnell, Emily Mowrer, Richard Miller and Brian Maki.

 

Three WSU Foundation projects produced in conjunction with University Relations received Bronze Awards: a video titled “Big Ideas,” the printed invitation for the fall 2008 gala, and a series of ads to promote flexible endowments. The video team included Durham, Rhamey and Ratliff. The team of Molly Schotzko, J. Adrian Aumen, Jill Aesoph, Anna Wheatley, Emi Dickens, Kathy Montagne, Steve Rigby, Limburg and Durham created the invitation. The ad series was produced by Mike Connell, Sharon Morgan, Hubner, Durham, Schotzko, Aumen and Johns.

 

Two individuals were honored for their writing. Ad copy written by Reed to recruit undergraduate students and an article authored by Miller for Revolutions, “Coug Country at 30,000 feet,” received Bronze Awards.

 

Tammey Boston, John Sutherland, Bob Shay, Aumen, Johns and Poesy won a Bronze Award for the printed invitation created to market the spring 2008 Innovators lecture series.

 

A poster to promote the Cougar rowing season also received a Bronze Award. Rod Commons and Limburg teamed to create the piece.

 

All of the winning publications entries, with the exception of WSM and SGAH brochure, were printed by University Publishing, WSU’s in-house printing facility.

 

The District VIII CASE competition attracted a record-setting 756 entries. The competition, which draws marketing and communications entries from 46 higher education institutions in Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho, Manitoba, Montana, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Oregon, Saskatchewan, Washington and the Yukon, is one of the oldest and largest programs of its type among CASE districts nationally.