Highly unexpected recognition

So I won an award. Me. I don't win things. Ever.

I didn't think I was going to win this time, either!

The South Carolina Press Association gives out awards every year for different categories, including page design. Both newspapers I work for (The Island Packet — islandpacket.com — and The Beaufort Gazette — beaufortgazette.com) submit entries in various categories each year.

I entered pages in three categories for each paper: Page One Design, Feature Page Design, and Page Design. For Page One Design, you pick three of your best front pages to submit. For Feature Page Design, you pick three of your favorite feature fronts. But for Page Design, you can pick any single page you've ever done.

So the copy desk gathered all of their submissions and turned them in to the editors for each paper. The editors then chose a certain number of entries to submit for the contest. The papers didn't have enough money to submit everything — each entry costs $8 or something like that.

Anyway, the Packet didn't submit anything I did. The Gazette only submitted my Page One Design, which was, by far, my weakest category. So, I assumed I wasn't going to win anything. It was really unfortunate that so many of the copy editors didn't have any of their entries chosen for the contest. Our desk has some really really talented designers. I guess I kind of felt like I was in the same boat they were considering my worst work was submitted. I just knew there was no way I was going to win anything, so I kind of took the approach that nothing I had done was entered.

Much to my surprise, I won third place for my Gazette Page One Design. I only remember two of the pages that I submitted, but here they are! If you click on them, you can see them much better.

I heard the SCPA was cutting back on their costs, so I hope they're still giving out plaques like they have in the past. It'd be nice to hang mine up next to David's award!

I feel really badly having won, knowing that so many other deserving people from our copy desk should have won something, too. It's hard to be as excited about my finish when they didn't get a chance. I guess that's the bad thing about contests like this — they really are quite subjective. But our copy desk is fabulous, and I'm so proud of all the work they do. I really am in the midst of great designers every day at work.