Award-Winning Advertising Campaigns

🏆 2024 Virginia Press
Association Awards

2024 was my first year submitting entries in the pagination and layout categories — and I was honored to receive multiple first and second place awards from the Virginia Press Association. These wins represent not just design, but storytelling through layout, typography, and visual rhythm.

🥇 1st Place Awards – 2024

Fauquier Times

Advertising Awards

Digital Advertising
Member Self-Promotion
Multiple Advertisers and Themed Pages
Real Estate

Pagination Awards

Combination Picture and Story
General Make-Up
Specialty Pages or Sections
Sports Pages

🥈 2nd Place Awards – 2024

Fauquier Times

Advertising Awards

Automotive
Education, Churches & Organizations
Food and Drug
Lifestyles
Member Self-Promotion
Professional Services (Excluding Medical/Healthcare)

Pagination Awards

Small Space Ads
Front Page
Page Design
Specialty Pages or Sections

🥉 3rd Place Awards – 2024

Fauquier Times

Advertising Awards

Education, Churches & Organizations
Member Self-Promotion
Multiple Advertisers and Themed Pages

🏆 2023 Virginia Press Association Awards

🥇 1st Place Awards – 2023

Advertising Awards

Fauquier Times

Food and Drug
Professional Services (Medical and Healthcare)
Slick Publications (Standalone
Section with a slick cover)
Entertainment

Prince William Times

Real Estate

🥈 2nd Place Awards – 2023

Fauquier Times

Food and Drug
Professional Services (Medical and Healthcare)
Multiple Advertisers and Themed Pages
Professional Services (Non-Medical)
Home and Garden
Member Self-Promotion

Prince William Times

Member Self-Promotion
Professional Services (Non-Medical)

🥉 3rd Place Awards – 2023

Fauquier Times

Entertainment
Education, Churches, and Organizations
Digital Advertising
Member Self-Promotion
Food and Drug
Automotive
Professional Services (Non-Medical)

🏆 2022 Virginia Press Association Awards

🥇 1st Place Awards – 2022
Fauquier Times

Member Self-Promotion
Multiple Advertisers and Themed Pages

Prince William Times

Food and Drug
Professional Services (Medical and Healthcare)

🥈 2nd Place Awards – 2022

Fauquier Times

Digital Advertising
Entertainment
Member Self-Promotion
Professional Services (Non-Medical)
Professional Services (Medical and Healthcare)

Prince William Times

Home and Garden
Professional Services (Medical and Healthcare)

🥉 3rd Place Awards – 2022

Fauquier Times

Entertainment
Fashion and Personal Care
Member Self-Promotion
Professional Services (Non-Medical)
Multimedia Report (Warrenton Warbler)
Prince William Times
Fashion and Personal Care
Member Self-Promotion

Award-Winning Advertising Campaigns

Over the years, I’ve led the design of ad campaigns that not only met client goals but also stood out for their creativity, clarity, and visual impact. This gallery highlights a selection of in-house and client ads recognized by the Virginia Press Association. Each piece reflects a balance of storytelling, brand alignment, and design strategy — with an emphasis on results, even in the smallest of spaces.

2024 Award Winners

VPA 2024 Best In Show

General Makeup Award

Winning the General Makeup award from the Virginia Press Association was a proud moment for our team — and a real testament to what smart, thoughtful design can do. This award recognizes not just pretty pages, but the full experience: clean layouts, strong typography, smart use of white space, and visuals that pull readers in and guide them through a story. It's about making a newspaper that’s as readable as it is beautiful — and we made it happen.

Note: This was very much a team win, and it’s important to mention that Stephanie Redding played a key role in that success.

Here are the judge's comments:

"This publication has clearly been through some stuff – three different tab sizes and paper stocks ... oof. Despite the perceived hardships, this paper has pivoted and adjusted to each change — something that is not easy to do in real time, especially when short-staffed and on a constant deadline. Hardships aside, it is obvious the heart and thoughtfulness that goes into this publication each week, from content to specialty pages and design. Really impressed with the editing of the candlelight ceremony cover photo ... not an easy feat to get a photo like that to print well."

🥇 1st Place — Member Self Promotion

🐾 “Cutest Rescue Pet”
Contest Ad

To promote our Cutest Rescue Pet contest, we turned to the experts — our own staff’s adopted animals. This ad features their lovable faces and celebrates the joy of rescue pets.

🥇 1st Place — Real Estate

🥈 2nd Place — Automotive

🥈 2nd Place — Education, Churches, and Organizations

🥈 2nd Place — Food and Drug

🥈 2nd Place — Lifestyles

🥈 2nd Place — Member Self-Promotion

🥈 2nd Place — Professional Services

🥈 2nd Place — Small Space Ads

🥉 3rd Place — Education, Churches, and Organizations

🥉 3rd Place — Member Self Promotion

🎄 Holiday Greetings Staff Ad

To celebrate the season and showcase our team, I designed this playful holiday ad featuring our staff photos transformed into ornaments. Each ornament was set against a rotating color palette and hung from a dreamy canopy of clouds. I edited every headshot to maintain consistency across varying photo quality, ensuring the final piece felt polished and unified.

The ad was a hit with staff — and went on to win a Virginia Press Award for its creativity, humor, and execution.

2023 Award Winners

🥇 1st Place 2023 — Entertainment

🥇 1st Place 2023 — Food and Drug

🥇 1st Place — Professional Services (Medical/Healthcare)

Judge Comment: Good ad showcasing some employees, awards won and wisely include the fact that they earned 5 stars on Google. Ratings can make or break a local business, so including that along with the ability to have an in person or virtual visit does a good job of selling the value proposition.

🥇 1st Place — Slick Publications

🥈 2nd Place — Food and Drug

🥈 2nd Place — Home and Garden

Judges Comment: Perfectly balanced ad with excellent image quality. The designer does well to showcase Susan Hayes' landscape designs and convey their services while not overcrowding the space with unnecessary content.

🥈 2nd Place — Member Self-Promotion

🥈 2nd Place — Multiple Advertisers & Themed Pages

Holiday Bingo Card – Community Promotion Campaign

For our full-page Holiday Bingo promotion, I designed a clean, cheerful layout and logo to support a shop-local initiative featuring 24 small businesses. Each week, readers played for a chance to win by completing a bingo card filled with participating stores.

To keep the game dynamic and fair, I created six unique versions of the card by drawing business names from a cup — rotating the logos to provide fresh store combinations and ensure equal visibility for all participants.

In addition to the cards themselves, I designed several house ads to promote the contest throughout the paper. The ad featured here is part of that series — and was recognized with a Virginia Press Award for its engaging and effective design.

🥈 2nd Place — Professional Services

🥈 2nd Place — Real Estate (PWT)

🥈 2nd Place — Professional Services (Medical/Healthcare)

Judge Comment: Good ad. Wisely used the doctor's experience to build trust with consumers. The bottom of the ad did a nice job showing a patient receiving treatment and offered a lower funnel sale tactic. Well done.

🥈 2nd Place — Professional Services

(Prince William Times)

🥈 2nd Place — Member Self-Promotion

(Prince William Times)

🥉 3rd Place — Professional Services

🥉 3rd Place - Food and Drug

🥉 3rd Place — Member Self-Promotion

🥉 3rd Place - Entertainment
("Good use of space and graphics")

🥉 3rd Place — Education, Churches, and Organizations

2022 Award Winners

🥇 1st Place — Food and Drug

(Prince William Times)

🥇 1st Place — Member Self-Promotion

Judge Comment: Amazing idea to invite them to be a part. Classic look appealing to the eye

🥇 1st Place — Multiple Advertisers & Themed Pages

🥈 2nd Place — Digital Advertising

🥈 2nd Place — Entertainment

🎳 Galaxy Strikes Bowling Center – Campaign Design Series

When Galaxy Strikes Bowling Center, a new local bowling alley, opened its doors, I created a cohesive ad campaign to help introduce the brand to the community. Over time, that partnership evolved into a multi-platform campaign, including print and digital ads — and even a special 1-year anniversary promotion.

Throughout each phase, I focused on maintaining a consistent color palette, tone, and design theme, ensuring brand recognition across every platform. The result was a series of fun, energetic, and visually unified ads that supported the venue’s growth and community presence over the years.

🥈 2nd Place — Member Self-Promotion