News

A night out with your coworkers is always nice, but when you take home a few awards at the end of the evening, it’s even better.

The Art Directors Association of Iowa recently held its 54th annual design exhibition, and between PM and our own Emily Hughes, we scored four Awards of Excellence and two Best of Category Awards.

The ADAI exhibition is a fun event for us because it’s focused on graphic design. It also showcases lots of inspiring work produced right here in our own professional community. If you’d like to see some of the other winners, check out the photos on Facebook.

Here’s a quick look at PM’s winning submissions …

Ballet Des Moines Fundraising Packet

Award of Excellence for PM

Category: Collateral

The Ballet Des Moines needed a customizable piece that could be tailored for different fundraising prospects. We created this double-fold brochure with a pocket and inserts for various messages. The pro-bono piece is small enough to mail yet makes a big impact with dramatic photography and metallic ink.

Chicago Pneumatic Brand Ad Concepts

Award of Excellence for PM

Category: Unpublished

Some of the coolest designs never make it to press. Kudos to ADAI for having a category to recognize some of them! PM created these ad concepts based on the results of a voice of customer/brand positioning exercise for Chicago Pneumatic. The look is in line with the CP brand, but pushes it farther to make a connection with the hardworking contractor audience.

Thinc Iowa Website

Award of Excellence and Best of Category for PM

Category: Website Design

We can’t say enough good things about working with the Silicon Prairie News team on their first Thinc Iowa event last fall. They trusted us to recommend a creative approach, and this website is the centerpiece of the design. It features parallax scrolling from section to section, instead of traditional multi-page navigation. (Trust us, you just have to see it.) Our cohorts from Shift did the programming. And we had so much fun, we signed up to do it again this fall for Thinc Iowa 2012.

Martha and Ryan Save the Date

Award of Excellence and Best of Category for Emily Hughes

Category: Announcements/Invitations

Beyond her work at PM, Emily Hughes has a whole other creative outlet designing wedding invitations and other announcements. This one is particularly special, since it was for Emily’s cousin — who incidentally wrote the copy. (Creativity must run in the family!) Another PM connection: the photos were taken by our former coworker, Gretchen Scott.

As a side note, this year’s exhibition was organized and emceed by our fellow creative, Paul Richards, who put a lot of heart, sweat and time into the entire event. Many thanks to Paul and the ADAI volunteers for another excellent exhibition. What a great way to spend a warm spring evening!

With Congress getting ready to head into session on Jan. 24, The Road Connection – a nine-month campaign highlighting the need for increased infrastructure funding – is heading out on the open road.

In the driver’s seat are Curt Peterka and Andrew Gillman who will be traveling cross-country to trade shows, state association meetings, dealerships and everywhere in between to garner support and educate the public on the necessity of passing the reauthorization bill. (It’s only 844 days overdue.)

Over the past few months, we here at PM have had the opportunity to work with the leading sponsor (and brainchild) of this cause-worthy campaign – KPI-JCI & Astec Mobile Screens.

As part of this campaign, we’ve created a microsite where you can contact Congress (hint, hint), nominate a worst road (another hint) and see where the truck is heading next. Check it out at www.theroadconnection.org.

Along with the microsite, we’ve illustrated and designed all elements including the truck wrap, promotional items and much more!

Here are some photos of the truck visiting the PM office and at our kickoff event at AED Summit/CONDEX Jan. 19-20 in Washington, D.C.

Curt Peterka (left), Advertising Manager at Kolberg Pioneer, Inc., and Andrew Gillman, Public Relations, Performance Marketing (a.k.a. The Mobile Journalist). These are the guys in the truck, so wave when you see them.

All set up at the AED Summit Kickoff Event – Washington, D.C.

From left: Curt Peterka, Christian Klein (AED Vice President of Government Affairs and Washington Counsel), Lisa Carson (Marketing Manager, KPI-JCI & Astec Mobile Screens) and Andrew Gillman (PM Mobile Journalist)

Iowa is best known as the state that feeds the world, and we’re certainly proud of all the Iowa corn, beans, pork and beef that fill bellies on every continent. But we’re also proud of the other reputation that Iowa is gaining — as the place where ideas, technology and hard work merge.

That reputation took another big leap forward with Thinc Iowa, an inspirational gathering bringing startups and established corporations together to find a common ground, share ideas, and learn ways to help each other grow.

The inaugural Thinc Iowa event, presented by Silicon Prairie News, was held October 20-21 in Des Moines, and Performance Marketing was involved in nearly every facet. From the logo to the website to the programs to the venue graphics and displays, we were pleased to see our ideas come to life. Even more, we were pleased to have several PMers on hand to watch the event become an unqualified success — so much so that both PM and Shift have signed on to help out again in 2012.

Above photo by Anna Jones | Art of Photography and Ikonix Studio.

Ben Silbermann of Pinterest

Photo by Anna Jones | Art of Photography and Ikonix Studio.

Photo by Anna Jones | Art of Photography and Ikonix Studio.

Photo by Anna Jones | Art of Photography and Ikonix Studio.

Photo by Anna Jones | Art of Photography and Ikonix Studio.