JA Recognized with Marketing Awards from SMPS Seattle
/SMPS Seattle recognized Johnston Architects with awards for Best Marketing Collateral, Best Small/Women-Owned Business, and Marketing Advocate of the Year.
JA Graphic Designer Kris Kohl, Marketing Director Liz Wasson Coleman, Partner and Architect Mona Zellers, and Marketing Specialist Jasmyn Flores were all in attendance / image by ANAM Media
The Seattle Chapter of the Society for Marketing Professional Services coupled their annual Reign Awards Event with a celebration of the chapter’s 40th anniversary! JA Marketing Director, Liz Wasson Coleman, is this year’s SMPS Seattle President and served as co-host for the event, which drew 120 attendees from the Seattle region.
Marketing Advocate of the Year
This award is presented to an individual as a stellar supporter of marketing teams and efforts who do not necessarily work in marketing specifically or have 'marketing' in their title. This individual is committed to furthering and encouraging their own firm’s or industry partners’ marketing efforts on a daily basis. They assist their team by going out of the way to understand the mission and efforts of marketing.
Each year SMPS Seattle members nominate non-marketers who go above and beyond in their support of marketing endeavors as Marketing Advocate of the Year, and this year Liz nominated JA Partner and Architect, Jack Chaffin. She was able to surprise him by presenting this award to him in person.
“Since I joined JA three years ago, Jack has remained a steadfast advocate for JA’s growing marketing and graphics department. Jack ensures we have the technology, continued education, and resources necessary to perform at our highest level. He exemplifies a culture of marketing respect and appreciation, reflected across the firm at every level, ensuring JA’s marketing team has a voice in firm strategy and a seat at the table. ”
as a partner at JA, jack chaffin advocates for innovation and marketing excellence / image by zera photo
Best Marketing Collateral
This all-encompassing category recognizes excellence in marketing and communications deliverables, projects and campaigns, such as proposal layout redesign, annual report, special event, client appreciation gift, etc.
JA developed a new logo and website in 2018 and new marketing materials in 2019, but after bringing on a full-time Graphic Designer in 2021 we decided to develop all-new marketing collateral with refreshed brand guidelines.
The design of these brochures was led by JA Marketing Specialist Jasmyn Flores.
These new marketing brochures are wrapped in images of rich, textural materials pulled from photography of past JA projects. By offsetting the refined JA logo and shifting the placement of the brochure titles, the suite feels cohesive without becoming stagnant.
Small, Women, or Minority Owned Business Award
This award is only available to entries submitted by SBE/WMBE/DBE firms, as designated by the Small Business Administration and the OMWBE. Submissions were judged based on the impact and reach of the marketing campaign or project, and selected by the judges.
As a small, women-owned business, JA was automatically eligible for this award, and we were selected based on our submission for Brand Experience/Identity, which we refreshed in the last year and applied across all internal and external documents.
This honors the development of a new or updated brand experience/identity through print and/or digital applications. This category recognizes a firm’s holistic implementation of marketing materials applied toward establishing a new identity.
ja’s updated brand gudelines were developed by graphic designer kristopher kohl
By refreshing JA’s logo and branding we reframed the 30-year-old firm’s image to highlight our use of innovation and technology to promote inclusion and equity through design. The refined logo, additional graphic elements, and tertiary typeface offer a more future-forward look and feel to the brand.
Kris kohl & jasmyn flores celebrate JA’s best marketing collateral win / image by zera photo
Congratulations to the JA Marketing & Graphics team on these honors! You can see more images from the evening on the SMPS Seattle Facebook page and look for our refreshed brand on our feasibility studies, proposals, and marketing brochures.