Sitting at her desk late one afternoon, Jackie Brittain began doodling – looking for a fun and creative design to help one of her clients promote its agricultural business.
After years of working with Lidia Hall at Golden Meadows Honey Farm in Pitt Meadows, enjoying their products, and talking with them extensively about all the different facets of their bee-based business, The News’ multi-media advertising consultant said she instinctively began drawing honeycombs.
From there, she added a bee and used some enlarged honeycombs to feature the dates of the upcoming summer markets. Then, she was inspired to add a few other components, including a bee and hive listing the hours.
Suddenly, she had it all sketched out.
“When you get your pen to paper, that’s when it comes,” Brittain said.
Turning her scribbles over to graphics team for The News, she was delighted to watch her idea come together. She was even more ecstatic when she shared it with the Halls, and they fell in love with the concept.
Since then, Brittain said, the concept has been used to build various ads for Golden Meadows Honey. And, she admits to being shocked that this same creative inspiration is drawing industry accolades and attention from the B.C. & Yukon Community News Media Association, which hands out the annual Ma Murray Awards.
In fact, that late day scribble has put Brittain in the running for the best ad design award –among newspapers with a circulation of more than 10,000.
This isn’t the first time Brittain has been up for accolades in this category for her creativity. Another honey-themed ad for Meadows Honey Farm earned her a silver award from the provincial association in 2020, noted a “very proud” publisher, Lisa Farquharson.
The Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News is actually shortlisted for two Ma Murray Awards next month, one of those is for the quarterly Bijou magazine and the other for Brittian’s honey ad.
CHECK OUT THE LAST EDITION OF BIJOU
Bijou is a quarterly lifestyles magazine designed specifically for the residents north of the Fraser River, and similar to the other award nomination this year, this publication also earned the team bling at last year’s awards ceremony. Bijou, then only one year old, garnered silver in the special publication category.
“I’m overwhelmed by the efforts of our entire team,” said Farquharson, who is a group publisher with Black Press Media and took over duties with The News last November.
“The staff have pivoted and persevered, and in some cases flourished as individuals during challenging times – discovering new inner strength, resilience, and abilities amid the adversities that resonates in the quality of work they’re producing. Thank you for all you do for your community.”
LAST YEAR: The News lauded by industry peers
While the shortlist of finalists was released late last week, the winners will not be known until a virtual gala set for April 29.
The Ma Murray Awards, hosted for almost a century, recognize the achievements of the association’s 93 member newspapers and digital sites in British Columbia and Yukon, which includes a number of Black Press Media outlets such as the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News.
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