2011 Pele Award Winner!

This weekend I had the humbling honor of accepting the Special Judge’s Award for Design at the 2011 American Advertising Federation (AAF Hawaii Chapter) Pele Awards for our “Best of Maui 2010 in 3D” special issue. This was really exciting because it was a top honor (right under Best Of Show) at the awards, and also because it was completely unexpected and surprising due to the amazing amount (and quality) of work in the show this year. In our category—Complete Publication Design—we received an Award Of Merit (Bronze), losing to the Best Of Show winner Clifford Cheng of Voice Design for Hawaii Skindiver Magazine. A big thanks goes out to our team at MauiTime for all the hard work on this issue, as well as Brad Parker for his amazing illustration work.

You can read the story from the Honolulu Star Advertiser here. Or read the MauiNow.com news story here. Or see the Coverjunkie.com post about it here.

You can also watch a video from the ceremony—including a message from the Head Design Judge Stefan Bucher of 344 Design—here.

Designed by Chris Skiles

Artwork by Brad Parker

On a side note: We made a whole weekend out of going to the ceremony because it was on Oahu. We have been on Maui for almost 2 years and hadn't visited any other island so it seemed like the perfect time. We were kind of missing the big city life BTW. We stayed in Waikiki; didn't rent a car; walked everywhere; visited the Honolulu Zoo(sooo much fun!); did a lot of shopping because that is one of the things Maui likes; ate some really good food (Wolfgang Puck Express; Epic Restaurant, local places and of course Chili's) and of course had our share of libations :) We had a great time and Christopher winning the Special Judges Award meant so much!