FIU Magazine garners prestigious awards


FIU Magazine has gone head to head with some of the nation’s top university magazines—and won!

The nonprofit Council for Advancement and Support of Education recently announced the winners of its annual district awards. CASE is an international association of universities and aims to help members develop communications to enhance alumni and donor relations.

FIU participates and competes in District III, the largest of eight districts, which comprises more than 3,500 institutions in nine Southeastern states.

The Fall 2012 issue

The Fall 2012 issue

Thirty-two entries were submitted by members in the category of university magazines with circulations of 75,000 or greater. This is a category that takes into account all elements of a magazine—writing and editing, art direction and design, professional execution, technical quality and creativity. FIU Magazine garnered the Grand Award, the top place. The award is the highest ever earned by the publication.

“This recognition is especially gratifying because it represents across-the-board excellence for the magazine,” said Deborah O’Neil, the publication’s editor for nine years. “The magazine is a team effort. We are fortunate to have a talented art director, great designers and photographers and access to so many gifted writers. This award belongs to all of them.”

Overall, District III received nearly 1,0000 entries in more than 50 categories that represented work completed during the 12-month period ending October 2012.

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The Spring 2012 issue

FIU Magazine also received two other prizes. In the category of illustration, the foldout spread “Thirsty Planet”—which accompanied a story on FIU’s largest research project, Global Water for Sustainability—won a Grand Award for New York freelance artist Chris McAllister’s stylized renderings of people across the globe engaged in water use.

The design of the winter 2011-12 cover—which featured work by Miami photographer Angel Valentin—earned an Award of Excellence (second place). Both the cover and the pages featuring McCallister’s artwork were designed by FIU graphic artist Mariel de Moya under the direction of Aileen Sola, the magazine’s art director for ten years.

With these three awards and a Feature Writing General Excellence Award last year for an article written by O’Neil, FIU Magazine, which has a circulation of 120,000, has now earned recognition for its last four issues.

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The Winter 2011-12 issue

“We are very grateful for this vote of confidence from our peers,” O’Neil said of the editors and art directors who judged the entries. “Their acknowledgment of our work complements the praise we receive from readers and validates our efforts to showcase the incredible things happening at FIU. Telling the story of this amazing university remains our biggest motivation in turning out a great publication.”

Click here to read the latest issue of FIU Magazine online.

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