Always working to add value through relevant content and pertinent design, Soloflight worked with Shepherd Center to consult on topics and graphic direction with a key team of individuals including many physicians to keep on the pulse of the target audiences’ needs and interests.

Soloflight combined the use of bold, scientific graphics with in-depth reporting on scientific and procedural topics. The layout is contemporary and modern, yet with a restraint portraying a sense of authority and scholastic merit.

The publication will be distributed semi-annually.

The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program, judged by the International Academy of Visual Arts, honoring creative excellence for communications professionals. Founded by communication professionals over a decade ago, The Communicator Awards receives more than 9,000 entries from companies and agencies of all sizes, making it one of the largest awards of its kind in the world.

The fall issue of The Apex of Trauma Care, a physician-focused publication produced for the Shepherd Center took home The Award of Excellence, the competition’s highest honor. This honor is given to those entries whose ability to communicate puts them among the best in the field.

Another publication produced for the Shepherd Center, Spinal Column took home an Award of Distinction for the summer 2010 issue. The Award of Distinction is presented for projects that exceed industry standards in quality and achievement.

The site will be showcased on the home page of the Communication Arts magazine, the leading trade journal for visual communications. Communication Arts selects a site each day to be its example of new and exiting work to share with clients and creative professionals worldwide. Check it out at www.commarts.com/Webpicks.

The AutoTrader.com Community Relations Year in Review 2010: Action Inspires Action highlights the community service work done by their employees in 2010 and enhances the value within the corporate culture moving forward.

Soloflight took on the continued challenge to constantly push the company’s envelope starting with a more conceptual theme—Action Inspires Action. The concept stemmed from the idea of cause and effect. Starting on the site’s home page, the free-moving navigation encouraged interaction with the site and a touch of surprise resonating with the theme of how someone’s seemingly small action may surprisingly bring about a much larger connection or impact for another person/organization by looking beyond their own needs.

Dramatic black-and-white photography served as the backdrop for bold color and moving copy to connect with the viewer on a personal level. Viewers could then also share their own stories of inspiration through the submission form on the Create an Inspiration page.

Soloflight was honored with two SEED awards presented by the AIGA Atlanta at the new Museum of Design Atlanta on June 15. Soloflight project winners were The BeltLine: Its Journey and Murphy’s Popcorn Brand.

The BeltLine: Its Journey won a Gold SEED Award in the interactive category. Gold SEED winners are offered the option of entry into a national competition, 365: AIGA Annual Design Competition. Murphy’s Popcorn Brand took home an Excellence SEED Award in the print category.

AIGA Atlanta founded the SEED Awards in 2005 to recognize and promote design excellence within the Southeast region. The biennial competition represents the best work across all disciplines of communication design and strategy selected by a panel of national design leaders.

AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Atlanta Chapter was founded in 1988. The eighth largest chapter in the U.S., AIGA Atlanta is a professional association of more than 600 members.

Three Soloflight-designed publications were honored with Aster Awards for medical marketing excellence. The Aster Awards is an annual medical marketing award program recognizing excellence in healthcare marketing and advertising.

The 2011 Aster Awards received approximately 3,000 entries from across the United States as well as Canada and South America. Judging criteria includes creativity, layout and design, functionality, message effectiveness, production quality and overall appeal.

The peds Journal, a physician publication from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta was awarded a Silver Award in the Children’s Hospitals, Magazine Publication—Single category. Silver Awards are only given to those with a score of 90 to 94 or the top 13 percent in the nation.

Two publications created for Shepherd Center, one of the top rehabilitation centers in the U.S., were honored with Gold Awards. Spinal Column magazine won for the Specialty Care Facility, Magazine Publication—Series category. The inaugural issue of The Apex of Trauma Care magazine won for the Specialty Care Facility, Magazine Publication—Single category. Gold Awards are given for a score of 95 to 99 being the top 5 percent in the nation.

Created by the Interactive Media Council, Inc., the Interactive Media Awards recognizes excellence in website design and development. The judges stated that both Soloflight entries have “excelled in all areas of our judging criteria and represents a very high standard of planning, execution and overall professionalism.”  Both 360° for Aon eSolutions and The BeltLine: Its Journey earned more than 450 out of 500 points.

The entries are judged in five categories, design, content, feature functionality, usability, and cross-browser compatibility. The Soloflight entries excelled with scores in the upper 90′s in each of those categories.

» View The BeltLine: Its Journey

»View 360°

After the success of the inaugural issue, The Apex of Trauma Care has 2nd edition set for Spring 2011.

The BeltLine: Its Journey shows that a publication doesn’t need paper to be a publication. Taking the story-telling approach to the story of the BeltLine, profiles and engaging photography help to draw the viewer in. The BeltLine Its Journey also includes design aspects that would have been impossible to print. The site takes into account issues like usability, content sharing through social bookmarking sites and repurposing on social media sites. For those who want to print out the story, it offers a downloadable pdf version.

By now this is nothing new, but something that still makes me smile nonetheless. Playing for Change, in case you haven’t heard (or at least not by name), is an organization that produces videos of songs that are famous around the world, in an effort to unite people the world over through music.

Playing for Change was started in March of 2005 by a small production team using their own equipment to record street musicians using the world as their stage, playing the same song without ever actually meeting, through the use of technology. The first song around the world they performed was Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me,” with musicians that have since become famous for their parts in Playing for Change’s worldwide movement.

Five years later, there is a Playing for Change Foundation (the donations from which go towards building music and art schools around the world), and many of these street musicians have come together to form the Playing for Change band, which tours around the world, except now the musicians are working directly together one one stage.

There are thirty videos or “episodes” on their site now, but “Stand by Me” still remains my favorite. Check it out: http://playingforchange.com/episodes/2/Stand_By_Me

Sounds simple enough to me–now let’s see how it works. Seems like it’d be easier to implement if Starbucks weren’t a huge global chain with a firmly established set of expectations and a certain consistency at least partially to thank for its massive expansion over the last forty years: Tall, Grande, Venti ring a bell, anyone? And  you might lose the comfort of such consistency once Starbucks opens up the playing field to all kinds of uniquely shaped (and sized, for that matter) mugs to embrace its warm (and cold) drinks.

Although Starbucks hasn’t announced when they’re going to start counting customers’ coffee karma, they found this solution particularly appealing because  “It’s a low-risk program that doesn’t require creating any new products, and Starbucks also didn’t want to change the coffee-drinking experience.” (Taken from Fast Company)

For more information about Karma Cup and other honorees, click here.

(image: Fast Company)