Dear CNBAM Committee, I write to you today with great pride to nominate Alison McAfee for the award of designer of the year. Last year was Alison’s first full year on The University Daily Kansan and she was a powerful ingredient in the success that our newspaper enjoyed throughout the year 2007. Alison served as the creative for one of the most prominent zones at The Kansan headed by Manager of the Year nominee Ari Ben. From day one Alison made sure that she integrated herself into the day to day workings of the zone so that she could be a vital team member. She attended all of the weekly zone meeting so that she could arm herself with all of the knowledge for what was going on at the paper as whole but also with each individual sales rep in their territories. She urged the reps to take her out into the field on their calls so that she could get the face to face interaction with the clients that would ensure that the creative for their campaigns would best meet their needs. She worked tirelessly spending hours above and beyond what other designers were spending to meet the numerous creative requests that her zone put in front of her. All of these factors lead to a great amount of synergy between Ali and the sales reps in her zone and helped lead to higher sales as well as her zone finished 146% to goal or $44,125 over. As stated above as part of that zone’s success however Alison was forced to put out a tremendous workload on a weekly basis. On the average week including spec ads Alison would create anywhere from 30-35 ads. Despite the high quantity of work she was required to generate she somehow found a way on each and every ad to ensure that they were of the highest quality possible. For Abe & Jakes a local nightclub she created a dynamic campaign that featured a combination of consistency through the images it used but also took full advantage of the full color that the account was paying for. The imagery she selected from day one was used in all subsequent campaigns creating such fantastic awareness that it allowed Abe & Jakes to quickly and successfully brand themselves and allowed them to have their most successful year to date. For The Eldridge Hotel she created a campaign that blended both sophistication and fun to help this elegant hotel better brand their Sunday brunch and martinis among other things to a student body that was previously unaware that they offered these things. These two campaigns are but a small sampling of the fine work that Alison did for The Kansan throughout this year. She is without a doubt the perfect blend of both professionalism and creative energy. When these skills are put in tandem they allow her to serve as a vital cog in the big machine that is The University Daily Kansan. Without her we would not have come close to the success we enjoyed this year and she is absolutely worth of the award of designer of the year. Sincerely, Jon Schlitt Sales and Marketing Adviser The University Daily Kansan
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