The New England Museum Association recently announced the winners of the 2014 Publication Awards Competition. This year, the competition featured 168 entries from 57 museums in eleven categories, which were split into subcategories by institutional budget.

NEMA extends its thanks to the judges of this year’s competition: Helen Riegle of HER Design, Emily Gonzalez of the Jamaica Plain Tuesday Club, Sara Lundberg of the Arlington Historical Society, Carol Parker of the Tufts Museum Studies program, and Kirsten Talmage of the Birds of Vermont Museum. The judges contributed their expertise in marketing, graphic design, digital media and, of course, their personal experience being frequent museum-goers themselves. We also thank the Arlington Historical Society for its generosity in hosting our group.

The judges praised the quality and ingenuity of this year’s entries. Because of the range of disciplines, institutional sizes, and formats represented this year, the judges considered multiple criteria: the visual appeal and design of each piece, its effectiveness of communication, its content and substance, the cost versus the final result, its creativity and innovation, and whether it fulfilled its intended purpose. The best entries made their content fun and accessible. The creators chose thoughtful designs specific to their intended audience, and the winners all reflected the vision and values of their institution.

Printed Entries
From the Annual Reports, the Emily Dickinson Museum, first place winner in Budgets Over $500K, balanced the required content in an annual report with the smart use of white space across an unusual landscape orientation. Good paper stock and big, colorful images made the reading experience of “Ten Years 2003-2013 Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and The Evergreens” a pleasure. The judges evaluated the Newsletters & Magazines category against similar criteria, looking for a harmony between text and imagery. The Peabody Essex Museum’s magazine “Connections” won for its beautiful visuals, appropriateness for the intended audience without being dense, and good feel in the hand while reading.

Among the entries to the Annual Fund, Capital Campaign, & Other Development Materials category, the Marblehead Museum’s piece “Big Fish/Small Town” stood out for its wonderful, non-traditional color scheme. The graphic design and text also provided a sense of the museum’s place in its community – especially important for a fundraising appeal.

The judges noted that all the winners in the Exhibition Catalogues category were keepsake quality. Middlebury College Museum of Art’s Vito Acconci Thinking Space received top honors in the Budgets Under $500K subcategory, as did the RISD Museum of Art’s Artist|Rebel|Dandy: Men of Fashion in the Budgets Over $500K subcategory. Both winners carried over the graphic identity of the exhibition into the printed piece in a cohesive and thoughtful way. They served as excellent references for the exhibition, featuring great detail shots of the collections on show, and they functioned as objects of art in their own right.

In the Marketing/PR Materials category, Hearthside Museum earned praise for commitment to its theme and the use of its resources to create a complete suite of materials for “Afternoon Tea Time at Hearthside - A two-part series for adults & young girls.” All the winners of the Marketing/PR Materials and Supplementary Materials entries enticed the reader to find out more, with colors and images that popped off the page.

The best invitations created a truly special experience for the recipient, like unwrapping a present. Nods go to first place winners, the Peary-McMillan Arctic Museum for “Pop-Up Museum: Your Favorite Things” in Budgets Under $500K, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for “MFA Summer Party 2013” in Budgets Over $500K, for accomplishing this feat with clean designs and high-quality paper. They both clearly communicated essential information about the event and were a treat to open.

The Books category especially demonstrated how it’s possible to produce top-notch publications at any budget level. Flipping through each of the books was a visually and tactilely pleasing experience. The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University secured joint first place in the Budgets over $500K subcategory. A Lakota War Book from the Little Bighorn: The Pictographic "Autobiography of Half Moon" was scholarly but accessible, with marvelous images and an innovative flipbook element woven through. Piksa Niugini: Portraits and Diaries was elegantly presented and cleverly designed. In the Budget Under $500K entries, the Cambridge Historical Society’s book Saving Cambridge: Historic Preservation in America's Innovation City presented appealing content in a clean design. It certainly worked to get people more interested in local history, and the judges highlighted this book as one of their favorite entries in the whole competition.

Digital Entries
The Website category included special considerations that can’t be ignored for today’s plugged-in museum visitors. In addition to the site’s purpose and design, the judging considered interactivity, effective and clear usability, and friendliness to the multiple platforms a visitor might use to access content (laptop, tablet, mobile). The judging also noted whether websites and apps respected accessibility in vision, hearing, and/or mobility concerns, and made information available in alternate ways.

Among the winning websites, the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, first place winner in Budgets Under $500K, took home kudos for its smooth user experience, responsiveness, and ease of navigation. The Concord Museum, first place winner in Budgets Over $500K, earned praise for its high-quality, pleasing design. It made rich information easily accessible to the user. Old Sturbridge Village got a special nod for its cohesive design and for intentionally accommodating a wide range of groups in its offerings, from educators, students, and researchers to out-of-town visitors.

Strawbery Banke Museum took home top prize for the Mobile Apps category for “Listen to the Landscape.” The videos featured lovely, place-specific images and the usability of the app was intuitive overall. The app also included a thoughtful touch for a self-guided tour (especially for users with an eye on their data plans); videos don’t autoplay, so visitors have more control over their experience.

Best in Show
Choosing Best in Show was truly a difficult decision for the judges, given the number of superb entries in this year’s competition. Ultimately, the Portland Observatory took home the honors for its educational publication “The City is a Classroom, A Kid's Guide to Portland's Landmarks and History.” This guide stood out for its terrific use of color, consistent visuals, and wide variety of activities. Targeted toward kids and families, but usable by all, the guide was well-written, portable, and affordable. It truly succeeded at making its subject matter fun, engaging, and attractive to a diverse audience. Bravo!

Notes on Publications for the Field:

The judges left us with some pointers for institutions and designers reviewing their own publications.

• Don’t let a tiny or unreadable font get in the way of smartly written content.
• Use images strategically; color and size will catch the audience’s eye and draw them in.
• Make sure a beautiful design is both usable – that it doesn’t obscure important information – and true to your institutional identity.
• Consider where, how, and why a visitor might access digital content, and ask how you can make the experience easy and pleasing for them.
• Don’t allow a sloppy print job to undermine even the best design and snappiest message.
• Overall, the visual shorthand of any piece, whether printed or digital, must answer the user’s question, “Why should I care?” and tell the museum’s story at a glance.

This fall, the Publication Award winners will be featured at the NEMA Annual Conference in Boston/Cambridge, November 19-21. We encourage you to stop by and explore the winning publications, come up with ideas that will save your museum time and money, and discover new ways to reinvigorate and reimagine your existing publications in the coming year!

 Click here to download a list of winners.

2014 Publication Award Winners

Best in Show
The Portland Observatory
The City is a Classroom, A Kid's Guide to Portland's Landmarks and History
Project Director: Jennifer Pollick
Outside Designer: Ann Casady, Casady Design

Annual Fund, Capital Campaign, & Other Development Materials
Museum Budget Under $500K
First Place
Marblehead Museum & Historical Society
Big Fish/Small Town
Project Director: Pam Peterson
Outside Designer: Anna Geraghty, algDESIGN & Print Management

Annual Fund, Capital Campaign, & Other Development Materials
Museum Budget Over $500K
First Place
USS Constitution Museum
2013 USS Constitution Museum Chairman's Dinner & Awards Ceremony
Project Director: Jodie McMenamin
In-House Designers: Jodie McMenamin & Jon Christensen

Second Place
Museum of Science
2013 The Science Behind the Stars Invitation Suite - Save the Date, Invitation, Program
Project Directors: Lianne Stoddard and Christopher DelConte
In-House Designer: Lianne Stoddard

Third Place
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum Council 2013
Project Director: Janet O'Donoghue
In-House Designer: Camille Mendoza

Honorable Mention
Historic Deerfield, Inc.
IRA Gift Opportunity for 2013 - Solicitation Postcard
Project Director: David Barclay
Outside Designer: Mike Davenport, Davenport & Bar, Inc.

Annual Reports
First Place
Emily Dickinson Museum
Ten Years 2003-2013 Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and The Evergreens
Project Director: Mardi Pierson-Buell
Outside Designer: Penny Michalak, Penny Michalak Design

Second Place
Historic New England
Annual Report Fiscal Year 2013
Project Director: Rob Watson
Outside Designers: Vernon Ellis and Erica Bell, Grossman Marketing Group

Books
Museum Budget Under $500K
First Place
Cambridge Historical Society
Saving Cambridge: Historic Preservation in America's Innovation City
Project Director: Gavin Kleespies
Outside Designer: Jean Wilcox, Wilcox Designs

Joint Honorable Mention
Cyrus E. Dallin Art Museum
Arlington's Cultural Heights: 1900 - 1925
Project Directors: Doreen Stevens, Aimee Taberner, and Sarah Burks
Outside Designer: Bill Coale, Coalescence

Joint Honorable Mention
Memorial Hall Museum (Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association)
Poetry to the Earth: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Deerfield
Project Director: Suzanne L. Flynt
Outside Designer: Robert Morehead

Books
Museum Budget Over $500K
Joint First Place
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
A Lakota War Book from the Little Bighorn: The Pictographic “Autobiography of Half Moon”
Project Director: Joan Kathryn O'Donnell
Outside Designers: Peter Blaiwas, Duncan G. Todd, and Vern Associates, Inc.

Joint First Place
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
Piksa Niugini: Portraits and Diaries
Project Director: Joan Kathryn O'Donnell
Outside Designer: David Chickey, Radius Books

Second Place
Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University
Connecticut's Indigenous Peoples: What Archaeology, History, and Oral Traditions Teach Us About Their Communities and Cultures
Project Directors: Rosemary Volpe and Jean E. Thomson Black
In-House Designer: Mary Valencia
Outside Designer: Jean E. Thomson Black, Yale University Press

Joint Honorable Mention
Historic New England
“Walter Gropius: The Man Behind the Ideas” and “Ise Gropius”
Project Director: Peter Gittleman
In-House Designer: Blair Lustig

Joint Honorable Mention
Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library
Curiosities of the Craft: Treasures from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts Collection
Project Director: Aimee E. Newell
Outside Designer: Julia Sedykh, Julia Sedykh Design

Educational Publications, Materials & Kits
Museum Budget Under $500K
First Place
The Portland Observatory
The City is a Classroom, A Kid's Guide to Portland's Landmarks and History
Project Director: Jennifer Pollick
Outside Designer: Ann Casady, Casady Design

Second Place
Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
Dig Into Art Activity Tote
Project Director: Elizabeth E. Barker
In-House Designer: Wendy Somes

Educational Publications, Materials & Kits
Museum Budget Over $500K
First Place
Williams College Museum of Art
WALLS Art Cards
Project Director & In-House Designer: Kim Hugo

Second Place
New Haven Museum
Family Guide to the Exhibition “Beyond the New Township: Wooster Square”
Project Director & In-House Designer: Michelle Cheng

Third Place
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
A Guide to Family Fun at the MFA/ Una guía para divertirse en familia en el MFA
Project Director: Janet O'Donoghue
In-House Designer: Camille Mendoza

Joint Honorable Mention
Museum of Science
“Moons: Worlds of Mystery” Educator's Guide
Project Directors: Fanny Dines, Nicole Guzzo, and Christopher DelConte
In-House Designers: Fanny Dines and Nicole Guzzo

Joint Honorable Mention
Norman Rockwell Museum
A Family Guide to Dancing Princesses: The Fairy Tale Art of Ruth Sanderson
Project Director: Stephanie Haboush Plunkett
Outside Designer: Toni Kenny, Elements of Design

Exhibition Catalogues
Museum Budget Under $500K
First Place
Middlebury College Museum of Art
Vito Acconci Thinking Space
Project Director: Emmie Donadio
Outside Designer: Phil Kovacevich, Kovacevich Design

Second Place
Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
Picturing Enlightenment: Tibetan Tangkas in the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
Project Directors: Elizabeth E. Barker and Marylin Rhie
Outside Designer: Betsey Wolfson, Betsey Wolfson Graphic Design

Exhibition Catalogues
Museum Budget Over $500K
First Place
RISD Museum
Artist|Rebel|Dandy: Men of Fashion
Project Director: Patricia Fidler, Yale University Press
Outside Designer: Patrick Seymour, Tsang Seymour

Second Place
MIT Museum
Countless Connecting Threads: MIT's History Revealed Through Its Most Evocative Objects
Project Director: Deborah Douglas
Outside Designer: Pat Appleton, Malcolm Grear Designers

Joint Third Place
Norman Rockwell Museum
Istvan Banyai: Stranger in a Strange Land
Project Directors: Stephanie Haboush Plunkett and Martin Mahoney
Outside Designer: Rita Marshall, Delessert and Marshall

Joint Third Place
Shelburne Museum
Wyeth Vertigo
Project Director: Thomas Denenberg
Outside Designers: Margo Halverson and Charles Melcher, Alice Design Studio

Honorable Mention
Norman Rockwell Museum
Jarvis Rockwell: Maya, Illusion, and Us
Project Directors: Stephanie Haboush Plunkett and Margit Hotchkiss
Outside Designer: Toni Kenny, Elements of Design

Invitations
Museum Budget Under $500K
First Place
The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
Pop-Up Museum: Your Favorite Things
Project Director: Susan A. Kaplan
Outside Designer: Bill Fall, Fall Design

Invitations
Museum Budget Over $500K
First Place
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
MFA Summer Party 2013
Project Director: Janet O'Donoghue
In-House Designer: Jill Bendonis

Second Place
Yale University Art Gallery
Francesco Vanni: Art in Late Renaissance Siena
Project Director: Tiffany Sprague
In-House Designer: Christopher Sleboda

Third Place
Museum of Science
Hall of Human Life Press Preview Invitation
Project Directors: Fanny Dines and Christopher DelConte
In-House Designer: Fanny Dines

Honorable Mention
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Samurai! Armor from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection
Project Director: Janet O'Donoghue
In-House Designer: Jill Bendonis

Marketing/PR Materials
Museum Budget Under $500K
First Place
Hearthside House Museum
Afternoon Tea Time at Hearthside - A Two-Part Series for Adults & Young Girls
Project Director: Kathy Hartley
In-House Designer: Seth Hamilton

Second Place
University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMass Amherst
Du Bois In Our Time
Project Director: Loretta Yarlow
In-House Designer: Joseph Krupczynski

Third Place
Alva deMars Megan Chapel Art Center
Folio for Sandy Wadlington: Reflections of the Day
Project Director: Iain MacLellan
In-House Designer: Melinda Lott

Marketing/PR Materials
Museum Budget Over $500K
First Place
Smith College Museum of Art
Museum Membership Brochure with Two Inserts
Project Director: Louise Martindell
Outside Designer: Laura Radwell, Radwell Communication By Design

Second Place
Springfield Museums
Spring 2013 Calendar Brochure
Project Director: Matt Longhi
Outside Designer: Katie Craig, kt craig Design

Third Place
Museum of Science
Membership Benefits Brochure
Project Directors: Fanny Dines and Christopher DelConte
In-House Designer: Fanny Dines

Joint Honorable Mention
Museum of Science
Laser Shows Poster
Project Director & In-House Designer: Nicole Guzzo

Joint Honorable Mention
Norman Rockwell Museum
Snow White: The Creation of a Classic
Project Director: Margit Hotchkiss
In-House Designers: Jeremy Clowe, with Ryan Scheer for the Walt Disney Family Museum
Outside Designer: Toni Kenny, Elements of Design

Joint Honorable Mention
Smith College Museum of Art
Summer of Love: Psychedelic Posters from SCMA Brochure
Project Director: Margi Caplan
Outside Designer: Alexis Neubert, Alexis Design Studio

Newsletters & Magazines
Museum Budget Under $500K
First Place
Lebanon Historical Society
Lebanon Provisions
Project Director: Jacy Worth
In-House Designer: Grace Sayles

Newsletters & Magazines
Museum Budget Over $500K
First Place
Peabody Essex Museum
Connections
Project Director: Susan Flynn
Outside Designer: Leeann Leftwich Zajas, LLZ Design

Second Place
RISD Museum
Manual: a journal about art and its making
Project Director: Sarah Ganz Blythe
In-House Designer: Derek Schusterbauer

Third Place
Strawbery Banke Museum
BankeNotes
Project Director: Stephanie Seacord
Outside Designer: Jaimie Knapp, Graphic Details

Honorable Mention
Providence Children's Museum
Dragon's Tales Newsletter
Project Director: Megan Fischer
In-House Designer: Valerie Haggerty-Solva

Supplementary Materials
Museum Budget Under $500K
First Place
The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
Spirits of Land, Air, and Water
Project Director: Susan A. Kaplan
Outside Designer: Bill Fall, Fall Design

Supplementary Materials
Museum Budget Over $500K
First Place
Yale Center for British Art
Edwardian Opulence
Project Director & In-House Designer: Lyn Bell Rose

Second Place
Williams College Museum of Art
India: Labeltalk 2013
Project Director: Elizabeth Gallerani
Outside Designer: Diane Gottardi, Diane Gottardi Design

Joint Third Place
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
T-Shirt for Summer Art Class Students
Project Director: Janet O'Donoghue
In-House Designer: Camille Mendoza

Joint Third Place
Museum of Science
Hall of Human Life Member Acquisition Direct Mailer
Project Directors: Lori Sartre and Christopher DelConte
In-House Designer: Lori Sartre

Joint Honorable Mention
American Textile History Museum
Behind the Veil
Project Director: Marcia Cassidy
Outside Designer: Allison Geoffroy, Allison Geoffroy Designs

Joint Honorable Mention
American Textile History Museum
Color Revolution
Project Director: Marcia Cassidy
Outside Designer: Allison Geoffroy, Allison Geoffroy Designs

Websites
Museum Budget Under $500K
First Place
Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
Mead Art Museum of Amherst College Website
Project Director: Sheila Flaherty-Jones
In-House Designer: Rachel Rogol

Second Place
Maria Mitchell Association
Maria Mitchell Association Website
Project Director: Whitney Morris
Outside Designer: Mary Novissimo, Novation Media

Websites
Museum Budget Over $500K
First Place
Concord Museum
Concord Museum Website
Project Director: Margaret Burke and Carol Haines
Outside Designer: Robert Levers, Levers Advertising + Design

Second Place
Old Sturbridge Village
Old Sturbridge Village Website
Project Directors: Ann Lindblad and Kate Brandt
In House Designer: Doreen St. John
Outside Designer: Gravity Switch

Third Place
Yale University Art Gallery
Yale University Art Gallery Website
Project Directors: Tiffany Sprague, John French, and Thomas Raich
Outside Designer: Milena Sadée, 2x4 New York

Mobile Apps
First Place
Strawbery Banke Museum
Listen to the Landscape
Project Director: Stephanie Seacord
Outside Designers: Rob Pyles and Monica Brandt, OnCell-Toursphere

Second Place
Norman Rockwell Museum
Norman Rockwell: Happily Ever After
Project Director: Margit Hotchkiss and Barbara Rundback
In House Designer: Dan Heck