Gabriella Ferraro O’Brien is MDDC’s Designer of the Year. This award is based on a designer’s work through the contest cycle. Each designer is required to submit 8-10 pieces, showing creativity and the ability to design across platforms and a letter of recommendation from his or her manager.
The entries were judged by Adam Marton, digital design lecturer at the University of Maryland, College Park and Samantha Savage of Lame Creative. This year, there were three strong nominations, showing a diversity of approaches and styles.
In his nomination letter, Christopher Gunty, Associate Publisher/Editor of Catholic Review noted that O’Brien brought new ideas and a fresh outlook since joining the team in late 2021. She spearheaded the significant redesign and rebranding of Catholic Review, using feedback from readership surveys, introducing bigger pictures, more white space and creative typography.
The judges noted that O’Brien is really pushing herself to improve and doing interesting things with design within the confines of her publication’s style guide. She was instrumental in a total recreation of her publication’s look and feel and has brought interesting and bold choices to the material. Her infographics are engaging and informative, but out of the box.
About our nominees
Tracie Rawson, The Baltimore Sun
Tracie Rawson is committed: through original illustrations, photo art direction or design work, she works to engage readers with the unexpected. The judges were impressed with Rawson’s ability to pull design together, integrating infographics into the spreads and covers submitted. She consistently performs at a high level. In his nomination letter, publisher Trif Alatzas says “Tracie’s superior news judgment shapes what readers see and read. She is often writing the headlines, editing the stories and designing the pages.” Rawson won the Designer of the Year award in 2021 and 2019.
Jennifer Quinn, APG Media of Chesapeake
Jennifer Quinn is the “Swiss army knife of the creative team” who thrived in a fast-paced environment according to Tyler Edwards, the regional director of digital sales & marketing at APG Media of Chesapeake. The judges agreed, noting her photo choice and the way photos are used in Quinn’s spreads. They further noted some of the daring type choices Quinn made in her designs were very successful.
