RE: [GWL]Garden Globes

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Garden Design Magazine Wins Two Top Garden Globe Awards

Garden Design has earned two prestigious honors in the 2003 Garden Globe Awards: Best Magazine and Best Talent in Graphic Design, for art director Mike Bessire.

            Sponsored by the Garden Writers Association, the Garden Globe Awards recognize exceptional works produced each year. An elite panel judged the more than 300 entries, with Garden Design taking top honors in two of nine categories.

“We are very honored by these awards. They’re confirmation that we have the utmost respect of the professional gardening community,” says Garden Design Editor-in-Chief Bill Marken.

Garden Design’s winning entry in the magazine category was the special themed issue American Beauty (June/July 2002 -- www.gardendesignmag.com). The editorial content covered a treasure trove of native American plants, essential U.S. gardens, a tribute to our nation’s capital, and the Westport Adirondack chair and other homegrown garden furniture.

            Bessire, who has been with publisher World Publications for eight years, was named best graphic designer for his work on the same issue of Garden Design.  For the past three he has been art director for Garden Design. Prior to that he was the art director for two other World titles: WaterSki and Wind Surfing.

Bessire and the magazine will be recognized at the GWA Awards Banquet August 18, 2003, as part of the 55th Annual GWA Symposium in Chicago. Thanks to its two wins, Garden Design is up for the Garden Globe Award of the Year, to be announced that night.

“Each year the GWA seeks to recognize the best talent in the field of garden communications to receive one of our coveted Garden Globe Awards,” says GWA Executive Director Robert LaGasse.

Since the early 1980s, the GWA annual awards program has recognized outstanding writing, photography, graphic design and illustration for books, newspaper stories, magazine articles and other works focused on gardening. In recent years awards have expanded to include on-air talent, production and direction for radio, television, video, Internet and other electronic media.

GWA is an international organization of more than 1,800 professional communicators in the lawn and garden industry. 

To view all the 2003 Garden Globe recipients, log on to www.gwaa.org/awards.