From the “Weird But True” Dept.

Last year I received an e-mail from a design firm I did a 2004 cover job for, who told me a cover we had done won an award though neither she or I were notified. Today I found out a different cover illustration I did last year for Infoworld Magazine won a gold medal for best cover illustration of 2005 from TABPI (Trade Associations Business Publications International).

This was the 2005 award winner (!!??)

Don’t get me wrong, it’s very nice to be recognized but this isn’t a particularly great piece of art, so it’s being deserving of any award is a little questionable to me. It is a little weird to find out your name and work were recognized with an award of some kind by either stumbling upon the announcement or being told by a third party, rather than somebody from the organization sending out an announcement via e-mail or something. There are many of these kinds of awards from small organizations and the field of qualifying work is also very small…

What I’m wondering is… was there a cash prize? How about a shiny little statuette or a hunk of acrylic? A gift certificate to Starbucks?