News Article

College wins international awards for creative work in Qatar


5/6/2010 3:02:19 PM


From Acacia to Ziziphus: Arabian Plants to Nourish the Body and Earth, a book created by employees and students at CNA’s Qatar campus, was recognized as “one of the most outstanding entries in the competition” by the international Hermes Creative Awards. The book received Platinum for Publication and an Honourable Mention for Design.


The Corniche, a photo captured in Qatar’s capital city of Doha – the location for CNA’s campus in the Middle East – won Gold in the Photography category. Gold awards are presented to those entries that exceed the high standards of the industry norm.

College of the North Atlantic’s (CNA) campus in Doha, Qatar – CNA-Q – has received an international award for a book created by instructors and students. From Acacia to Ziziphus: Arabian Plants to Nourish the Body and Earth was recognized with the Platinum Hermes Creative Award for Publication.

The awards are administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (www.amcpros.com); this international competition is for creative professionals involved in the concept, writing and design of traditional and emerging media. Some 3,600 entries were submitted from several countries; judges are industry professionals who look for exceptional quality of work that serves as a benchmark for the industry. Platinum is the highest honour bestowed to those entries judged to be among the most outstanding in the competition, states the association’s letter of congratulations. Only some 18 per cent of entries were awarded at this level.

“Platinum winners [in particular] are recognized for their excellence in terms of quality, creativity and resourcefulness.”

The unique publication began as a research project for CNA-Q’s Environmental Health Technology instructors Carla Eskow and Keith Williams; they intended to compile research into a paper that would total approximately 25 pages.

“We started by identifying some of the key environmental and health challenges faced by Qatar,” says Williams.

“Then we came up with ways in which plants could be used to treat some of those problems. For example, some plants are anti-cancer; others have the ability to sequester polyaromatic hydrocarbons from oil spills.”

With a year of information collection, photography and research, assisted by six CNA-Q students, the project blossomed into a 73-page full-colour, hard cover book that has been distributed to educational institutions and libraries throughout the Middle East, Europe and Canada.

Dr. Karen McDonald, director of Environmental Health at Concordia University in Alberta reviewed the book upon receiving it at her institution in the fall of 2009.

“From reading the title of this book, the reader is instantly drawn into an exotic and sumptuous world. More than a reference book, the photographs and language convey the beauty and uniqueness of these plants from the Middle East,” says McDonald.

“Overall, this book beautifully shares the rich and unusual plant life of a part of the world that may seem mysterious and foreign to those of us in North America. It certainly led this reader to ask what plants where I live similarly deserve such careful documentation and preservation.”

The book also received Honourable Mention from the Hermes awards for Design. Mary Anne Skill, graphic artist in CNA-Q’s Marketing and Public Relations department, created the design and layout of the book.

“Mary Anne Skill is the one who deserves all the credit for this!” says co-author Carla Eskow. “We gave her a word document and she turned it into an award winning book!”

An additional award from the association was presented to CNA’s Qatar Project Office in Newfoundland and Labrador. An image taken by the office’s Public Relations Specialist Tanya Alexander was awarded Gold for Photography. The winning entry is titled The Corniche; it captures a night scene of the popular boardwalk found at Doha’s harbour front.

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Media contact:

Tanya Alexander
Public Relations Specialist, Qatar Project
College of the North Atlantic
709.643.0811
tanya.alexander@cna.nl.ca

OR

Roger Hulan
Communications Specialist
Marketing and Communications Department
College of the North Atlantic
709.643.7938
roger.hulan@cna.nl.ca