ParentMap Takes Home 24 Awards in 2008

We're honored to say we've just been awarded a record 24 honors from the Parenting Publications of America! From design excellence to investigative journalism to Web site content, we took home top honors - the Gold Award - in 7 categories. Our award-winning Out & About section took home yet more awards, in lovely shades of gold and silver. Ages & Stages? Simply the best column of its kind in the nation! And those eye-catching ParentMap and BabyMap covers caught the judges' eye, earning us multiple gold, silver, and bronze awards.

The 2007 awards:

Editorial awards:

Column: Briefs: Silver: ParentMap, "Postings"

Column: Reviews: Gold: ParentMap

Column: Family matters: Gold: ParentMap, "Ages & Stages

Column: Family fun: Silver: ParentMap; "Out and About"

Travel feature: Silver: ParentMap, “Tree houses, caves, and volcanoes—oh my!”

Personal essay: Bronze: ParentMap, "A heartbreaking need for clean water"

Investigative reporting: Gold: ParentMap, "Mothers' Rights"

Special section within a publication: Bronze: ParentMap, Ages and Stages

Ancillary feature writing: Bronze: BabyMap

Ancillary overall writing: Silver: SummerMap

Design awards:

Front cover – original illustration: Bronze: ParentMap – “Protecting your child”

Front cover – original illustration: Silver: ParentMap – “A Heart for the arts”

Interior photography - Silver: ParentMap; “Fatherhood now”

Table of contents: Bronze: ParentMap

Overall use of typography: Gold: ParentMap

Infographics: Gold: ParentMap

Special section: Silver: ParentMap "Gift Guide"

Overall design: Bronze: ParentMap

Ancillary cover: Silver: BabyMap

Ancillary feature design: Silver: Family Directory

Ancillary feature design: Gold: BabyMap

Web site awards:

Web site design: Silver: ParentMap.com

Web site content: Gold: ParentMap.com

Web site general excellence: Gold: ParentMap.com

ParentMap Wins 14 Prestigious Awards

A summary of the 2006 Awards presented to ParentMap newsmagazine include:

General Excellence Bronze:
“ParentMap offers compelling writing and strong content. They have unique articles about teaching teen parents, ‘Teaching Kindness and Empathy’ and ‘Teaching Peace.’ This is a publication with a sense of purpose. The College Planner special section was full of helpful information. Cohesive design and informative photographs complete the package.”

Web Site General Excellence Gold:
“ParentMap is an outstanding parenting resource. The site is clean and simple, easy to navigate, and a gateway to a wealth of parenting information. Particularly strong is a bilingual calendar of events in the Puget Sound region. Content is clearly organized around major parenting topics, and the site encourages a great deal of reader interactivity. This is THE parenting resource for the Seattle area, and the site shows why.”

Front Cover/Glossy: Original Photography and Illustration Gold:
“This is a warm, inviting, accessible invitation to read the magazine. One can't help but smile along with the girls on the cover: Children having fun and enjoying themselves make an instant connection with parent readers.”

Interior Photography (original) Gold:
“Turning each page is a visual treat: beautiful photographs, generous display and great printing and reproduction. A good mix of fashion, accessories and explanatory text.”

Best Overall Use of Color Silver:
“This is a clean, beautiful publication. The color choices show restraint and attention to detail, especially in the department labels. The designers manage to stick to a limited palette and also match colors to specific content. The result is an elegant reading experience.”

Overall Design Gold:
“Superior quality makes ParentMap stand out from the rest. From the cover illustrations to the creative feature page designs to the solid typography, this publication is all about giving the reader the highest quality possible.”

Cover Writing Gold:
“The simple elegance of the cover lines on ParentMap is creative and compelling. Putting the cover lines on the bottom wouldn’t work for commercial magazines on the newsstand, but it works exceptionally well for this publication. It helps avoid complex and confounding issues often seen in other magazines.”

Column- Briefs/Short Stuff Silver:
“Here was a good read in part because it was brief and tightly edited but mainly because it seemed to be written by one person and the voice of that writer came through. At times one brief fed off another very neatly, carrying the reader along and speaking to the reader as if part of an intelligent conversation. If that voice is identified with that feature issue after issue, readers will look forward to that much as they would a columnist.”

Travel Feature Silver:
“Vancouver: Here's a rare bit of close-to-home adventure, a border-crossing visit to a city that sure seems enticing. The "if you go" details are plentiful and specific.”

Service Feature Gold:
College Planner:“For a parent of any soon-to-be college student, this is a must-have section. It is comprehensive in its details about planning for and paying for college, as well as help in deciding which college experience and when is best for your teen. But behind the facts and figures is a human face with interviews with parents, college officials and private consultants. Writing is straightforward but not stiff, well-edited and organized.”

Ancillary Overall Writing (55K category) Bronze:
BabyMap. “Taking the complicated subject of how a baby's brain works and turning it into a readable, informative story is representative of the writing in this publication. Issues are thoroughly explored and experts interviewed to give readers a complete picture.”

Web Site Design Silver:

“ParentMap's Web design offers what it promises: a comprehensive map for parents to follow when looking for news and information that will help them as parents. Information is clearly organized and easy to find, and the Web site's color palette works as an organizational tool rather than being purely decorative.”

Web Site Content Silver:
“This is a strongly written magazine, with plenty of content for all age groups. Ages & Stages writing is particularly useful, giving parents useful information about particular age groups. Taste recipe section adds a dash of humor to what can often be a boring section. Use of local experts makes the writing particularly strong.”

2005 Awards