Marketink

San Diego-based Bop Design is among the winners of Graphic Design USA's American Web Design Awards 2012.

Founded in 1963, GDUSA is a news magazine for graphic designers and other creative professionals. Bop Design was honored for its work on three website redesigns of three Southern California businesses, two that are San Diego-based: Applefield-Shipp Insurance Solutions, Freedom to Live, and MaintenanceNet.

The winning designs were created for businesses with a variety of offerings. Applefield-Shipp helps small to medium size businesses in California and Texas with their various insurance needs. Freedom to Live, a nonprofit, provides safe and affordable housing to individuals living with a spinal cord injury. Maintenance net is a technology company the delivers contract management services and data-driven lead generation to large firms like Panasonic.

Bop Design is a boutique marketing communications firm headquartered in San Diego with offices in New Jersey as well.

Elevator, a Carlsbad-based creative agency, was named the winner of two awards, including Marketer of the Year, at the San Diego 2012 AMY Awards celebration last month.

The agency won the Marketers of the Year (Critics Choice) Award for its work with Orange County-based Lantronix for the "I Can Print" video campaign. The campaign featured a viral launch video in support of the company's iOS print enabling device, the xPrintServerTM – Network Edition, which was promoted online, on the website, at events, embedded in releases, and more.

The Lantronix campaign also won the New Product/Services Launch category, which recognizes the successful development and launch of a new product or service that is new to the San Diego area or has never before been marketed to a mass audience.

Local branding agency MiresBall named Jonathan Forstot as director of marketing and will lead the firm's marketing and new business development efforts as well as bolster its brand strategy practice.

Most recently, Forstot served in the role of director of brand marketing at El Cajon-based Taylor Guitars.

J. Walcher Communications recently welcomed Ashley Shafter to their staff as account coordinator, where she will assist with the management and coordination of public and community relations and social media strategies for a variety of local, regional and national accounts.

Shafter was most recently an intern at San Diego agency, I.D.E.A.

JLK Marketing + Communications recently added Aqua Hotels and Resorts to its portfolio of clients. The agency will provide strategic branding, public relations and media relations to the full-service hotel management company based in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Aqua Hotels, which was founded in 2001, provides independent hoteliers and individual owners will full-service management including sales, marketing, internet distribution, individualized branding, reservations as well as revenue management to maximize profitability.

* jada.thomas@sddt.com