Sarah Stansbury is so good, she can sell dirt.
As the Iola Register’s graphic designer, Stansbury raked in six first-place awards and another five second- and third-place awards for advertising in the annual competition for Kansas newspapers.
Her designs for TLC Garden Center, Shields Motors, Bollings Meat Market, the Allen County Animal Rescue Facility, Community Living Opportunities and a political ad for Bill Shirley’s mayoral campaign all won first place in the Awards of Excellence. This year’s judges were from Colorado.
Stansbury, 28, has been at the Register since 2006. It’s only since she has joined the Register staff that the newspaper has entered its advertisements into the annual competition of the Kansas Press Association.
“She’s made all the difference to our department,” said Mark Hastings, ad manager.
Stansbury also has changed the way Hastings and Janet Nichols, also in advertising sales, compose the ads.
“It used to be that I would sketch out how the ads were to look,” Hastings said. “With Sarah, we’ll discuss the information and what should be a priority, and then Sarah takes over from there.”
Nichols complimented Stansbury’s eye for detail.
“She’ll have thousands of colors and art cuts to choose from, and in a short time narrow it down to four or five,” Nichols said. “By now, she also has built a good relationship with our customers and knows their preferences. Jerry Whitworth, for example, likes the boldness of black and white and wants ‘air’ in his ads. And Sarah knows that Terry Butts of Humboldt likes a classy look for her home decor store.”
The Register’s switch to full color in fall 2010 also has made designing ads a lot more fun, Stansbury said.
“My choices are limitless,” Stansbury said. “I have millions of color combinations to choose from.”
One of her favorite ads to design is for automobiles.
“There’s lots of information in a car ad, plus lots of graphics I can use,” she said.
Shields Motors of Chanute typically runs three to four new ads a month, Stansbury said. A full page ad typically takes her four hours to design. The Chanute Tribune also runs the ads created by Stansbury, as does the Good News Shopper out of Caney with circulation in southern Kansas and northeast Oklahoma.
Bollings Meat Market also has a rotation of four to five ads a month.
“I also really have fun designing ads around the holidays,” Stansbury said.
