Oskaloosa native Amy Garland Ware’s creativity and sound strategic judgment earned her top honors as Art Director of the Year, at the recent Nashville, Tenn., Advertising Federation’s annual ADDY Awards.

Ware, daughter of Butch Garland, of Oskaloosa, and Barb DeJong, of Southside, Ala., has been with Locomotion Creative, a Nashville branding and design firm, since the doors opened in 1998, and has worked on some of Locomotion’s largest accounts.

Besides winning Art Director of the Year, Ware also took four gold ADDY awards and won the Judges’ Choice Award for her work on sales kits and stationery packages for The Greenbrier Resort.

“Wow! The work for The Greenbrier (Resort) seemed to show up in every possible category and we never grew tired of looking at it,” wrote competition judge Michael Janda, who regularly provides graphic design services for some of the world’s most recognizable brands such as Disney, National Geographic and HBO. “The design work on these pieces was impeccable across the board.”

Born and raised in Oskaloosa, Ware graduated from Oskaloosa High School in 1988 and Iowa State University in 1992.

Amy credits Paul Faulkes, her Osky High art teacher, with first recognizing her artistic ability.

“One day in class, he asked how many of us were considering art-related careers and I didn’t raise my hand,” said Ware, who was leaning toward a medical future. “He talked to me after class and asked me why I didn’t raise my hand. He wanted to make sure I realized that I had enough talent to at least consider it and he helped me to realize the opportunities in art.”

Amy and her husband, Wes, also a designer, have two sons, David, 5, and Allen, 2.

The ADDYs are the industry’s largest competition with the mission to recognize and reward creative excellence in the art of advertising.

The Nashville ADDY Awards is the first of a three-tier, national competition. Local entrants across the country concurrently vie for recognition as the very best in their market. At the second tier, Nashville winners compete on the district level, against other winners from cities in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. Winners in the 14 district competitions then step up to the third tier, the National ADDY Awards competition, which is scheduled for June 10 in Atlanta.