Suffolk Living magazine won a best-in-show award for artistic design and presentation on Saturday during the annual advertising and news conference of the Virginia Press Association in Roanoke.

Designer Troy Cooper earned the award for the Spring, Summer and September/October editions of Suffolk Living, which judges deemed to be the best examples of artistic direction for specialty publications — those that publish less often than weekly — of all sizes in Virginia.

The Design and Presentation category was judged by journalists from the Illinois Press Association on the basis of art direction, packaging, use of photography, display type and ease of use.

Cooper’s first-place award in the Design and Presentation category put him in the running for the top award. He also shared a third-place award with former sports editor Andrew Giermak for a magazine feature about T-ball coaches in the Combination-Picture-And-Story category. Editor Res Spears won a first-place award in the Feature Photo category for a photo of a man lighting a pipe at Bond’s Cigar Shop in Harbour View.

This is the first year Suffolk Living magazine has participated in the VPA’s annual contest, though the Suffolk News-Herald has participated for many years. Suffolk Living magazine and the Suffolk News-Herald are both produced and published by Suffolk Publications. Staff members from the newspaper also work on the magazine, producing a new edition every other month.

The Suffolk News-Herald won 14 separate awards in its division of the News and Advertising Contest this year.

“I’m very proud of Troy and all the Suffolk Publications staff for the hard work they do, both on Suffolk Living magazine and on the Suffolk News-Herald,” Editor Res Spears said Saturday. “I’m blessed to have such talented people to help produce these publications, and I’m very gratified that their talents have been recognized by other professionals in our field.”

Awards were presented to Suffolk News-Herald staff for the following:

-Informational graphics: First place — Troy Cooper (redistricting graphic)

-Editorial pages: First place — Res Spears, Tracy Agnew, Troy Cooper and Beth Beck Land

-Lifestyle or entertainment pages: Second place — Troy Cooper and Tracy Agnew

-Special sections or special editions: First place — Res Spears, Tracy Agnew, Emily Collins, Troy Cooper and Andrew Giermak (Strides)

-Special sections or special editions: Third place — Res Spears, Tracy Agnew, Emily Collins, Troy Cooper and Andrew Giermak (f.y.i.)

-Specialty pages or sections: First place — Troy Cooper (Food pages)

-Specialty pages or sections: Third place — Troy Cooper and Emily Collins (Health & Fitness pages)

-Breaking news writing: Second place — Tracy Agnew and Emily Collins (earthquake coverage)

-Business and financial writing: First place — Tracy Agnew

-Column writing: Third place — Troy Cooper

-Editorial writing: Second place — Res Spears

-Feature series or continuing story: Third place — Tracy Agnew, Res Spears and Emily Collins (Relay for Life series)

-General news writing: Third place — Tracy Agnew and Emily Collins (Hurricane Irene coverage)

-Personal service writing: Third place — Tracy Agnew