Competing against thousands of entries from 22 countries, Jeffery Smith walked away with a bronze prize from the 2011 Summit Creative Awards.

Smith, owner of DesignSmith in German Village, submitted a package promoting the German Village Business Community, of which he is a member.

“It’s a great neighborhood,” Smith said. “I’m just investing into my community. That’s how I’m looking at it.”

DesignSmith specializes in marketing, advertising and branding. The campaign included posters, circulars, maps, brochures and website creation touting events such as Village Valuables and the Sidewalk Sale, Village Lights, the Art Crawl and Mother May I. The package also included maps and information about German Village-area businesses, restaurants and services.

“It’s a terrific brand and it was a lot of fun,” said Smith, who said he was paid a nominal fee for the work. “We didn’t really have a brand with the business community, and the brand was really these events that we would create and market to all of these people.”

David Cunningham, former chairman and current member of the GVBC, said Smith did the designs “more as a community member with a deep sense of commitment toward the neighborhood than as a vendor.”

“He spent many hours working with our volunteer group to create such wonderful pieces,” Cunningham said. “Since he deeply discounted his fees for us, it is great that he is receiving international recognition for his work.”

Jocelyn Luciano, executive director of the Summit International Awards, which oversees the creative awards along with two other industry honors, said the contest has four levels of winners: best of show, gold, silver and bronze. She said 79 to 85 percent of submissions never receive awards.

Smith also is known for establishing the Cyber Block Watch, an online crime-reporting system serving German Village and Schumacher Place.

The website, which may be accessed at cyberblockwatch.com, went live April 1. It now has 395 subscribers, Smith said. He said he is looking into expanding into other communities.