Awards and Trophies

Awards, trophies and medals are great incentives to boost the productivity and morale of the recipients. In the sports world, trophies are well known to be highly valued and corporates are now appreciating the need for recognising achievements for their appraisal programs aiming at different targets. These trends have created a huge market for awards, trophies, and medals. Gifts serve a variety of purposes and clubs, companies, and organisations are looking for perfect guidance to get the best out of their investment.

Types of Awards 

A wide selection of custom awards, trophies and medals are available, So before making any decision about buying, it helps to know what is available and identify what your needs are.

• One-time trophies are good for individual recipients whereas perpetual trophies are suitable for team recognition.
• Trophies can be supplied with column risers and figurines.
• Trophies may have a base made from the same or different material. A base for one-time trophies maybe small enough to bear the trophy with a small plate for engraving a few details. A base for perpetual trophies is often larger than standard products to cover more details year-after-year.
• Trophies have shields or room for logo incorporation which increases the opportunities for branding.

Quality 

Many factors define the attributes and quality of trophies and awards, the type of material has a prime place in this. Gold, silver, and bronze are metals of choice for award and trophy making. Today, the significance of these precious metals are intact, and sports authorities use those freely along with diamonds gems and platinum. Acrylic, Glass and Crystal are translucent materials and look amazing, Resin is the lowest cost yet quality material to make standard trophies. 3D printing is an emerging technology and materials like acrylic and resin are the best choices to create artwork on trophies with a high level of detail.

Engraving

Engraving can be carried out using traditional rotary engraving, where the surface of the material is cut into such as on metal or laser engraving is another popular alternative. This is a fast and efficient method for producing a high quality finish. Logos or designs can be incorporated into the engraving. Laser marking on coated metals such as aluminium will produce a frosted light grey finish or stainless steel can be marked using a specialist coating which is applied prior to laser marking and produces a permanent black finish to the surface.

Recipient Levels

This means, the first, second, and third places, the size of awards, trophies or medals must be defined accordingly. The first place trophy must be the largest or heaviest out of all the levels.

Prototyping Custom Awards

Intensive prototypes are essential to get the creative and desired quality of outputs from your awards or trophy maker. Prototypes may be images or even better physical products depending on your requirements. Proof or prototypes help you to gain the design options and creativity of a trophy designing team to meet your bespoke needs.

Manufacturing Custom Awards

When creating a custom trophy, the design and artwork requirements are different from the standard awards, trophies and medals available in the market. It demands some additional references to completely achieve your concept. 2D/3D images or drawings with details are needed to support the manufacturer from the client side. A professional graphic designer or trophy maker’s consultant will be needed to create those drawings or images in required formats. providing those prerequisites to your trophy maker or supplier will ensure you receive what you need for the project.

3D printing is a game-changer in producing custom awards, incredible pieces are being made today and the amount of detail is extraordinary, not to mention the interesting structures which are very hard to achieve with traditional manufacturing techniques. 3D printing is produced using a machine that builds the structure from the base up using specialist plastics, metals and other materials. In recent years we have seen some fantastic examples of 3D printing used for prototypes.

Sustainable awards show the beauty of using natural materials. Recycled or salvaged timber and recyclable metals can be repurposed to create dramatic, memorable and environmentally friendly awards. This will in future be the way forward to reduce the amount of materials that are not recycled.

Crystal awards can be manufactured with a pyramid or obelisk structure.  The top of the triangular structure can finished with a star or flame the optical clarity signifies outstanding achievements and leadership qualities. Sculptural awards are special as they can be modified to incorporate specific concepts into the design, for example teamwork, innovation, partnership or victory. They may also have elements specific to the industry for which the award is made, for example a crystal tower award can be used to celebrate achievements in a construction or engineering company. where a crystal airplane can be used to reward employees working in the aviation industry. 3D crystal awards can be customised using optical crystal, featuring 3D laser engraved images, company branding, and logos. Wooden bases can also be added to display them. Adding colour is another great way to enhance awards, blue, black and green options work well if your awards are celebrating innovation. Using crystal is traditional and mainly used if the award is of a more formal nature it can be incorporated into cubes or prism trophies.

Make it Meaningful

Making the award meaningful is the essence of a well-designed trophy that is made to reflect the business purpose of the team, be it in the business environment or on the sports field can do wonders for motivation. Displaying a trophy so that there is a physical experience is a great motivational way to raise the excitement value. Ensuring the team players value that it’s not only the trophy that makes up the award. There’s nothing like the feeling that comes with receiving a trophy or an award with your name engraved on it. Whether you’re looking for a personalised trophy to recognise a high-performing employee, a football team, or something else, you can be sure it will mean a lot more to the recipient when it is personally engraved.

Let’s start by comparing two different trophies. The first one is a generic trophy that looks like it could have been purchased at any Trophy shop. The second is a personalised and engraved trophy that contains the recipient’s name and title. Which one would be more satisfying to receive? Of course, engraving a trophy costs more than not engraving due to the extra time needed to produce it and the materials needed, but at the end of the day, if you want your trophy to feel like something special to the recipient, then custom engraving is the only way to go.

The Affordability of Custom Engraving

While custom engraving a trophy may sound expensive, At Bay & Moor we make this service affordable and accessible for every budget. We understand that when you are hosting an event where you give out awards, the costs can add up even before you add custom trophies. This is why we work with each of our customers on an individual level to make sure that our services are as cost-effective as possible.

Our Custom Service

At Bay & Moor, we use state-of-the-art techniques and laser technology to custom engrave every trophy to make it look as special as possible. The laser process produces the most beautiful results available. With our combination of history in the engraving industry and expertise with new technologies, you can be sure that your custom-engraved message will make the recipient’s day.

In addition to custom engraving trophies, we can also provide custom engraved messages on plaques, awards, medals and badges, and more. Our engraving experts have the capability of engraving onto a variety of different materials, including but not limited to glass, crystal, laminates, metal and acrylic.

Custom Trophy Engraving

We use the latest technologies and engraving processes, laser and rotary production methods are fast and cost-effective to ensure that everybody will be thrilled with their trophies and awards.

Ideas for Custom Engraving

Personalised custom engraving can be used in a large number of products. We know that it can be difficult to decide what exactly to engrave on the trophy or award, that is why we are here to advise and guide you and can provide leadership awards, sales achievement awards, service awards, athletic prizes, academic accomplishment awards, commitment to quality awards, and more.

• Give the recipients a choice, for many a physical trophy is something they aim for everyday or for others, it may be an all-expenses-paid weekend away a luxury food hamper or gym membership. A physical trophy is always held in high regard and appreciated, but there are also options as far as awards are concerned that will provide additional value to the company and employee as a whole. Team building trips, learning opportunities, or all expenses paid for lunches are fabulous at increasing employee involvement with the company. While at the same time allowing them the opportunity for professional growth. 
  
• Every opportunity must be taken to make the experience fun, making the award tangible and valuable to the individual and team. Ensure that it is appropriate and create a sense of excitement, while emphasizing professional and personal growth.

The right award choice can really boost performance, and with a little forethought, it can make a huge difference to the profitability of a company or a sporting performance.

Awards are now recognised as being even more important with the increase in home working. Whether they’re handed out to high achievers at black-tie ceremonies or used to mark specific milestones in personal development awards and trophies make a clear statement about achievement to show this is the winner, this is what to aim for. Awards send a clear statement that they’re given to people of all ages by all types of organizations.

Dazzling trophies and awards are popular because our fascination with these symbols of achievement goes beyond our appreciation of all that glitters. Our world has become more awards-centric in the last century, with the desire to recognize achievement is part of being human.

Trophies in the past

Trophies in ancient times often took the form of huge and magnificent statues, and smaller trophies were also used in the ancient world. At the original Olympic games in Greece, victors were crowned with olive branches which may seem simple to us today, but it was a serious status symbol in those times and reserved only for the most elite athletes. Even in the middle ages a chalice, often taking the form of a two-handled cup, was given to the winners of sporting events in the early 17th century. These cup-shaped trophies are still very popular today and are often used in football, horse racing, motorsport and golf. Trophies and awards today often use traditional designs such as the chalice cup. Even the modern Olympic medals have been known to feature flourishes similar to much earlier awards. However, there are two important differences between awards and trophies today and those in the past. Firstly is cost thanks to the ready availability of glass, resin and plastics. Trophies simply don’t cost as much today as they did even ten years ago. Trophy design in the past may have been relatively straightforward, but that’s not always the case today. When it comes to trophies, whatever you imagine it can be made. Thanks to a diversity of manufacturing practices and materials designers can translate even the most abstract idea into a physical representation of success.

Crystal and Glass Types

Glass is a generic name, while crystal is a subcategory of glass, this is made in the same manner as glass but using different materials. That is why all crystal is glass, but not all glass is crystal. There are three main criteria for crystal it has to have a lead content in excess of 24% with a refractive index of 1.545 and a density in excess of 2.90. Crystals are pure substances whose molecules, atoms, or ions are arranged in a specific pattern, they extend in three dimensions.