The Oscars.
The Emmys.
The Grammys.
What is common in all of these award pieces?
They all started with an idea. Their designers and developers created a custom statue design, which became the award and represented the glory associated with the awarding body.
How the award looks plays a crucial role in making it desirable.
If you want customized award sculptures, there’s a piece of good news and bad news as well.
The good news: many companies offer these products!
The bad news: how do you know which company can be a good fit for you?
You see, different companies offer different types of custom award sculptures. Some specialize in crystal items, while others in metal and glass. It would be best to find a company that provides all of these items under one roof, but you might not benefit from specialization.
Here’s what you can expect to find in this article.
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How to pick award pieces made of metals?
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How to pick awards made of crystal?
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What to do when you’re told to get custom sculpture awards for an event.
Let’s begin with the first one.
How to pick awards made of metals?
When creating custom metal sculptures, you must wisely choose the metal type. The most common and popular metals used for this are Bronze and Pewter.
Both Bronze and Pewter are alloys, which means they are made from several types of base metals. For instance, while both contain copper and tin, the proportion is different. It affects their scope of application for making award sculptures.
Now that you have seen what Bronze and Pewter are made of, can you guess which one is heavier? Bronze has a higher proportion of copper and a lower proportion of tin, while Pewter has more tin than copper. And because of this, Bronze is denser and heavier than
Pewter. Pewter is significantly lighter and softer than Bronze!
Price
Here’s something else about bronze and Pewter items: the casting process is less complex for Pewter, while for Bronze, it is complex. Thus, the former is comparatively cheaper. Bronze items, as you know, can be expensive.
Durability
Since Bronze is harder, it is more durable than Pewter. Your best bet is Bronze if you think your award can go through rough handling. However, Pewter offers a significant degree of durability, which may be sufficient for most cases.
Design Fit
Bronze scores here again. Since this metal is tougher, it can be significantly buffed and modified in other ways. This feature makes it more desirable for trophies that sport geometric shapes and sharp edges. On the other hand, Pewter is a softer metal, making it better for award designs where borders are not sharp.
Size
Bronze is ideal for giant sculptures. The size limit for single or one-piece castings is more prominent for this metal. Size limit means no reassembling is needed after the metal is cast. Bronze is also ideal when the trophies are to be made from multiple reassembled pieces. There is no resultant degradation and wastage of the metal in this case.
Colour and Finish
You’ll find both Bronze and Pewter items in various colours and finishes. While the natural colour of Bronze is copper brown, and that of Pewter is silver grey. You can polish the former till it gives off a shiny golden sheen. Bronze can further be coloured via a patina, producing various patterns and colours. Pewter can be plated and painted in many metals and is mainly done so over silver and gold.
We have just seen how to choose metal sculpture award trophies. In the next section, you’ll see how to select crystal-sculptured trophies.
How to pick awards made of crystal?
As we said in the previous section, there are several aspects you have to consider when buying a sculpture trophy for an award ceremony. Some of these factors are:
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Occasion
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Budget
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Material or metal
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Size
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Style
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Design
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Amount of verbiage
In the previous section, we spoke of items made of metal. Now let’s find out how you can pick ideal crystal trophies.
Popular choices
Some crystal sculpture awards are more popular than others. For instance:
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For sales awards, crystal triangle shapes and obelisks are trendy.
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Star-shaped awards, obelisks, and mountain peaks are preferred for professional achievements.
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For awards related to leadership, strength, patriotism, and perseverance, flame and eagle-shaped awards are chosen mostly.
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For those related to donations, wall plaques and crystal plagues are preferred.
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For awards to motivate people, star and mountain shapes are mostly picked.
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For global achievements, one can always choose globe-shaped awards.
Awards can be custom-made, of course. Let’s say you are opening a real estate property to the public. You wish to give awards to the best performers at a press conference. In this case, crystal pillars and establishment tower awards can be good choices.
Crystal aeroplane and truck awards can work well for transportation and logistics companies.
Crystals and quality
If you are looking for premium crystal trophies, pick the ones made from optic crystal. It is known for its purity, brilliance, and perfection and symbolizes excellence.
On occasions
You can, of course, choose awards that are made entirely out of optic crystal. But you have other choices as well. For instance, the prize can include a crystal base and hand-crafted metal. You can even pick from blue and black crystals if you want a unique look. For more traditional settings, go for clear crystals. If the occasion is formal, a combination of metal and crystal or wood and crystal can be worth considering.
Size
The size of the award depends on several factors.
If you are presenting it in front of a large audience, try choosing 8 inches and above items. These will also give you more space for personalization!
For more intimate events, you can do with smaller awards.
You have now seen how to pick those sculpture awards made of metals and crystals.
Let’s now focus on a more familiar subject before coming to the end of this article.
What to do when you’re told to get custom sculpture awards for an event?
It seems like a pretty daunting task, right?
It might be so, but here’s something you should know: even a world-famous award like the Oscar was just an idea at one point in time. Someone somewhere researched the audience’s desires, got creative, and created a design symbolizing excellence.
The keywords here are creativity and inspiration. These can come from anywhere. So you should talk to as many people as possible, go through magazines in your niche, and hold brainstorming sessions.
And don’t worry. We’ll give you a few pointers for getting ideas about custom sculpture awards for any event that you might be planning.
Travel
The world is your oyster, so go ahead and explore it. Who knows? Maybe your travels will inspire you into getting a fantastic idea about the award! You’ll see numerous places, see so many people, learn about their cultures, and see local attractions while travelling. These alone are enough to get fantastic ideas.
Your audience
Consider your audience. What are their values and passions? Additionally, consider the venue and the size of your audience.
The Arts
Inspiration can come unlooked for. Does your audience, the venue, or the theme have anything to do with Arts? You should be considering paintings, sculptures, and other artistic masterpieces. We suggest you talk to a few designers who can give you good advice on which theme and style to adopt.
However, you can find art not just in museums and exhibitions but in parks, on the street, and even on a t-shirt! Additionally, you should seek inspiration from literature, music, film, and theatre.
The history of your organization
Every organization has a unique story to tell, and that’s something you can incorporate. Your award can tell the audience where your company came from, its challenges, and what dreams it has. For instance, it can show the date your company was founded. It may show an important milestone. However, including such an elaborate detail into a single sculpture can be really challenging. So, it would be best to hire a professional sculptor or painter for designing the trophy.
Five steps towards designing your award sculptures
A successful design has to be both unique and sophisticated. Here’s how to achieve that:
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Name the purpose of your event or program
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Find your inspiration
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Go to a design consultation for ideas
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Incorporate your organization’s branding
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Collaborate with manufacturers and designers for their expert opinion.
Is designing a custom award sculpture easy?
Not at all!
It takes a lot of hard work. It’ll take time, and you’ll have to sift through many materials to find your inspiration.
But if you follow the steps we have given you here, it’ll be easier. We have given you a roadmap, though, and you still need to put in the effort.
All the best!
