Handcrafted Custom Wood Awards
Sustainable Custom Awards
One of the more interesting aspects of creating custom awards is the variety of materials that are available for these awards. These materials include bronze, pewter, aluminum, resin, glass, crystal and wood, and we have deep experience with each of these options. This variety helps us find the perfect match for each specific award – the material needs to fit the design and business objectives of the award, so the more choices, the better.
One of the often-overlooked materials is wood. Many clients request wood bases for their recognition awards, but most don’t realize that wood can also be an excellent option to use for the main sculpture component of the award.
Wood offers an almost endless variety of options both in terms of how the wood sculpture is shaped and constructed, as well the type of wood that is used. Both choices can help align the award with its intended message and purpose.
One example is the custom perpetual award we created for the Limacol Caribbean Premier League (LCPL) Roots Trophy. The LCPL is a professional cricket league based in the Caribbean, and the LCPL Roots Trophy was created to recognize each season’s champions. The wood used for the award is mahogany, a tree indigenous to the Caribbean. The design of the award consists of a set of hand-carved intertwined roots that echo the form of the West Indian Swamp Blood Tree, another indigenous tree. These roots gradually transform into 11 upraised arms and hands holding a cricket ball. This is great example of the award construction and wood choice matching, and reinforcing, key aspects of the award’s objectives.
Another example of a custom wood award is MasterCard Man of the Match awards we created for the Copa America 2015 soccer tournament. We worked collaboratively with the design firm SOBO Concepts (soboconcepts.com) to create a custom wood award design based on the Copa America 2015 logo. These unique awards are created in the shape of a disk, or circular shield, with a 15” diameter. The shields are handcrafted from Brazilian Mahogany. These shields use CNC milling to create recessed and raised areas within the surface of the shield that reflect key elements of the Copa America 2015 logo. The raised areas display the 4 human visuals used in the logo. These visuals are based on Chile folk culture, and represent Celebration, Passion, Surpass and Triumph. The recessed areas reveal the Copa America Chile 2015 text, along with other iconic design elements utilized in the logo’s visual identity. The recessed images in the shield are stained black (using an environmentally safe stain), creating a two-tone contrast with the remaining raised areas of natural wood. Again, this is another example of form and material matching design objectives.
A final example is the custom wood award we created for Kantar Health: the Kantar Health Catalyst Award. These awards are constructed in the shape of a rectangular block. The block is composed of two materials: wood and pewter. The upper and lower blocks of the award are made from handcrafted Bocote Wood, an exotic wood from Mexico and Central America known for its unique grain. The band in the lower-middle of the award is made from cast pewter. Engraving is done both in the wood itself as well as the pewter band. This award is a great example of the beautiful and artistic effect that can be created by combining two contrasting materials into a single award.
As always, we would be happy to take a look at your custom award project, and let you know if wood is a good fit for your design!