Any marketing professional will tell you that people don’t just buy products, goods, and services—they buy a brand. And a brand is so much more than the sum of its parts; it’s your company culture, your employees and their attitude, your promises to your consumers, your “personality” as a company. Oftentimes your brand can be summed up in one or two words; Volvo is “safe”, Apple is “cool and simple”, Nike is “athletic” and so forth. Much of what goes into your company’s “brand” is rather intangible, so designing a custom corporate award that is an accurate reflection of that brand is often harder than you might think.
Kinetic Custom Awards: A Unique & interactive Option
One unique and engaging design feature that can be incorporated into custom awards is the element of movement. Awards with a moveable component are called "kinetic" awards. This movement adds an interactive element to the award, which helps engage the recipient and audience, and amplifies the “wow factor” of the award. This kinetic movement can also support key design themes and objectives associated with the award.
How Bronze Sculpture Awards Are Produced
Our bronze sculpture awards, including both custom awards and pre-designed (stock) recognition awards, are created using the “lost wax” casting process. This time-honored production process has been used for thousands of years with very few changes, even extending into today. While there are many foundries that produce bronze sculpture, achieving high-quality bronze castings is not easy. To do this right is a very lengthy, labor-intensive process that requires the talent and expertise of skilled artisans; it is truly part science and part art.
Choice of Bronze or Pewter for Sculpture Awards
When we set out to create a new custom cast metal sculpture award (as opposed to a fabricated, glass, wood, or crystal award), one of the initial decisions that need to be made is what metal to use for the award. The two most popular metals for sculpture awards are bronze and pewter.
Both metals are alloys, meaning they are composed of different types of base metals. Both bronze and pewter are primarily composed of cooper and tin. They contain different ratios of these base metals, however, and that is the defining element in their applicability to different types of awards.
Bronze is mostly cooper, and is alloyed with a small amount of tin. Pewter, conversely, is mostly tin, and is alloyed with a small amount of cooper. These ratios mean that bronze is a heaver, denser metal, while pewter is a lighter, softer metal.
Additionally, the casting process is more complex for bronze than pewter, and this is one of the key reasons why bronze sculptures tend to be more expensive to produce than pewter sculptures. This is explained in more detail here: Award Production.
The key differences in the metals, and their influence on their appropriateness for specific awards, is outlined below:
Price
The additional steps in the bronze casting process usually result in a higher price for bronze awards than for pewter awards.
Durability
Since bronze is a harder metal, it tends to be more durable than pewter. If an award is going to be exposed to a lot of “wear and tear”, bronze may be the best choice. If not, pewter would offer a sufficient degree of durability for the vast majority of cases.
Design Fit
Since bronze is a harder metal, it can be “finished” (grinded and buffed) to a greater degree. This means that bronze may be a better choice for award designs that feature sharp edges and precise geometric shapes. Pewter, as a softer metal, may be a better choice for designs that are “softer” and more organic.Size
Size
For very large sculpture awards, bronze works best. The size limit for single-piece castings (meaning no reassembly is required after casting) is larger for bronze than pewter. For really large awards that must be case in multiple pieces then reassembled, bronze is an easier material to weld back together and finish with no degradation to the original design.
Color And Finish
Both metals lend themselves to different colors and finishes. The natural color of cast pewter is a lustrous silvery grey. The natural color of cast bronze is a coppery brown. Pewter can be painted or plated in a variety of metals, most often silver or gold, or finished to its natural brushed pewter color. Bronze can be polished until it is shiny and gold in color, or colored via patina, which can create a broad spectrum of colors and patterns.
Award Differentiation
Custom Award Design Inspiration via Brand & Mood Boards
When we embark on a custom awards project, the more detailed information we can collect from the client on their design goals and objectives, the better chance we have of delivering on their needs. Mood boards, brand boards, and branding guideline documents can all be used as effective vehicles for helping to establish the overall design direction at the outset of a custom awards project.
Customizable Award Examples
Figurative Sculpture Awards
One of the most popular award designs is that of a realistic figurine, standing at attention. In part because of the Oscars, figurine awards have become a symbol of achievement, and have been used for a variety of custom and stock recognition awards. We offer a range of unique figurine awards – extending from semi-abstract to realistic. The objects these awards hold can all be custom created for the presenting organization or award event.
Handcrafted Custom Wood Awards
Wood is a material commonly used for bases in our custom award projects, but many clients don't realize that it can also be a great material for the main sculpture component of the award. Wood offers multiple dimensions for customization, including the shape of the sculpture, construction methodology, and the type of wood selected for the award.
Help Honor Our Unsung Heroes: Recognize Someone
The team at Bennett Awards is very excited to introduce a new non-profit program we’ve sponsored called Recognize Someone (www.recognizesomeone.org). Recognize Someone is a program that helps people recognize someone who has made a positive change in their life, in their community, or in the world as a whole. It's a chance to shine a spotlight on someone's contributions, and share their story with the world.
Enhancing Your Crystal Awards with Digitally Imprinted Color Images
Color images can be incorporated in any of our crystal awards through a process called digital imprinting. These color images can help reinforce your organization's brand imagery, and add vitality and "pop" to your awards. Digital images can be added to your award in a variety of ways, and can be combined with other engraving options to create unique, distinctive custom awards.
Marble Bases: Engraved Plates vs. Engraved Marble
Cleaning Bronze Sculpture Awards
Matching Organizations and Artists to Create Incredible Custom Awards
When creating custom awards, one of the key steps is to match a specific design project with the appropriate designer/artist. Since each organization that is commissioning a custom award has its own personality, brand image, and design objectives, it is almost impossible to find a "one size fits all" approach. We are blessed to work with a great team of designers and artists who each have their own unique speciality and design aesthetic, and can find the ideal artist/client match for any given custom award project.
Engraving: Not An Afterthought for Custom Awards
When creating a new custom award, it's important to realize that the engraving sound not be an afterthought. While the sculpture associated with the award is most often the “centerpiece” of the award, it is important to take a holistic approach to the award design, and treat the award engraving as a key element of the award as well.