Award Plaque or Plaque
A rectangular award traditionally made from wood. Most hang on the wall, but can be displayed on a shelf or desktop art frame. Today plaques are made from solid wood, piano finished wood, laminated wood, plastic covered press-board, acrylic, marble and glass. They may also be referred to as a Wall Plaque.
Cast Plaque, Acid Etched
A plaque typically displayed outside on a wall or building. It may commemorate a historic building, park or important person. Most cast plaques have been cast in bronze. Material choices have grown to include brass, zinc, copper, and stainless steel. In addition, many plaques used for this purpose are acid etched. Acid etching is performed by placing a hardened mask with the text and graphics on the material and then bathing it in acid for a prescribed period of time. Technology and techniques have been refined to the extent that details are much finer and images of people and photos can be reproduced with great detail and accuracy with long lasting quality.
Etched Plaques, Sand Etched, Sandblasted
See Cast Plaques above for an explanation of acid etched plaques. Material such as glass, crystal, marble, granite and a variety of tiles can be abrasive etched through a masking material similar to acid etching masks. Mask thickness and abrasive size determines the level of detail that can be etched.
Plaque Plate, Engraving Plate, Back Plate
The plate that contains text and graphics on a plaque. It has traditionally been made of metal such as plain brass or aluminum for rotary or diamond drag engraving or coated with a color for laser engraving. An engraving plate may have a different metal or color backing plate behind it. Today, plates are made from engraving acrylic (plastic) or PVC when they are full-color sublimated printed. Plaque Plates may also be screen printed.
Trophy Plate
The small engraving plate used on plastic trophies, resins or statues. They are typically personalized with a rotary or laser engraver.
Plate
May refer to a small plate for an award or to be used as a sign.
Acrylic Award
Most acrylic awards are made from thick cast acrylic (mostly clear acrylic). Most are also made to be displayed on a desktop or shelf. An acrylic award that is laser engraved turns white where it has been lasered for a nice contrast against the clear or colored acrylic.
Desktop Award
Any type of award designed to sit on a desk or shelf.
Glass, Crystal, Marble, Granite, Corian™ , Natural Stone & Tile Awards
Awards made from very hard surface materials and are typically sand etched, but laser engraving is also used on some materials, especially marble. Jet black marble lasers bright white. Green marble is also available. Often these products are paint-filled where they are engraved.
Award Statue, Figurine
A metal, stone, wood, or plated resin bust of a person, animal or other figure. The bust is placed on a base and it is typically personalized with a plate attached to the base.
Medal, Medallion, Coin Medal
Medallions (medals) are typically cast from one of many metals. Besides casting, other techniques such as forging may be used to make a medal. Again, refined techniques have allowed for greater details and long lasting quality. Medals or medallions are attached to neck ribbons and hung around the neck. Coins are not attached to neck ribbons but are displayed in a small case, many can be opened into a stand-up position showing off the coin (also used with medals). There are plaques made to display medals and coins as well.
Ribbon, Rosette Ribbon
Rosette ribbons often referred to a just "ribbons" have a ribbon covered round metal part that is imprinted with "place" or the event name. It is often surrounded by a rosette (several folded over ribbons or a pleaded ribbon). The ribbon may also be made from one, two or more of the same width or different width vertical ribbons. Ribbons are also used as neck ribbons (see Medal above), below name badges with position titles or for Ribbon Cutting Ceremonies.
Trophy
A general term for an award. More recently the term is specifically used to describe kid's plastic figures.
Resin Trophy
A relatively new material being used to make kid's trophies. Resins are cast and are highly cost efficient to make. More expensive statues are made from higher quality resins in finely crafted molds and coated with more expensive finishing coats such a bronze, silver or gold. Resins for kid's trophies are very cost competitive as they require much less fabrication for the awards retailer which is becoming the largest expense of personalized and custom products.
Pin, Lapel Pin
A small metal (now can be made from rubber, plastic and paper) object similar to a coin with a pin backing. They are designed to attach to a shirt or jacket. There are more then a dozen methods and material combinations used to make pins, several quite new. Each method has a different look and price point. There is a lot to consider before selecting a pin type.
Laser Engraving
Laser engraving is the latest method developed for personalizing and decorating products. A laser uses highly focused light to burn the material away at several thousand degrees. In the awards industry, CO2 lasers are primarily used on 2-ply acrylic, coated metal and wood. Current CO2 lasers don't cut into metal like a rotary or diamond drag engraver does. Laser engraving produces excellent detailed engravings and can be used to reproduce photos. Expensive YAG lasers will cut metal, but are not useful on other materials, however, they are beginning to be integrated with CO2 lasers for use with a wider variety of materials and uses.
Rotary, Diamond Drag, Hand Engraving
There are very few free-hand engravers left in the world. The few available are seen at major golf tournaments and other world-class events. Diamond tip (drag) and hard metal cutters (rotary) are used to cut into plain or coated brass and aluminum plates to personalize awards with text and graphics. These methods produce the older "look" of engraving. Diamond drag engraving may be produced by a computer-controlled motor driven engraver or a hand-powered tracing engraver.
Sand Etching, Decorative Sandblasting, Abrasive Etching, Sand Carving
A labor intensive method to personalize awards. Sandblasting is a term often referred to as a process of cleaning materials or for stripping paint or coatings from an object. Decorative Sandblasting uses a mask of some type to create a stencil for blasting away material into text and graphics. It is as much of an art as it is a science. It's easy to learn and difficult to do well. It is a multi-step process that should not be rushed and typically takes a number of hours or days to complete. There are many abrasive materials available and in various sizes. We use aluminum oxide and silicon carbide in 80, 120, 150 & 180 grit sizes. The artistic part of sandblasting includes preparing the artwork and the techniques used to decorate the object. Techniques include frosting, shadowing, outlining and deep carving.
Logo, Graphic, Graphic Art, Vector Art, Raster Art, Bitmaps
A logo refers to a unique graphic and/or text style that represents a company's brand. They are typically produced in a professional computer drawing program. Graphic is a general term that refers to a piece of art typically produced on a computer, but may be hand-drawn. Vector Art is art produced by drawing objects (shapes) and text (as objects). These objects can be filled with color (and easily changed) and lines can be easily thickened. Vector Art is ideal for award and sign businesses to work with as we can easily change the graphic, change colors and increase the size of the graphic without loss of detail and quality. Raster or Bitmap Graphics are made with dots. The dots are mapped on a page for the computer to keep track of and each dot can be either red, green or blue (RGB). The placement of the dots create a graphic. When raster art is used to make a logo or graphic, it is critical that the artwork is saved with a high resolution (lots of dots per square inch) and in a computer file type that saves all those dots (not compressed or low compression). Bitmap art is typically saved in a bitmap file that converts text to dots (bitmap) and can no longer be changed. The important thing to remember about bitmap files are that they can be difficult and costly to make changes to. All graphics files used on the web are bitmaps and they are low resolution files. This means they have low detail and cannot be made larger without a great loss of detail.