Custom awards and award plaques
It’s always great to win an award and be recognised for an achievement. It’s even better if the award or award plaque you receive is something special, something you’ll be proud to display for years to come.
Here at the Laser Co, every job we do is custom-designed for your needs. That includes awards for all occasions – long service; sporting achievements; business successes and more. We’ve compiled some examples here to give you inspiration.
Some of the awards we’ve created
Let’s start with the award featured at the top of this post.
The Coast to Kosci ultramarathon began in 2004 and became an official race in 2007. The course is 240 km, from sea level to Australia’s highest peak Mt Kosciusko (2,228m) and then down to the finish at Charlotte Pass. Completing it just once is achievement enough for most. Doing it ten times is amazing. So these 10 Time Finishers deserve a special award, and we’re proud to make them.
The plaque is made of Tasmanian oak, 50cm x 30cm, which is stained dark and then engraved to show the lighter wood below. The design includes a map of the course (showing all the ups and downs!) as well as the race logo. After lasering, we varnish the wood for durability and looks. As for that empty space at the bottom right, the organisers attach a hat hook there.
So the handful of runners who’ve finished this race 10 times each have a plaque which they can hang by the front door as a talking point – and it’s got a practical use too.
Here’s another example.
This plaque commemorates the 25 year anniversary of a martial arts studio. It uses the same technique of staining, engraving and varnishing to create a stunning effect.
Military award plaques
These next two examples have a military connection.
The first is an engraved wooden plaque commemorating the end of P3 maritime operations in 2018. We’re not entirely sure where this plaque is now, but it’s probably in the mess hall of RAAF No 10 Squadron. (The squadron is still active, but the Orion aircraft, which underwent several upgrades over its lifetime, has been phased out.)
This second plaque is naval.
Commander Richard Brickacek commissioned this plaque and presented it to the US Naval War College to commemorate his time there.
We cut the plaque to the shape to a diving helmet, referencing Commander Brickacek’s career in clearance diving. We also engraved the writing on the central oval, which is made of a two layered acrylic. (Gold top with a black base so that the writing stands out.)
Industry award plaques
We’ve created unique awards for a whole range of industry networks and organisations.
CareerTrackers connects indigenous students with employers who provide paid internships and other support. Their annual awards recognise interns and business partners who have achieved great results.
The awards are made of New Guinea rosewood and are each 20 centimetres tall. Every award was individually engraved on all four sides.
The designs were a modern interpretation of traditional indigenous art, a theme which carried through all the collateral of the event. For more pictures of the finished awards and an idea how the whole theme fit together, check out design studio Garbett’s site.
Here’s another industry award, for the 202020Vision awards. These were part of an initiative to add 20% more green space to Australia’s cities in the years leading up to 2020.
There are two interesting points about this project.
- We used light engraving and dark engraving to reflect two different colours in the original logo. Not everyone’s aware we can do this, but it’s simple and really effective. (For more complex colour differentiation, we use a different technique called raster engraving. Similar to a dot matrix printer, this delivers a complete grayscale.)
- The wood for the awards was provided to us, and was actually old fence posts. This was in tune with the theme of sustainability and greenness. The posts were painted white, but we cut, sanded and polished to create the distinctive blocks which we then engraved.
One of our most recent industry award projects was these plaques for the BNI Sydney North East Awards in May 2023. The process to make these awards included cutting, engraving, painting and varnishing, so we were happy to manage it so well in the short time frame provided.
Acrylic awards
While the majority of the award plaques we make are wooden, we make awards in other materials including acrylic. Smarthouse.com.au is a technology review site and we made their awards for 2021.
Not an award plaque but…
Finally in the industry section, here’s something a little different. Stayz (owned by Homeaway) run the Holiday Rental Awards. In 2018 they ran a competition where members of the public could nominate and vote for winning rental homes. They promoted it via all kinds of media, and we created this sign which was included in the promotional video.
We cut the letters from 3mm blue acrylic and stuck them to a whitewashed background board. The thickness of the acrylic and the strong colour contrast are ideal for a use case like this as the sign is really easy to read.
Long service awards
Commemorating long service is a great way to recognise valuable employees.
50 years is definitely a long time to be with one employer, but from our experience with Busways, they keep a lot of staff! We make anything from 5 to 20 awards for them each year, all for individuals who’ve completed at least 20 years of service. We create both the plaque itself and the base slot to hold it upright.
Once again, we’ve used dark engraving and light engraving to differentiate colours in the original Busways logo.
Are you looking for award plaques which stand out?
We love creating something special which has real meaning and relevance for our clients and their connections. Contact us to discuss the best options for you.
