What is An Award Plaque?
An award plaque is a piece of metal, wood, glass, crystal, acrylic etc with a design or picture hung on the wall or kept on a table in the house or office in memory of a person’s achievements. Award plaques have unique ways of promoting healthy competition, inspiring higher achievements, uniting people together, which at the short or long run increases revenue and shareholders wealth.
Types of Award Plaques
There are three major types of award plaques namely wooden award, acrylic award, 3D Crystal, glass and or crystal award . Each of the award is mostly given either weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly as the case may be. We will take them one by one to better understand what each represents.
Wooden Award Plaque
Wooden award plaque as the name implies is an award that is made of 100% wood. Though, they normally come in natural or mahogany , walnut and or rose types of wood etc. But today what is the major concern is the treatment in terms of spray and packaging of each wood. Well treated wood and good package stand the test of time or harsh weather. Wooden award plaques have different designs or shape and sizes such as 6″ by 8″, 8″ by 10″, 9″ by 12″, 12″ by 15″, as well as standing wood. The choice of wood varies according to institutions. Some, especially schools want plaque that is small and presentable. Others want award that is moderate while yet some institutions want something big and more visible. All these are factored in the sizes. Customers experience and reviews play major roles in building confidence in consumers.
Glass or Crystal Award Plaque
Glass award is simply made of glass while crystal plaque or award is made of crystal. There are slight differences between crystal and glass award plaque. While crystal is thicker and heavier, that of glass plaque is lighter and slimmer. However, both are used interchangeably especially by the laymen. Glass is more affordable price wise and that may be the reason why more people are going for it. The size of glass award is not always the case. 8″ or 10″ height by 6″ width are common. Though, there is no standard for this size except on special request for custom made designs. Notwithstanding, there are many designs of glass award. There are also many colours attached to most of the designs. Most institutions go for the ones that depict there brand colours. By experience, many customers or consumers always want something unique. Something not common. To achieve something like this, it is advisable to go for special design or order. But to meet this request requires you meeting up with the producers quantity unless you are ready to part with additional cost of lesser quantity production.
Acrylic Award Plaque
Acrylic award or plaque is also made of acrylic. It has all the features of glass award. At the mere look, acrylic plaque can be mistaken to be glass or crystal plaque. Because both have the same colours, shape and design in most cases. The only variation between them is in the weight. Glass is natural heavy and therefore should be much more heavier than acrylic plaque. Acrylic plaque is just 30 to 40% to compare to glass that has it 100%. Acrylic as a result is much more cheaper and affordable. Just like other plaques, the choice of each of the award depends on the nature of the award event or programme itself. In most cases, consumers tend to look at the awardees status before picking up the award type that suits them.
3D Crystal
3D crystal is one of the most unique and expensive crystals available. This can also be confirmed by its weight. All its printing is done by UV light system and right inside the crystal plaque. Its basically on request and by the executives who can easily afford the price. Its production takes longer time. It comes either with lighted and rotating base or without one. The beauty is on the former though.
Prices of Award Plaques
Prices of awards play major roles in the choice of award types for presentation. Wooden, acrylic and glass or crystal award plaques will definitely not have the same prices. Prices which may be negotiable are being controlled by the following factors in the award business ; quantity, quality, competition, demand and supply. Therefore, Price ranges of award plaques have company super back ups from the operational services.
- 6″ by 8″ Wood (Award Plaque) = ₦ 3,000
- 8″ by 10″ Wood(Award Plaque) = ₦ 5,000
- 9″ by 12″ Wood(Award Plaque) = ₦ 7,000
- 12″ by 15″ Wood(Award Plaque) = ₦ 9, 000
- Acrylic Award Plaque = ₦ 8,000
- Glass Award Plaque = ₦ 15,000
- Crystal Award Plaque = ₦ 20,000
Categories of Awards
Most consumers of award plaques pay attention to the categories of the recipients or awardees. Categories looked into the classifications of awardees. It focuses on the institutions and nature of the awards. But some of the common categories are as follows
- Award of excellence
- recognition award
- Appreciation award
- Retirement award
- Selfless service award
- Outstanding performance award
- Distinguished service award
- Best graduating student award
- Best behaved student award
- Best couple award
- Legal business award
- Sports business award
- Security watch award
The list is endless.
Production of Award Plaques
The makers of award plaques will always demand some information from their consumers for the final production of the awards. And the most needed items are the company logo, the artwork or write ups, the type of plaque and the signature where necessary. Most consumers, however find it challenging to come up with the write ups. It requires putting up heads together by the committee and come up with something that will depict the purpose for which the award is being giving. Although, it commonly starts with, e.g. “(Logo); University of Lagos, Akoka; Award of Excellence; Presented to; Prof. R.O.N Ihiedigo; In recognition or appreciation of your academic break through that made our institution proud. Once the graphic designer has the following information, he goes ahead with the design arrangement. Once he gets the approval of the customer to go ahead and print, the production people takes over the print outs. It is therefore wise to take into cognizance company’s experience in the business before contracting them.
Printing of Award Plaques
The printing on plaques varies according to the type of award product. Wooden plaque which accepts sublimation on aluminium plates differs from the acrylic plaque which also accepts sublimation transfer but at much higher temperature. Glass or crystal goes with cromer printing with ultra violet( UV) light and at a monitored time frame. Production of award plaques are very sensitive and should be followed same way. Engraving is also a unique printing that is permanent on the award products. Note that any error encountered on engraving may not be erased no matter the type of plaque. It calls for more caution though.
Award is More Precious Than Gold
In conclusion, there are even more different types of awards but we focus on the most readily available ones. These ones will even capture the messages of yet to be designed plaques. However, what is paramount is that award is more precious than gold. Train your staff and motivates them with tangible memento . Because, If you don’t train them , you don’t blame them. And if you don’t reward them with tangible memento, you don’t blame them either for low productivity. No doubt, award promotes healthy competition, challenges for higher achievements, increases revenue and shareholders wealth at the long run. Therefore, cultivate the habit of recognizing, rewarding achievements and promoting excellence with difference types of awards plaques in the workplace.
