Art of the engraving layout

Hopefully you have read my article on loss for words. That posting focused on what text to engrave on your awards. This segment is aimed at the art of font selection, spacing, and logo placement. It is meant to be relatively simple, yet if you need or want more detail, please leave a post and I will respond.Font selection is an important foundational point of the award layout - it is what will make the award have the look and feel you want. Simple, fancy, intricate, modern, sophisticated, busy, scattered. These are all feelings that you can achieve with the right (or wrong) font selection. These feelings are very subjective to the awards purchaser as well as the engraver.

With that in mind, I have three suggestions:

• If you have a look and feel in mind, communicate that to your awards supplier. If you can come up with a preliminary design (even if not perfect) in a word.doc or powerpoint presentation, that is a great first start. If not, it would be helpful if you could describe the feeling you are trying to communicate with giving the award.
• If you are uneasy about what your engraving is going to look like, ask for a fax or email proof of your engraving. We offer proofs for no charge (as long as your order is over $50). Proofs are a great way to eliminate angst over what the engraving is going to look like.
• If you are confident that we are the professionals, trust us. Our engravers have years of experience in creating incredible awards. We don’t require you to spend time or effort on the above suggestions…you will still get our best effort.

Spacing of the text on your award can be crucial as well. It is imperative that there is an appropriate margin of space on the top and on the sides of your award. The engraving should not be concentrated too much in the center of the award, nor should it be engraved right out to the edge of the award. There are guidelines that the engraver can use to allocate appropriate amount of space. Within the body of the text, spacing is important as well. Most modern engraving software has a auto-centering function. This can be a simple way of adjusting the verbiage on your award. It can also oversimplify the artistic nature of engraving. When training our engravers, I suggest a bit more space between the presented to, body of the text, and presented by fields. This adds focus to all three. I also suggest that the presented to field be either more bold or a touch larger. The body of the text should have a bit of flair - either a slightly scripted font, or italics. The presented by field should be slightly smaller.

Logos can be engraved at the top or bottom of the award. I suggest that the logo should be at the top if: you want it to stand out, you want it to be the focal point, it is a company logo to whom the award is presented. If you want the logo to be smaller, understated, or if it is the logo of who is giving the award, I suggest placing the logo at the bottom.

Appropriate Gifts for Coaches

Appropriate Gifts for Coaches

So you are entering the home half of your season.  The pressure is mounting to put together the end of the season party.  You find the perfect venue for your party and select the participation trophies for the kids.  Then the dreaded thought comes up in your head (or from another parent) - WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO FOR THE COACH?

Having a retail awards shop for 15 years, I have seen everything from well thought out meaningful gifts to last minute tokens of appreciation.  The purpose of this article is not to sell you on coaches gifts, but to help you figure out what to do and share some ideas.  My train of thought with regards to gifting coaches comes from their effort.

These are some of the factors I would take into account for gauging how nice of gift to give:

(1) Time given to the team

(2) Commitment level

(3) Enthusiasm

(4) Love for the game, passion for the team

(5) Knowledge for the game and ability to pass that knowledge to the team members

(6) Compassion for sportsmanship

(7) Being a Role Model

( Level of success (not winning and losing, but your feeling of how successful the coach has been for your team)

After putting a few minutes into answering these questions, you should be able to come up with a decent gauge on how your coach has done for the team.  Based on that quick analysis, put your coach into one of 3 categories: minimalist, good job, or exceptional.

Here are some ideas for each of the 3 coaching categories:

Minimalist (could have done better):

Thank you card, flowers, small gift card, small trophy, signed team ball, engraved coffee mug, small plaque.  It may be a good idea to keep the small things theme oriented (put starbucks gift card in personalized coffee mug, etc.)

Good Job:

Gift certificate to the coach’s favorite store (restaurant, sports store, movie theatre, clothing store, etc.), picture plaque with team photo, engraved clipboard, clothing, signed team ball with display case, gold or silver whistle.

Exceptional:

Nice piece of clothing (jacket, sweatshirt, etc. - embroidered it?), 24K gold whistle.  One of my best ideas is to combine a few of the above. Why not raise the bar with a larger gift certificate?  Try and come up with something unique to the person’s interest and hobbies.  In addition, consider calling the coach a week or so after the season and personally thanking him/her for a great job.  Be specific as to why you think they were excellent.  These phone calls and words can be equally or more important as tangible gifts and can invigorate a coach for years to come.

Need more ideas?  Here are some links that may help with unique coaches ideas: Keepsakes, etc., coachgifts.com, kyledesigns.com, and bestcoachgifts.com.

What is your goal? Then work backwards

Some of the most impacting and successful awards we produce are strategically planned - there is a program with thought and purpose that is created in order to yield a specific result.  I encourage this thought process as it is very intentional and pro-active.  Instead of an afterthought, consider reorganizing your recognition program to align with your corporate mission statement and values.  This integration helps the workforce focus on the core mission and helps with employee retention as well.

Here are my 10 steps that can assist with this planning:

1) Figure out what is your main goal in preparing the recognition program.

2) Align the main goal with your corporate mission statement and values

3) Create and document your baseline starting point - where are we at with this project/issue now?

4) Identify how the program can be successful - bring in experts if needed.

5) Create a communications plan.  A good recognition plan must become common knowledge company-wide.

6) Refine the program with management until they have 100% buy-in.

7) Launch the program and over-communicate its features and benefits.

8) Measure progress.  If possible, communicate that progress.

9) Create a recognition event.

10) Award/recognize the winners and celebrate their success.