celebrating a special relationship with spaceport america and esra

At Watson Design we’re innovators. We’re outside the box thinkers and experimenters. We’re designers and creatives with a fondness for projects that explore new production techniques and the satisfaction it provides when successfully achieving a striking new design. 

Such an ethos isn’t so dissimilar to that of our long term client: Spaceport America —  the first purpose-built commercial spaceport in the world. 

While we’re based in Squamish, BC making custom trophies and awards, Spaceport America is home to many U.S. commercial space flight and rocket launch programs in southern New Mexico.

Granted, trophies and rockets don’t have too much in common, but with a shared view of developing new concepts within our particular fields and producing work of the highest quality, we’re proud to have built a lasting relationship with Spaceport America. 

Each year we develop a collection of awards for the Spaceport America Cup, hosted by the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA). Over 150 teams from colleges and universities around the world compete to launch solid, liquid and hybrid rockets to altitudes of up to 30,000 feet. 

We’ve created differing awards to cater for each category, including a large Spaceport Cup as the grand prize. Here’s a dive into the awards we’ve produced and how they’ve changed over the years. 

Spaceport America Cup
The big one. 

Sitting at the front of Spaceport America is a 40 feet wide, 23 feet high, multi-ton sculpture, built to convey the beginning of a New Space Age. It was only right that our Spaceport Cup referenced the sculpture and so the design hasn’t changed much over time. 

The award is made from sustainably sourced chocolate bamboo, cut into curved layers and assembled in an upwards pointing half moon shape. Sitting within the curves is a thin layer of aluminum with holes of varying sizes, drilled into the metal to represent the stars in the New Mexico desert sky. 

For 2021, we kept the same design but replaced the bamboo with black acrylic to mark the event being held virtually. Diamond polishing ensured the awards were finished with a shine and UV printing added a bespoke branded touch.

 

Chile Cup 
In 2019 the Chile Cup was born.

Named after the New Mexico state crop, the competition recognizes rocketry teams within the region. To match the Spaceport America Cup, we developed a similar design using chocolate bamboo but added imagery of colored chile peppers in the form of anodized aluminum cut outs to give the awards their own unique stand-out touch.  

 

Category Rocket Awards 
To recognize recipients across a range of different categories, we created awards made primarily from smooth maple hardwood. The secondary material came in the form of five aluminum panels, assembled around the wood to make up the shape of a rocket. Differentiating winners from runners-up, the winners awards featured red and blue anodizing on the panels. UV prints provided more rocket imagery and custom text. 

In 2023, these awards were given a refresh by replacing the panels with whole rocket shapes made from solid surface sandwiched between aluminum. We also swapped out the maple for chocolate bamboo to align with the other awards in the collection. 

 

Technical Awards
Another design in the collection to receive a revamp in 2023. Again, we replaced maple with chocolate bamboo before applying precision cuts to the wood to create a beautiful shape with a chamfered edge. Wrapped around the spinal edge is matte anodized aluminum to compliment the wood and provide an ideal surface for adding custom Spaceport America and ESRA logos and personalized text.  

 

Sportsmanship Award
The final award to see a 2023 refresh, chocolate bamboo finished with natural oil provided a solid rectangular shape. Anodized aluminum plates were placed either side - one red, one blue. Using relief milling, a precision rocket shaped cut out to both materials enables the awards to be seen straight through for added intricate and exciting detail. 

 

Video Awards
A new design added to the collection for 2024. These awards were inspired by the technical awards created in 2017 and feature the same wooden block but this time in chocolate bamboo to maintain the same material across the whole collection. An anodized aluminum rocket towers up one side with UV prints applied to both materials for branding and customization.

 

Reflecting on the awards we’ve produced for Spaceport America and ESRA, we’re proud to be celebrating a special relationship. We pride ourselves on delivering exceptional service to build lasting relationships and we’ve enjoyed creating innovative new designs and adapting and refreshing old ones within the Spaceport America collection for such a long period of time.