supporting the invention convention with our awards

For several years Andrew Watson Design has proudly been the award provider for the Invention Convention Americas — the culminating program for top young inventors from national programs in Mexico and the United States.

So often the awards and trophies that children receive lack creativity, modern designs and personalization.

Instead, they’re awarded generic, cheap and lackluster products that struggle to generate the same feeling of appreciation and recognition as a unique custom award. For the Invention Convention, we wanted to change that.

Our goal was to create a final product using sustainable and eco-friendly materials that would create a sense of pride and accomplishment for the young inventor’s innovation and entrepreneurship.

Implementing contemporary concepts, we developed a collection of custom made awards and medals to help show genuine and thoughtful reward for the work of the winners.

Avoiding a classic trophy shape, the awards feature blonde and caramel bamboo, sanded smooth and finished with a natural Danish oil. Anodized aluminum compliments the wood to create a modern abstract award, with UV prints applied to hit the branding and personalization requirements. 

The Invention Convention ‘envisions a world in which all young learners have access to innovation, invention and entrepreneurial learning to gain the confidence and skills to control their own destiny to help shape a better future’.

We hope that by delivering beautiful bespoke awards, we can help inspire confidence and future success by making the awardees feel special for their achievements.

united nations global compact awards

At Watson Design we offer an eco award range where we specialize in a sustainable approach to the custom design and creation of unique, handcrafted awards, trophies, and plaques. 

When we received the brief to develop awards for the United Nations (UN), there was one main focus: to create an award that was as eco-friendly as possible. 

Before initiating the design phase, we first considered the UN’s 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goals lay out the path to a better world for all people and the planet and what we need to do collectively to get there.

With this in mind, we took special consideration of goals 13 and 15: Climate Action and Life on Land.

We used two primary materials. The first, maple wood from a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) supplier. We felt that this would help work towards the Life on Land SDG which aims to protect, restore and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems and sustainably manage forests.

As a small awards business based in scenic British Columbia, we recognize the beauty and importance of our incredible forests and the need for them to be sustainably managed and preserved.

Not only did the maple wood help to work towards this goal and ensure the awards were eco-friendly, it also provided the perfect material for sculpting into an exquisite design with a modern clean finish. 

To compliment the wood, we 3D printed the body of the eco awards from a PLA material. PLA is made from renewable resources such as corn starch or sugar cane. It’s recyclable, biodegradable and compostable — helping us work towards the Climate Action SDG to urgently combat climate change. 

Combining sustainable maple wood with 3D printed PLA allowed us to craft an award that was contemporary and striking, yet sustainable and environmentally friendly. 

A trophy design studio with extensive experience in the creation of unique, handcrafted, eco awards, we are always excited to take on new projects and bring client ideas to life using sustainable, recovered and recycled materials. 

hockey canada - custom hall of fame awards

Over the next few weeks we will be sharing some of our favourite projects from 2016.

The project above was a commission from Hockey Canada. We were requested to design a hall of fame award for their new inductees. The idea behind the design was to use the shape of 4 hockey stick handles and create the award around that size. The four sticks can be seen through the maple leaf relief cut, designed as a "peekaboo" detail. The wood was then affixed in-between two water jet cut aluminum panels. A modern design that is simple and elegant. 

The first recipient was Scott Niedermayer, he is a Canadian former ice hockey defenceman and current Special Assignment Coach of the Anaheim Ducks. He played 18 seasons and over 1,000 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks. Niedermayer is a four-time Stanley Cup champion and played in five NHL All-Star Games.  

unique custom eco awards - global green usa

We just finished creating a custom collection of unique eco awards for our client Global Green USA. One of the awards was being presented to Stevie Wonder! Will post pictures later. 

need custom in a hurry?

If you have a custom design that you need in a hurry, we 'CANN' make it happen. Due to our extensive range of in-house manufacturing equipment, we can create custom designs like the above CANN Awards in as little as 2 weeks. Email us today to find out more.   

who wants tacos? we do!

Working on a few food related projects recently. Makes us hungry! Nothing like a good fish taco, Baja style!  

new design - bamboo

These are our new custom eco bamboo awards. Two-tone bamboo laminated and laser engraved. Simple, modern, timeless and eco friendly to boot!   

eco perpetual awards/trophies

We can customise all of our award designs to suit any event. The design above is our 'Classic' design but, we created it in three different sizes for the clients particular needs; perpetual award ceremonies. With the largest award measuring almost 4" square (101mm), we made the other awards proportionally smaller. This particular design was created from recovered Pine Beetle Wood (denim pine) for an eco event. 

This is a great example of our flexibility and ability to fulfil any client request. Most standard trophy / award shops will buy product from a catalogue with set designs and sizes. We custom design and handcraft every award ourselves so, we have the capacity to create anything our clients desire.

When it comes to corporate recognition we are able to deliver the best products on the market. With original, modern and meaningful designs, our designers are able to create custom awards and trophies that make an impression and deliver on our clients specific communication goals. 

our new product line - ecoawardsandgifts.com

We have just launched another business that focuses primarily on eco awards and gifts. We have taken our most popular eco trophy / award designs to create this unique collection. 

www.ecoawardsandgifts.com

Eco Awards & Gifts is a boutique awards and gifts company that specialises in eco and sustainable products. We custom design and handcraft all of our products from locally sourced materials and consider the environmental impact of all of our processes.

Eco Awards & Gifts is owned and operated by Industrial Designer, Andrew Watson. Andrew has completed both Bachelor and Master degrees in design at Griffith University, Queensland College of Art (QCA). He received many awards in recognition of his academic achievements.

Andrew has an extensive portfolio of three dimensional design related projects including product design, handcrafted artefacts, branded environment/exhibition design, environmental graphic design, streetscape elements design, print based graphic design, model making, 3D visualization and has also been a sessional teacher at QCA.