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Bespoke trophies for extraordinary moments

Bespoke Trophies

5 Key Design Features to Include in Your Next Sports Trophy

Forget uninspiring bronze cups that sit in a cabinet gathering dust. Today’s sports trophies are bigger and bolder than ever before, helping to echo the energy and personality of the world’s most exciting competitions.

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Design Sports Trophy Design
Sports-Hero

At Gaudio Awards, we believe that a sports trophy needs to do much more than look good on a shelf. It should instantly transport the athlete back to that exhilarating moment they crossed the finish line or broke a new sporting record. That’s why we craft all of our sports trophies from scratch, to ensure they’re truly one-of-a-kind.

If you’re planning your next sporting centrepiece, here are five essential design features to consider – with each one illustrated by a real example from our own trophy cabinet.

Use Premium Materials

Materials are the foundation of any great trophy design, and for sports trophies, they need to be premium. At Gaudio Awards, we use materials like aluminium, wood, acrylic, and glass to craft dazzling trophies for a variety of sporting disciplines. 

Take our Sir Bobby Robson Golf Trophy as an example. Designed for a celebrity charity golf event, we combined solid aluminium with inset glass-effect acrylic to showcase Sir Booby Robson’s signature and the tournament logo in elegant detail, resulting in a standout centrepiece that really packed a punch.

The Sir Bobby Robson Golf Trophy - Event Photo

Add a Personal Touch

Your sports trophy should never feel generic. Whether it be through engraving, printed logos, or cut-out details, customising your design will transform your award into a meaningful, lasting keepsake, not just a one-day photo opportunity. 

The Football Business Awards trophy is a perfect example of just how powerful personalisation can be. We crafted a brushed aluminium cylinder and engraved it with the event logo and winners’ details, complete with colour-matched acrylic end-caps. These little details helped to capture the professional tone of the event and make each piece truly bespoke.

Football Business Awards - Trophy

Include Sport-Specific Design Cues

The best sports trophies say something about the sport itself. But that doesn’t mean filling your trophy with cliché messages like “[insert name] brought their A game”, or “because it’s a marathon, not a sprint”. It means making thoughtful design choices that reflect the energy and heritage of the discipline.

Just look at The Golf Course Awards we designed to celebrate the best-in-class golf courses around the UK. We crafted this custom trophy from metal and finished it in the event’s signature corporate green, with gold print for a striking contrast. This clean, confident design ties directly into the identity of the sport and the community it celebrates, without relying on obvious visual tropes. 

The Golf Course Awards Trophy

It’s All About the Base

Although a trophy base isn’t necessarily the first thing that people see, it’s one of the most important elements of your trophy. A well-designed base helps to add balance and durability, creating that satisfying ‘lift-and-hold’ moment that every sports trophy needs. It also gives you space for any additional engraved elements or nameplates you may wish to add.

The O2 Touch Rugby Trophy is a great example of a trophy base done right. This rugby ball-shaped award features a sturdy, polished aluminium base that helps to balance out the top-heavy shape of the trophy. The base is designed to be as practical as it is eye-catching, offering much-needed stability and ease of handling.

custom acrylic trophy for o2 Touch Rugby

Give Your Trophy Space to Grow

Some sports trophies mark a single moment, whereas others are designed to keep coming back year after year. If you’re designing a perpetual trophy, it’s always worth making sure that you build in room for future updates. For example, you may need space to swap out the nameplates or might want the ability to engrave winners annually. 

This is exactly the approach we adopted for The Maurice Walker Award. It features spaces for a series of sleek nameplates that can be easily added post-event and engraved with different winners’ details each year. This means the trophy can be presented to new winners time and time again, while still retaining its sharp, polished appearance.

Maurice-Watkins-1

We’ve Got Trophy Design Down to a Tee

Much like a championship-winning performance, great trophy design comes down to the details. From the shape and materials to the engraving and finish, every element should be carefully crafted to tell a compelling story about your athlete’s achievement. 

At Gaudio Awards, we tailor every sports trophy to reflect the spirit of the sport and the legacy you want to leave. Whether you need a one-off showpiece for a golfing tournament or a perpetual award for an annual squash championship, we’re here to help you nail it, right down to a tee.

Get in touch to discuss your vision for your next batch of sports trophies.  

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Blank

When you order a blank trophy, it will arrive without any personalised details. The trophy is blank for you to add your own personalisation, or use as a decorative piece.

Personalise Online

Select your layout using the dropdown menu, then enter your details. The live proof shows you an approximate visual of how your trophy will look when it’s engraved. Once you’ve added the details you want and purchased your trophy, we’ll begin manufacture right away.

Please note: The live render is an estimate of how your trophy will look, and the final result may vary in size, colour and placement.

Gaudio Proofing Service

With the Gaudio Proofing Service, simply add your chosen trophy to your cart and checkout as normal. A member of the team will be in touch to collect the required details, and we’ll send you proofs to approve before manufacture. Delivery time excludes proofing.