Designing a custom medal is an excellent way to reward your participants for their efforts. Not only do custom medals offer a unique and memorable way of celebrating your event, they are a great way to stand out and encourage both new and returning participants to enter future events.
Creating custom made medals that are truly memorable while embodying the spirit of both your event and brand require careful thought. Consider the event’s purpose, the target audience and the overall message you want to convey, that way, you can tailor your medal design to resonate with recipients.
So, to help bring your personalised medal vision to life, we’ve put together some essential tips you need to make when creating memorable bespoke medals for your next event.
Arguably the most important stage of designing a bespoke medal is selecting the right shape and size. Serving as the canvas for your logos, imagery and engravings, it is vital that the shape, size and material of your medals are both visually appealing and practical.
The shape of a medal plays a big part in determining its overall appearance and comfort. While there is of course the classic circular medal, exploring different and unique shapes is a great way to make your event stand out. If you do opt for a non-conventional medal shape, consider using a shape that relates to the event itself or symbolises the achievement of your participants.
The same can be said for the size specifications of your medal design, you’ll want your medal big enough to make an impact, but not large to the extent that it is uncomfortable or bulky to wear.
Finally, the material used for your custom medals should be both durable and aesthetically pleasing, as well as being able to accommodate a range of customisation options. That’s why at Bespoke Medals, we utilise high quality 95% recycled zinc alloy for many of the medals in our range, making them robust, easy to apply finishes to and most importantly eco friendly. Not only that, we also offer 100% recycled medals for a fully sustainable medal solution.
Now that you have the foundation for your custom medals, having chosen your shape, size and material, it’s time to start adding the all important artwork that is going to make it pop. The colours and imagery you use will have a huge impact on the overall appeal and the emotional response it evokes from participants. The colour palette of your custom medals should compliment your events theme and brand.
Use colours that complement each other and create contrast. Following the branding of your event.
Carefully place images within the medal’s design to ensure they are visible and do not clash with other elements.
Incorporate symbols that represent the achievement and the event’s theme, this includes logos of the event organisers, sponsors, mascots or even the location of the event.
Use colour and size to create a visual hierarchy within the design. The most important elements should be prominent and visually appealing.
At Bespoke Medals, we offer a near unlimited range of customisation options to ensure that you can add any colours, imagery or engravings without limitations. This includes UV Printing, Enamel, Colour Sprayed as well as a huge range of finishes and optional extras!
At Bespoke Medals, we are committed to sustainability and offering eco-friendly options for your custom medals. Our standard medals are already made from 95% recycled materials, but we don’t stop there, we also offer 100% recycled medals for even greater sustainability!
Made from 100% recycled zinc medals, these medals retain the same quality and durability as our standard options while minimising your environmental impact.
Or for an even more unique, eco-friendly statement, we also provide distinctive wooden medals. Available in 4 mm minimum thickness, our wooden medals can come in any shape or any size, including with cut-outs and can be printed in full colour, meaning you don’t have to sacrifice on design while championing sustainability.
Finally, to complement your custom medals and allow your participants to display them with pride, you can choose from a range of personalised ribbons.
At Bespoke Medals, we offer a range of customisable ribbons that can feature your choice of colours and branding to perfectly match your medals.
Our range includes –
Adding elegance and completing your overall medal design, ribbons are an essential finishing touch.
Now that you understand the key fundamentals that go into designing a unique and memorable personalised medal, the next step is to bring your ideas to life!
Partnering with Bespoke Medals, you can utilise our free design service, working with our experts, we guide you through each step of the design process. From an initial conversation to discuss your ideas, logos and brand guidelines, we then get to work producing concepts within 4-5 working days until we find the design that perfectly aligns with your vision.
Once a final design has been agreed, we then turn your initial medal design idea into reality.
If you want to get started crafting the perfect medal for your next event, speak to our team today!