sysco fresh produce awards - the importance of reflecting core business values

When it comes to creating custom awards, it’s important that they reflect the brand that they were created for. We understand the importance of embodying core business values with all of our awards, which is why we take into consideration branding and colours, imagery, materials, design and shape.

Each year, food distributor and wholesaler, Sysco, commissions us to create a fresh looking award that reflects their core business values. Sysco are committed to growing responsibly and connecting the world to share food and care for one another. 

With sustainable development in mind, we opted to create eco awards from recyclable clear acrylic and the clean natural aesthetic of maple wood. The smooth wood acts as the ideal surface to apply detailed engraving, adding character and a bespoke touch. 

Utilizing UV flatbed printing, we applied photographic quality to the acrylic to achieve themed imagery - opting for a different fruit / vegetable each year that vibrantly showcases the Sysco brand. The bright detailed imagery provides a beautiful contrast on the lower half of these sustainable designs.

The finishing touch to the awards is applied through an aluminum name tag that curves over the top edge and sits beautifully down one side to complete a truly unique and modern eco award. 

In addition to the awards, we crafted custom medals following the same design style. The medals feature a printed acrylic base plate to match the imagery on the main awards, with a laser engraved maple layer placed on top to include Sysco branding and bespoke text.

crafting sustainable awards for disney’s environmental champions

““Conservation isn’t just the business of a few people, it’s a matter that concerns all of us””

— Walt Disney

Walt Disney was ahead of his time in many ways. After a challenging childhood, he went onto bring the art of animation to life through full length feature films, becoming a pioneering figure of 20th century entertainment and leaving a lasting mark on the development of modern day movies and television.

Disney was a creative genius, but it wasn’t just inside the world of entertainment that his impressive foresight stood out. He understood the challenges our environment faces and the need for sustainability long before it became a recognized issue within the public domain. 

In 1950 he famously stated “Conservation isn’t just the business of a few people, it’s a matter that concerns all of us”. Today, the Walt Disney Company is committed to taking meaningful action to protect the environment and leave the natural world in a healthy state for future generations. 

At Eco Awards and Gifts, we share the same ethos surrounding conservation and environmentally friendly business actions through a sustainable approach to the custom design and creation of unique, hand-crafted awards, trophies, gifts and plaques.

We were delighted to have the pleasure of designing and crafting custom eco recognition awards from sustainably sourced materials to reward Disney’s Environmental Champions of the Year. 

The eco awards feature a bamboo base - the fastest growing woody plant on earth - making it a great sustainable material to use.

Sandwiched between the wood is aluminum -  a highly recyclable material that has the potential to be recycled without losing any of its inherent properties. The nature of the metal enabled us to use waterjet cutting to achieve the circular globe shape and Mickey Mouse cut-out. 

Combining aluminum and bamboo allowed us to craft the awards completely from sustainably sourced materials. To meet Disney’s high-level branding requirements, the finishing touches include a printed brand logo and personalized text to reward and recognize those taking positive action towards Disney's environmental stewardship. 

why simple is sometimes best

““The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak””

— Hans Hofmann

Sometimes in life the best option is to keep it simple. When it comes to designing awards, it’s no different. 

Perhaps it’s easy to fall into the trap of viewing something simple as lacking substance. After all, simple often means less, which is inferior to more - right? Not necessarily. Simple is effective. It’s proven. And executed well, it’s no less powerful than complex.

At Eco Awards and Gifts, we’ve crafted a whole host of complex designs and intricately detailed trophies. All have been eye-catching, exquisite awards that we’ve been proud to have created for our clients — but that’s not to say our simple designs haven’t had the same striking effect. 

In 2022, we designed employee appreciation eco awards for Skedulo to recognize employees who had made an outstanding contribution to the company.

We opted for just one material to make up the environmentally friendly awards: natural maple wood. The nature of the wood allowed us to carve out an exciting shape including a chamfered top edge. 

Held in tropical Oahu, Hawaii, the smooth natural aesthetic provided by the maple reflected the event location. Maintaining a simple approach, we applied various UV flatbed prints to each side of the award including a beach themed full bleed graphic in Skedulo’s brand blue.   

The simplicity of effectively only using one material enabled us to create a clean and minimal, yet beautiful and sustainable final design to be awarded as a unique and memorable employee appreciation gift. 

Sometimes the complexity of day to day life can convolute our thoughts and processes when really all we need is a little simplicity.