In 1999 the trophies for the Waikato Business Excellence Awards, as they were known back then, were produced by Emblems NZ. The design was a bespoke one with granite and acrylic, highlighted with gold and paua. The inaugural winners were Chibnall Swann Architects. Due to the cost of producing this award, it was only produced a couple of times.
In 2001, Emblems NZ came up with a solution: a corporate, crystal award, made with a combination of screen printing, sandblasting and paint filling. The reduced cost led the way to expand the categories at the Business Awards.
It was felt a change was required in 2006, the first year we see the start of the entwined flames motif in its most basic form. Emblems NZ took this direction from the Waikato Chamber of Commerce and hand-crafted a stainless steel and glass pyramid. Local fledgling stainless-steel fabricator Protech Stainless helped with the stainless manufacturing.
In 2007 a meeting was held with the Waikato Chamber of Commerce, Pan Media (Graeme Blake) and Emblems NZ (Sandy Schaare). It was decided to develop the ’twin flame’ motive into a more 3-dimensional shape.
Sandy Schaare sketched, handcrafted and shaped a balsa timber block, created moulds then resin was poured into the pair of moulds for each ‘twin flame’. This was the moment of truth, to see if the ‘twin flames’ (also called horns) would fit together…They did!
In the design’s 25th year, they are 3D printed which has enabled the flame shape of the trophies to be exactly duplicated.
Emblems NZ is incredibly proud to supply these trophies year after year for the Waikato Chamber of Commerce.
Find out more about what Emblems can do for your business here.
