The Vince Shadow Fantasy Football Trophy, the Hail Mary of all Lombardi Style Fantasy Football Trophies

We thought the Vince Silver Fantasy Football Trophy was cool, and then we came out with The Vince Bronze Lombardi Style Trophy!

As if that wasn't enough, the exquisite Vince Shadow has just entered the scene. Simple and bold, it demands respect, and we are here to tell you, NO ONE can walk by this trophy without stopping in their tracks. Let the salivating begin!

Measuring 16 inches high overall including the base, the Vince Shadow includes 6 mounted silver detail plates and engraving on the title plate.

To see all of our amazing Fantasy Football Perpetual Trophies, come visit us at Sculpture Alley!

Fantasy Football Trophies Lombardi Replica and Super Bowl Trophy

For years and years people have asked us for a Lombardi style replica trophy like the famous Super Bowl trophy to be used in their fantasy football leagues.

Our question never was "Could we?" The question was always "Should we?"

Here at Sculpture Alley we believe first and foremost in respect. We love and respect the game of football, and everything it stands for. It is our very own American game, little understood for its complexity in the rest of the world, and for that we are glad. Let them have their soccer. We have football.

So we were asked again and again by fantasy football league commissioners for a Lombardi replica trophy. " We want it exactly like the Super Bowl Trophy," they would ask. " We want it to be exactly like the real thing."

The problem is folks, you didn't EARN it. I would like to have an Academy Award for the story I told that cop about why my car was overdue for inspection, but hey, I didn't earn it, I'm not a professional actor. We may be professional fans, we may thirst and lust and spend our hard earned dollars on the game of football we love so much, but it is our opinion that we don't deserve, each and every one of us, an authentic Super Bowl Trophy. If we all had one, the real ones wouldn't be worth squat, and certainly wouldn't symbolize the amazing athletes that fought so hard to win them.

Having said all that, we feel that we came up with a great moral compromise, an awesome looking trophy that is an homage to the original without being a copy. Sculpture Alley presents The VINCE Fantasy Football Trophy # 31, our most recent and quite spectacular perpetual trophy.

Sporting the same stylish lines as the famous Super Bowl icon, The Vince trophy measures 16 inches overall by 7 inches wide by 7 inches deep. It is not silver plated or chromed, the finish is a more subdued satiny silver. In fact, we also have The Vince in bronze for a totally different look!

Each version of The Vince sports a raised FFL logo, and comes on a wood base that includes a free engraved title plate and 6 small detail plates to honor your past, current and future league winners!

Don't miss seeing what we think may very well be the quintessential Fantasy Football Trophy, and check out our 30 other Perpetual Football Trophies, Loser Trophies and Keeper Trophies! Visit us at Sculpture Alley!

Fantasy Football Trophies, Traveling Trophies

What to look for in a Traveling Fantasy Football Trophy

Many fantasy football leagues start out with a bunch of local folks getting together, and as the years go on, various league mates will move or relocate further away from the league HQ. Getting together every year to reunite and get ready for another fantasy football season has become a greatly anticipated ritual for many leagues, and it is an awesome way to keep in touch with old friends.

For leagues that are spread out, their trophy needs are a little different. They need a Traveling Fantasy Football Trophy, that is, one that ships to a different winner each year.

To begin with, everyone in the league needs to accept the responsibility that comes with a traveling trophy, namely that they will in fact ship the trophy when it is time for the loser to surrender it. Sometimes the loser does not want part with the trophy, but this is just too bad! Give it up loser!

One of the biggest problems is that most people don't know how to pack a trophy, they launch a couple handfuls of peanuts and a piece of bubble wrap in a box and think that will protect is from the UPS assault that is sure to follow. Wrong.

You need to pack your championship trophy with the same care you would pack an infant for a road trip, snugly secured in a car seat, or in this case the trophy should be snug as a bug in the box, not rolling around loosely.

At Sculpture Alley, we have leagues covered on this aspect. We utilize a foam in place system that creates a custom molded top and bottom for your Fantasy Football Trophy. All you have to do is put the trophy back in the box, put the top "pillow" on it, and the trophy is ready to go. As long as you keep the original box dry, it is good for another 10 to 12 trips!

Any fantasy football trophy, if properly packaged, would make a good traveler, but some are better than others. If you know your trophy will be on the road a great deal, look for a tight, compact design that doesn't have a ton of stuff popping off the sides. Loose parts, bobble heads, moving parts, these are all problematic when traveling.

Additionally, if you had to assemble your own trophy, make sure it is tight before you send it off. Repairing a loose trophy without the correct tools can be a real pain. We ship every one of our trophies fully assembled to not only make things simpler for you, but because as professionals, we know how to put a trophy together so that it WON'T loosen over time.

There is nothing like the comaraderie of a fantasy football league, and the league fantasy football trophy should be a problem free symbol of this union.

Shown in the beginning of this post is our stunning Fantasy Football Perpetual Trophy # 25, it is one of 30 perpetuals in our line. We have keeper trophies and loser trophies too! Visit Sculpture Alley to see them all!

Fantasy Football Trophies, Custom Logo Title Plates, Part 4

In parts 1 through 3 of this series, I have discussed artwork requirements for creating custom title plates for Fantasy Football Trophies. In these prior posts, I have talked about how artwork needs to be black and white and "camera ready" high resolution artwork.

In the realm of laser engraved title plates, it is important to understand how the laser engraving machine works. The laser either cuts, or it doesn't. This is a process of material removal, not printing, so grey scale and half tones are not possible. Or are they?

In the above example, we see the typical black and white laser engraving. It is either black or gold, the laser cut, or it didn't.


Since a laser cannot engrave in "grey" how can we achieve a half tone effect? By assigning a shade of grey to an area on the artwork, the laser will create a pattern, and this pattern will read as lighter or darker halftones. A more dense pattern will be perceived as being lighter, and a sparse pattern will be perceived as darker. In the example to the left (which you can click on to see full size) we can see this half tone effect in the plumage of the hen.

If half tones are to be used, it is critical that the artwork be high resolution, as I discussed in earlier parts of this article, if you don't have quality art, you should bite the bullet and pay your engraver to do the artwork for you.

In this example on the left, we have a black and white image that might have used grey scale in order to further define the areas around the hawk's eyes, although this is a very nice looking plate!




This trophy featuring the Tazmanian Devil in grey scale is a great example of how the half tones can effectively work to help define an image. Here we have 2 shades of grey, the lighter shade on his chest, and the darker shade representing his limbs. The perimeter around Taz is completely removed, like the text. Anything shown in gold would be black in a black and white image.

Previously, I mentioned that when working with logo art, it is helpful to invert the art so that the page is black and the art is white. This is closer to what the actual plate will look like, and can help in determining what portions of the logo should be visually clarified for maximum impact.

If you would like to see all of our perpetual fantasy football trophies, loser trophies and football keeper trophies, visit us at Sculpture Alley!

Fantasy Football Trophies, Custom Logo Title Plates, Part 3

In my last post, I talked about the difficulties trophy makers have with the artwork submitted by fantasy football leagues for their custom title plates.


This subject is so important, it warrants further explanation and examples. As I mentioned in my last post, I am using real examples from commishes who wanted to have their logo incorporated into their fantasy football trophy title plates.

Let's start with the above image submitted to me by a commish. As discussed in the part 2, artwork needs to be clean, camera ready, and in black and white. The commish told me he just wanted to do the figure with outstretched arms in the circle as his league logo.

The problem is, this logo doesn't exist, and that means that our graphics department has to create it, which results in a $30 art charge. The football commish didn't want to pay for the art charge, saying, "Can't you just copy the dude in the circle?"

No. there is text in front of the figure and the circle, there is all kind of shading and imagery on the figure, etc. Understand that when your "logo" doesn't have clarity and isn't a cohesive design, you are going to be looking at some kind of upcharge in order to get this image on your trophy.

The next example is the very common customized NFL shield, that the league has modified to be their logo. Not a problem, but in this case, the shield is fuzzy and pixilated, not to mention that it is in color, and is not at all suitable for laser engraving.


As I mentioned in part 2, we need to be able to freely resize the logo, and enlarge it with absolutely no loss in clarity, or the logo will look blurry and crappy when engraved.





Next we have an example of a league shield we created for a fantasy football commish. We did end up revising the greek letters under the FFFL portion of the logo.

Now, you might notice that this is a little blurry when you click to enlarge. That is because when we create a logo for someone, we send them a proof in a jpeg or pdf for easy viewing, as not everyone has high resolution graphics software like CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator.



Here we see the finished laser plate, with revised greek letters, custom text under the logo, and the rest of the league information left aligned and stacked on the right side of the plate. This is the kind of bold, clean layout that gets noticed from across the room!






Here is another poor quality jpeg logo presented to us for laser engraving by a football league commissioner. The greyscale in this logo would not translate well on a laser plate, it would make the overall look very muddy.



Below is the revised artwork for the fantasy football trophy title plate. With the gretscale removed, we have a clean black and white logo which will really pop on the title plate.

Probably one of funniest types of engraving requests I get is when someone sends me an animated gif and asks if I can engrave it on their title plate.

Moving images are not suitable for laser engraving.

So what kinds of files should you send? .Tif files work very well, most jpegs do not. Just make sure that you can enlarge the file without loss of quality or getting the pixel effect. You can also save your file in a much larger size, as there is rarely a loss of quality when making an image smaller.

To see all of our fantasy football perpetual, loser and keeper trophies, visit us at Sculpture Alley!

Fantasy Football Trophies, Custom Logo Title Plates, Part 2

In the world of fantasy football trophies, nothing is more desirable than incorporating the league's custom logo into the title plate design. More and more fantasy leagues have their own logos, and branding the trophy with this image is not only cool, but it also makes other leagues that see the trophy salivate with envy!

Hands down, the biggest challenge in creating a custom laser engraved title plate lies in the artwork. Logo artwork needs to be camera ready, that means clear, crisp black and white art. Admittedly, I cringe when someone sends me art to review for their fantasy football trophy, I know when I open the file what I am going to see. Less than 1 percent of artwork submitted for engraving is acceptable, and I spend a great deal of time explaining to fantasy commishes why.

I am going to use actual examples of fantasy football trophy artwork submitted to illustrate this point. Let's start with exhibit A. This is typical of the kind of art file we receive. Most leagues create their logos in a jpeg format and have it posted up on their fantasy league website. While this is great for a website, it's no good for laser engraving. First of all, it is in color, and a laser only operates in black and white. There are a few exceptions in terms of greyscale that I will address in part 4 of this article.

The biggest problem with this logo, which is so common, is that when you attempt to enlarge it, the logo becomes pixilated, with jagged edges. With a laser engraved title plate, what you see is what you get, so having a pixilated and blurry image on the plate looks like, how shall I say it? Crap.

In the case of this fantasy league logo, we needed to completely recreate the artwork in a high resolution format. This means our graphics department had to draw the logo in CorelDraw which then can be used to engrave the plate. When a fantasy football logo has to be sent to the art department, we generate a proof for client review in a jpeg or pdf file for easy viewing.

In the second example above, we have inverted the file and changed the white to a gold color. This is very helpful for football leagues to imagine how their logo will look laser engraved on the trophy. At this point we can make changes to the logo to help clarify certain elements, based on what the league commissioner wants. Once approval is given on the art, we can complete the title plate on the fantasy football trophy!

Here we have the completed trophy, which you can click on to get a better look, along with any of the other pictures in this post. This fantasy football trophy also incorporates custom fonts, and again, prior to engraving, the entire layout was sent in a proof to the commish for approval.

If your logo needs to be recreated, you will have to pay a one time art charge, which is typically $30, but can be higher if the logo is super detailed and takes more time to draw and digitize.

Trust your trophy engraver if they tell you the artwork is not suitable. Look at the logo, try to enlarge it to a 4 inch by 4 inch size, and if looks pixilated, it's no good. Don't try to smooth it or sharpen contrast in your photo editing program and resubmit it again and again. Many fantasy leagues do this in an effort to avoid the art charge, and spend hours monkeying around with the logo. If you want the logo to look like it should on your football trophy, and you don't have a graphics artist in your league, just bite the bullet and have it done right. Our policy is, if the artwork won't look great on the plate, we simply don't accept it, because we know that ultimately the league will be disappointed with the results.

To see our full collection of fantasy football perpetual, loser and keeper trophies, visit us at Sculpture Alley! Please feel free to email or post any questions!

Fantasy Football Trophy, Custom Logo Title Plates Part 1

I've been wanting to write a detailed article about this subject for a long time, and I hope you will find this information useful.

Up to this point, my articles have featured trophies with standard engraving. For most fantasy football leagues, standard engraving is an elegant and classic choice. For other fantasy leagues that have a logo, we need to enter the realm of custom title plates.

With standard engraving, the metal is actually cut to a predetermined depth. If you rub your finger across the surface, you will feel the engraved characters. Most standard engraving machines have limitations on the number and style of fonts they can do. As I mentioned, this is a classic approach, and standard engraved plates have a great sparkle to them.

In the trophy example on the above, the top plate was done with standard engraving, and the bottom plate was engraved with a laser.

A laser engraver is an amazing and costly piece of equipment that offers stunning capabilities to recreate complex graphics. In the above example, the laser plate is a special brass stock specifically made for laser engraving. The brass has a thin black coating which the laser removes revealing the golden brass beneath. On a laser plate, if you run your finger across, it feels smooth, the engraved characters are barely perceptible.

For a fantasy football trophy featuring a laser engraved title plate, the logo and text must be digitized with graphics software. My next article will talk about the types of art files needed to make a laser title plate. Because the art is digital, the laser can engrave virtually any kind of font and graphics, although there are some tips and tricks to making your title plate graphics look their best, which I will cover under the art requirements article.

If you are interested in having a custom title plate for your fantasy football trophy, and you have a logo, you should email it to your engraver to make sure it will work. They can guide you on what changes need to be made in order to have your graphics really "pop" on the plate.

At Sculpture Alley, we really enjoy working on logo title plates, this makes the fantasy football trophy truly custom! To see our full collection of fantasy football perpetual, loser and keeper trophies, visit us at Sculpture Alley! Don't forget to visit our Fantasy Football Engraving Gallery!

Funny Fantasy Football Trophies, The Toilet Bowl Perpetual Trophy

In my last posts, I talked about individual fantasy football loser trophies. These are great at season end, or at the start of the new draft to remind an owner what NOT to do during the current football season.

The dead last loser in a fantasy football league deserves respect. It is not easy to do everything perfectly wrong! While the league winner is busy gloating and bragging, the league loser can take comfort in the fact that he or she has performed exceptionally poorly and can now be crowned Season Loser.

Nobody remembers who was second and ninth in Fantasy Football. Well, whoever came in second certainly remembers, but the glory goes to first and last. These are the celebrities of the fantasy football league!

For some leagues, the season loser is such a coveted position that like the Championship Football Trophy, they elect to do a Perpetual Loser Trophy. In this way, the annual loser can be appropriately honored and remembered year after year.

Having detail plates on your perpetual loser trophy allows you to include the year, owner name, team name, and for many, to include the loser's pathetic season end score. Adding this information to the detail plate makes sure that the loser never forgets, and that his fantasy football league mates can poke fun for years to come.

At Sculpture Alley, we create each fantasy football perpetual loser trophy with the same level of excellence that we apply to our champion perpetual trophies. To see our full line of fantasy football perpetual and loser trophies, visit us at Sculpture Alley!