Fantasy Football Trophies Engraving Part 3

One of the great features of a fantasy football perpetual trophy is that you can update it every year with the league winner. On a fantasy football trophy equipped with detail plates, you simply detach a plate and take it to your local engraver with the winner's information.

Individual detail plates are generally not very large, and some consideration should be given as to exactly what will be included on the plates, so there is a consistent appearance to the plates year after year. Click on the detail plate pictures in this post to get a better view.








The less text on the plate, the bigger it will be. I suggest no more than 3 lines for a detail plate, with a max of 20 characters per line, and even 20 characters is pushing it a bit.

Some of the most popular information to include on a detail plate is:

1. Year
2. Team Name
3. Owner's Name
4. Season Score

A good layout would be:

2004

Bubba's Bombers

Jim Glass

Some fantasy football leagues that have been around for a while, and have many past winners elect to do "list style" engraving. Rather than use the little detail plates, I make large plates for the side, and engrave the information in a line. While I personally like the look of detail plates, for some leagues this is a better option.

As with anything in life, there are pros and cons to list style engraving. On the positive side, you can fit more winners on the side of the fantasy football trophy. If you have quite a few engravings, it looks cool.

On the down side, if you don't have many winners, or whole plates that are not engraved, it can make the trophy look empty.

Also, yearly updates can be more expensive. It can be difficult to match the exact font (unless the same engraver made the first engraving) and to get the line in the exact position. For this reason, many engravers will just redo the entire plate, and that's where the expense comes in.

Detail plates are also covered with clear tape that protects them from scratching. It is removed prior to engraving. With list style plates, the tape has been removed, so care must be used when transporting it to the engraver.

Please feel free to ask any questions, and check out my Fantasy Football Trophies at Sculpture Alley!

Fantasy Football Trophies Engraving Part 1

Engraving is a huge part of the Fantasy Football Trophy. Personalizing the trophy is what makes it yours, and unique to your league. I am asked so many questions about engraving, I had to make a FAQ page to answer some of the more common issues.

In my opinion, less is more when it comes to engraving. The more text you try to squeeze on a plate, the less emphasis is placed on key elements of the engraving. The engraving tells a story, the who, what where, when and why of an event. It may include some or all of this information.

The most common question I am asked is, "How many letters can I fit on a plate?"

For a regular trophy, sculpture or keeper, a good rule of thumb is 60 characters, in 3 lines with 20 characters each. Most plates can accept this much text, look nice, and still be easily read. I see some dealers advertising more characters and more lines, but you will need a magnifying glass to read your plate! It is important that your trophy dealer uses their experience to guide you as to what will or will not fit. I review all engraving and formatting via email so that people will have a good idea of what the finished product will look like.

Perpetual Football Trophies with large header plates can accept more engraving, I will be covering this in Engraving Part 2.

There are a few key points to keep in mind when submitting your engraving.

Check your spelling. Seriously, use a spell checker, and triple check the spelling of names. The trophy dealer has no way of knowing what is correct, and they will do exactly what you submit.

Many people submit engraving like this:

Bob "Bubba" Smith Red Zone FFL Champion

A long single line like this doesn't work. The text is made smaller due to the limit of the plate length, and the rest of the plate (above and below the engraved line) looks empty.

Break apart your engraving to add emphasis, for example:

Bob "Bubba" Smith

Red Zone FFL Champion

or

Bob "Bubba" Smith

Red Zone FFL

CHAMPION

or

RED ZONE

Bob "Bubba" Smith

FFL Champion

This will make your engraving go smoothly with the trophy dealer, as they will know exactly what you want. You can make elements larger, bold, italics and caps easily in most email programs. Don't hesitate to experiment with different formats to get the engraving exactly as you want it.

Please feel free to ask any questions, and check out my entire line of Fantasy Football Trophies at Sculpture Alley!