Can't decide what to put on your Fantasy Football Trophy Title Plate?

Sometimes it is not the easiest thing in the world to decide what to put on your Fantasy Football Trophy title plate. If you have a mature league, and the league name is etched in stone, you are probably in good shape.

But what happens if you want to order your championship trophy, and the league is new, with a league name being in flux? What sounds good after a long day of football and six packs may not stand the test of time. Also, many leagues decide to do a custom title plate with a logo or other custom graphics, but the group cannot decide on the look they want.

In these cases, rather than rake yourself over the coals trying to make a snap decision, you can have a preliminary title plate made, and attached with screws. This gives you the option to easily remove the title plate in the future, and have another one made.

As you can see by this example, the look of a mounted title plate on your Fantasy Football Trophy can be both decorative and elegant. The trophy dealer can create embellished corners, and even use decorative rosettes to further jazz up the screws and work them into the design.

Later, when it is time to make a new plate, you can remove the first one and take it or send it to your engraver, so they can put holes in the exact same position as the previous plate. Additionally, adhesive backing can be used on the plate to hide the fact that the base was ever drilled.

This is a great way to get over the anxiety of choosing the perfect text at the time of purchase!

For other tips, please read my prior posts, and feel free to stop by and see my full collection of perpetual fantasy football trophies at Sculpture Alley!

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 2

Once you have selected a fantasy football perpetual trophy, you will need to decide on the text for the header or title plate. Many perpetual trophies feature a large plate which will accept more text than a keeper award. In my Engraving Part 1, I suggest around 60 characters for a keeper award, but a large header plate can easily fit 100 characters.

That doesn't mean you should do 100 characters, it just means you can. The nice thing about a large header plate is that you can make your league name really shine by engraving it in large type.

Take a good look at the header plate. Do you like the engraving style? Does it look cool to you? Do you want another font? Before you buy, contact the dealer and ask about your options. Don't be afraid to ask questions! A good trophy dealer will offer you options, and should have samples for you to look at.

Let's get back to what text to put on a fantasy football perpetual trophy header plate.

1. The league name is obviously most important. Many customers ask for their league initials, such as CKFFL. On a large header plate, you can actually spell out the league name. In the trophy shown above, I used the league initials in a decorative medallion.

2. Most folks will want the words "Fantasy Football League" on the header plate.

3. Champion, Champions, or Championship Trophy. This lets everyone know what this trophy is about! You can also have a league start date, for example "Est. 1992"

Many people submit their header plate information in all caps like this:

GRIDIRON GODS
FANTASY FOOTBALL LEAGUE
CHAMPIONS

This is fine, but consider that having all the type in caps doesn't draw attention to any particular part of the engraving. Experiment with different formats; some caps, upper and lower case, perhaps a portion in italics. For example:

GRIDIRON GODS

Fantasy Football League

CHAMPIONS

Here is another cool option for league initials. In this plate, I curved the league name around a football graphic, and put the league initials inside the football.


Give some thought and planning to your header plate, and you'll have a fantasy football trophy that you and your league can be proud of for many years.

Please feel free to ask any questions, and check out my line of fantasy football perpetual trophies, loser trophies and more 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!