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November 16, 2020 by ARN Leave a Comment

End of Year Awards Season Is Here!

It’s beginning to feel like End of Year Awards Season at Tustin Awards! And every day, we talk to clients who describe the tremendous dedication, innovation, and perseverance of their employees. With a new year on the horizon, now is a fantastic time to recognize those who have stepped up in big ways to support the continued success of your company.

Having been in the awards and engraving industry for over 40 years, we know that End of Year Awards Season may occur at different times depending on the company. For example, many customers combine their annual employee awards event with their company holiday party. Other clients wait until as late as March or April to ensure company data (i.e. sales figures, percentages, etc.) has been calculated before recognizing employee achievements from the prior year.

Whenever your End of Year Awards Season rolls around, here are a few things to consider:

Start Shopping Early
Create Excitement
Think About Delivery
Adding A Special Touch

Start Shopping Early

For the best selection and pricing, start your award search at least 3-4 weeks before your deadline. Standard production time for most orders during End of Year Awards Season is around 2-3 weeks after final proof approval (production times may vary depending on the award style, quantity, and number of engraving locations). However, we will do our best to meet any presentation deadline. For completely custom award styles or orders over 50 pieces, we recommend 5-6 weeks for design, production, and personalization.

Create Excitement

This year, many of our customers have shifted from in-person awards presentations to virtual ceremonies. Despite the change in format, most event and marketing departments still to send out formal invitations, company swag, gift baskets, party favors and more ahead of time to create excitement for the event. If you need help with any of these elements, call or email us for ideas! Or you can visit our promotional product page for inspiration.

Think About Delivery

To maintain the surprise of a virtual awards presentation, most customers have the awards arrive about a week after the presentation. We recommend allowing our shipping specialists to carefully pack and ship your awards to the individual recipients for added convenience and peace of mind (no one likes to receive a broken award).

Add A Special Touch

For a special touch, many clients provide personalized cards for us to insert into the individual award boxes. We can also include additional tokens of appreciation such as corporate branded journals, shirts, lapel pins and more. And we offer custom ribbon and gift box options to heighten the prestige of the award presentation. Adding these elements to your award presentation will amplify the significance of the awards and the appreciation the recipients feel when they receive them.

At Tustin Awards, we combine family business values with industry-leading expertise. We take great pride in creating high-quality awards and promotional products which bring joy to other people. And we look forward to collaborating with you on your End of Year Awards!

October 29, 2020 by Tustin Awards Leave a Comment

Spectacular Corporate Holiday Gifts for 2020

Looking for corporate holiday gifts and awards? Not sure where to begin? At Tustin Awards, we are here to help!

Appreciation Means A Little More

We recognize 2020 has been of full of unforeseen challenges for countless companies, but the need for employee recognition is stronger now than ever before. In response, many organizations have transitioned their annual in-person holiday parties and awards ceremonies to virtual celebrations. Although many of these events have moved online, sending your employees corporate holiday gifts and awards will infuse your online event with pizazz and prestige. And it will enable the celebration to continue long after the party has ended.

Corporate Holiday Gift Trends for 2020

Here are a few of the trends we are seeing this year for corporate holiday gifts and awards:

Comfort Food – A classic for a reason, food gifts are a popular choice in 2020 to bring “tidings of comfort and joy” this holiday season. One of our favorite lines is Maple Ridge Farms. From savory to sweet, Maple Ridge Farms has it all. If your holiday party is online, why not bring the charcuterie plate to your guests with a Gourmet Cheese & Sausage Plate with an elegant slate platter.

Self-Care – While PPE has undoubtedly been a huge seller in 2020, customers are continuing this trend for their corporate holiday gifts. One of our favorite new ideas is our Modern Sprout Indoor Herb Garden Kit which features fun multicolor reusable mason jars to grow your choice of cilantro, basil, or mint. We also love the Beekman 1802 Farm to Skin Ultimate Handcare Gift Set which uses the simplest and best ingredients found in nature to soothe and clean your hands.

Work-From-Home – Make sure you and your employees put their best face forward with this Lume Cube Video Conference Lighting Kit. Compatible with both Laptops and Desktops, the Panel Mini LED light provides soft and professional illumination with fully adjustable controls. We also love this Moleskine® Large Journal to keep our thoughts organized between meetings.

Awards – The versatility of awards cannot be underestimated. With the additional pressures our customers have faced this year, many are using awards to recognize the COVID Heroes in their lives such as healthcare workers, teachers, police officers, and firemen. And awards continue to be a popular choice for employee and donor recognition. As more people work from home, we have also seen increased demand for paperweights and acrylic awards such as our acrylic Radiant Jewel Block and Beveled Rectangle because they are less likely to break and easier to ship to recipients than larger awards.

Shop Local for Corporate Holiday Gifts & Awards

When you order corporate holiday gifts, trophies, and plaques from Tustin Awards, you will experience our relentless commitment to quality, customer service, value, and integrity. For 40+ years, we have been blessed to work with truly incredible customers. They have inspired us, encouraged us, and enabled us to give back to our community. Click here to find out more about the advantage of shopping local for your corporate awards and holiday gifts!

Have questions or ready to order? Email us or call us at 714-247-2277 to make magic happen this season for your corporate awards and holiday gifts!

October 22, 2020 by ARN Leave a Comment

How to Order a Custom Trophy

At Tustin Awards, even after 40+ years in business, we still get excited when someone chooses us to create a custom trophy.

From designing crystal showstoppers for elite corporate events to turning taxidermy farm animals into office gag gifts, we have seen and done a lot. Oh, the stories we could tell…. That said, we are genuinely honored and inspired each time a customer calls us for their awards, gifts, and promotional products.

Custom awards require a collaborative approach. Some clients walk in with a clear vision; they have vector drawings, Pantone colors, fonts and materials picked out, and they ask us to execute their meticulously crafted plan. But even when clients have every detail chosen, often design modifications need to be made to ensure readability, overcome manufacturing challenges, meet deadlines, etc. Alternatively, some clients call us knowing they want a custom trophy or plaque, but need help seeing what is possible or coming up with ideas to present to decision-makers. And others run into our showroom with their hair on fire and need something fabulous in a few hours.

Whether big or small, we approach each custom trophy with creativity, and we always keep our customer’s best interest in mind.

In serving you, we always ask ourselves questions like: Which options will maximize your budget? Where can we save time to ensure we meet your deadline? How can we make your award unforgettable?

Why Create A Custom Trophy?

One-of-a-Kind
Always “On Brand”
People Need Recognition

One-of-a-Kind – Extraordinary achievements merit extraordinary awards. Ordering a custom trophy will make a statement about the impact a person has on your organization and your appreciation for them. With our endless customization capabilities, we can design your award to include engraving, sand carving, full color printing, and 3-D subsurface etching. We can also incorporate materials such as crystal, glass, acrylic, bronze, stainless steel, and more!

Always “On Brand” – Although “stock” awards come in a variety of colors, materials, shapes, and sizes, few awards perfectly align with specific corporate branding standards. However, when you order a custom trophy or plaque, you can tailor every award detail to match your marketing guidelines. For added flair, we can incorporate event themes into the award and promotional product design as well. See our Custom Awards page for some of our customization options.

People Need Recognition – Now more than ever, a simple thank you means more than we imagine. Whether working in an office, medical setting, classroom, or even remotely, employees deserve recognition for their continued dedication and sacrifice. A custom trophy tells employees that their exceptional efforts are deeply valued. To read more about the heightened importance of employee recognition, click here!

As companies transition to virtual presentations and alternatives to traditional awards ceremonies, we are responding with innovation and creativity to the changing needs of our clients.

To meet the needs of our customers, we have expanded our services to include drop-shipping to individual customers, providing printed cards for a personal touch, and much more! Despite these changes, we remain resolute in our commitment to quality, customer service, creativity, and value.

And for clients looking to save time and money, we have thousands of “stock” awards, trophies, and plaques to choose from. With on-site engraving, sand etching, and full color printing, we can turn a standard award into a masterpiece. The Shop Awards page is a great place to start to see our standard award styles. And feel free to call or email us for more options of standard award shapes which can be customized!

The excitement we feel in creating something no one has ever seen before is only surpassed by the joy we receive in knowing our customers absolutely love the awards we create for them.

Have questions about ordering custom awards and plaques? For more information about minimum order quantities, personalization options, materials, and minimum order quantities, check out our Custom Awards page for these details and more.

Call Tustin Awards for the custom trophy of your dreams!

September 24, 2020 by Tustin Awards Leave a Comment

How Tustin Awards Came to Be

I’m Jake Hill, and my wife Mary and I own Tustin Awards. Let me tell you the story of how it all began…

So, where do we start? Do we go all the way back to the mid 1950’s or do we start when my parents (Carl and Ardelle) bought a tiny trophy shop in 1978? Yes, Tustin Awards was originally started in 1955 and located in Santa Ana. Eventually, one of the subsequent owners moved it to a small storefront on the corner of Newport Ave. and Irvine Blvd. in Tustin. And that is where it was when our family joined the ranks of engravers!

After two moves and a name change from Tustin Trophy and Engraving to Tustin Awards, we landed at our current location on Bell Ave. in Tustin. I’ve been asked many times what my first job was at Tustin Awards and my answer is always the same: taking out the trash (facts are facts).

Eventually, my parents taught my wife Mary and I how to engrave and assemble plaques and trophies. Eight years later in 1993, Mary and I bought the business from my parents and moved it to the Bell Ave. address. At that point, we had already branched out into the Ad Specialty market, and later expanded our capabilities with in-house digital printing.

Tustin Awards was fast becoming one of the largest awards dealers in Orange County and the United States, and we continued to grow until the great recession in 2008. After a couple of years, we started to grow once again. We have been fortunate to serve thousands of satisfied clients and customers, and we continue to expand our line with new products and services.

Since the COVID- 19 virus invaded our shores, Tustin Awards has pivoted by adding PPE products and we now ship more of our awards to recipients’ homes. Despite the new challenges we face, our production time remains unchanged, and we can still process rush orders in one or two days.

Since day one, Tustin Awards has engraved and assembled all awards in-house. This allows us to have strict quality control standards and remain at the top of our industry. Our client base comes from all across the United States and Canada, and over 85% of Tustin Awards sales are from repeat customers.

We have met some wonderful people along the way, and we sincerely appreciate the opportunity to recognize the true champions and heroes among us.

We never take for granted the trust our clients have in us, and we constantly strive to be better each day. It is this deeply held value which has inspired us to place multiple signs on the walls of Tustin Awards engraved with our motto:

“We are here to serve people and solve problems. That’s what we do.”

On behalf of the entire Tustin Awards staff, we look forward to serving you.

Thank you,

Jake Hill

President

Tustin Awards, Inc.

September 23, 2020 by ARN Leave a Comment

Tips for Choosing Your Golf Trophy

A golf trophy can take your average day at the links and make it feel like a PGA tournament. And with awards in every style and price point, Tustin Awards has the selection, service, and expertise to make sure you have the perfect golf trophy for your next event.

Whether you are planning a high-stakes game among friends or an elite corporate tournament, here are a few things to consider when ordering a golf trophy:

The Basics – Style, Budget, & Event Date
Specialty Awards
Sponsor Recognition
Swag for Players

The Basics – Style, Budget, & Event Date

Golf awards come in many different styles. For a budget friendly metal golf tournament trophy, we recommend our Champion Cup which features a gold metal cup on a solid black marble base. Or, if you’re looking for an elite metal tournament cup, we have our stunning Royal Victory Cup which has a premium silver cup on a polished rosewood base. We also have plenty of crystal golf trophy options to choose from for your elite tournament which can be found here. Besides choosing your golf trophy style, we also recommend having a budget and event date in mind. Having this information when you place your order will ensure your golf awards meet your expectations, budget, and deadline.

Specialty Awards

For larger golf tournaments, it is common for companies to order multiple awards for different categories. For example, often there is one championship golf trophy which is updated annually with the tournament winner names. In addition, companies also may order four sets of 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place awards (one for each person on the respective teams). Other commonly ordered golf trophy categories include Longest Drive, Closest to the Pin, as well as a “joke” trophy for whoever had the worst score.

Sponsor Recognition

In addition to awards for players, it is common for our non-profit clients to order sponsor recognition gifts and awards. Our Black Finish Plaque is a fantastic budget friendly option for expressing gratitude to the companies and individuals who helped support your event. As a bonus, when sponsors display your award in their companies and homes, this helps other people learn about your organization and increases name recognition. If you rely on donors to ensure your event is a success, we strongly recommend ordering an extra golf trophy or two for these worthy recipients.

Swag for Players

Besides earning a spot on the coveted championship golf trophy, another crucial aspect of any golf tournament is the swag – customized golf balls, polo shirts, towels, beverage holders, and more! In addition to awards, we also offer a variety of promotional products from name brands like Callaway, Cutter & Buck, Titleist, Nike, and Wilson to ensure no one goes home empty handed. To help maximize your budget, you can even ask sponsors if they would like to help cover the cost of your promo items in exchange for sharing the imprint area (i.e. adding their logo to the back of a cap).

With over 40 years of expertise, Tustin Awards is your Orange County source for everything you need to make your golf tournament a success. And if you have any questions, we are happy to chat over the phone or via email to ensure your awards and promotional product shopping experience is as easy as possible.

Visit our showroom or shop online for your golf trophy today!

August 28, 2020 by Tustin Awards Leave a Comment

The Plaque – A Classic Recognition Choice

The plaque has been a staple in the incentive process for many years. Over time, plaques have transitioned from wall mounted mementos with an engraved metal plate, to include full-color printing and engraving. Our customer service experts at Tustin Awards are here to help you find the right style award for your deserving recipients.

Why Plaques Now

The importance of recognition and appreciation is paramount in keeping morale at a high level, especially in times of uncertainty. With many employees now working remotely, the demands on employees to balance family obligations while still excelling professionally have created unprecedented stress. This drive to persevere merits recognition and the plaque is a perfect choice for acknowledging these efforts.

Materials & Styles

Walnut is the traditional choice for the wall plaque. However, we have expanded our options to include materials such as polished rosewood and glass for a modern executive look. We also offer budget-friendly options such as our walnut finish plaque. This option has a thin walnut laminate over a pressboard plaque. Plaques can also include glass or acrylic “stand up” pieces when wall space is not available. These are highly effective at keeping your encouraging message at eye level. We also have a variety of options that can be made from marble, slate, granite, and Eco-friendly products.

Customization

Tustin Awards is your partner in designing the custom award of your dreams when you are looking for something “outside the box”. With innovative customer service professionals as well as on-site engraving and full-color printing, even after 40+ years, we still get excited to create something we have never seen before. Feel free to visit our custom award page for more information or call us for immediate service.

Specialty Options

One common category is the perpetual plaque. These are made to recognize winners of sales contests, academic achievements, or donations to charitable causes. They have plates on them which can be updated regularly as new people achieve milestones. Perpetual designs can range from our traditional walnut perpetual plaque to custom donor walls that are 10 feet long!

Cast bronze or cast aluminum plaques also have a long history. If you have ever been to a sports hall of fame, you have seen them on the walls honoring player achievements (the Baseball Hall of Fame is one impressive example). Historical landmarks and statues often have a cast plaque explaining the significance of a historical event. They are also seen on the walls of schools and universities when rooms, halls, or buildings are named after donors or civic leaders. These plaques are also often used for grave markers in cemeteries all around the world. More information about our cast plaque options can be found here.

Tustin Awards – Your Orange County Plaque Source

Tustin Awards has the expertise to help you choose the best plaque for your team! With on-site engraving and assembly, we can guarantee your award will be of the highest quality and treasured award for years to come. Shop local at Tustin Awards!

By Jake Hill