Celebrating 10 Years of Making the Production Guild Awards with Artem 

It’s hard to believe we’ve been making the Production Guild Awards trophies for 10 years now! Our partnership with the Guild has been an incredible journey, and over the years, we’ve tweaked and perfected the design, resulting in the beautiful awards you see today.

It all kicks off with Ken, our go-to guy for the trophies. He’s been with us from the beginning and knows the process like the back of his hand. Ken oversees everything, from figuring out the production steps to working with specialist companies that help us maintain our high standards. It all starts with sourcing the solid aluminium bars that we use to make the awards, and one of the final, top-secret steps is engraving the names of the winners – a task only a select few are trusted with!

How the Trophies Are Made

The first thing Ken does is carefully skim the surface of the aluminium blocks to get them just right. Every block is handled with care to avoid scratches, and each one goes into our CNC mill, where all six sides are machined perfectly smooth. After that, Ken sands each piece with increasingly fine sandpaper until the brushed aluminium effect is spot-on.

We use local specialised businesses wherever possible when we have processes that we cannot manage internally, so the precision water jet cutting was carried out by Aqua Dynamics in Watlington.

Once Ken’s happy with how the awards look, they head over to Metro Plating in Uxbridge for anodising. This is where the trophies get their stunning gold finish and that beautiful, lustre we all love. After they come back from plating, Ken gives them one more polish to make sure they’re looking their best before engraving begins.

This is the part where things get serious. Engraving the winners’ names is no easy task—it takes precision and care. Ken runs multiple tests to make sure the milling machine is working perfectly, and the engraving is crystal clear. Once he’s happy, the six trophies are engraved, cleaned, and polished again.

Then comes the final touch: a thick piece of red felt is attached to the base of each award to protect surfaces and give the trophies a luxe finish. After that, they’re all wrapped up and ready to be delivered straight to The Grove Hotel for the big night.

A Decade of Celebrations

We can’t thank the Production Guild enough for trusting us with this project year after year. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners of the 2024 Production Guild Awards—we’re so proud to be part of this event and hope you all had an amazing night. Here’s to many more years of creating something special!