Note 0263D Printing3 min read
Custom trophies and awards, 3D printed in Doha
How a custom trophy or award is designed, printed and finished in Doha, from the idea to a gold finish, with three real pieces and what to send.
A trophy is kept long after the evening it was given on. Designed for the occasion, for the sport, the company or the reason it is awarded, it says more than one chosen from a catalogue, and with 3D printing it is made here in Doha in the numbers you need, from a single piece to a set.
Three pieces we made
The pieces below are real, and each has its own page: what was asked, how it was made and the hours it took.
The football trophy holds a classic panelled ball in a pair of goalkeeper gloves on a sweeping base, 225 mm tall. It was modelled in 3D over two days as parts that could print side by side, printed in PETG on four printers, about five hours each, then filled, sanded, painted by hand in gold, black and silver, and sealed in a high-gloss clear coat.
Not every award is a cup. The 3D Engineering DNA is a desktop sculpture: a double helix built of pipes, columns and intermeshing gears. Its fine spire was printed in grey resin and its base in PETG, a hybrid that keeps the detail sharp and the piece steady on a desk.
And the Hand of Justice shows what a piece for a wall can be: one metre tall, a hand reaching out of the map of Qatar in maroon and white to hold a golden scale, printed in parts on three printers and joined so that the seams disappear.
From the idea to the drawing
A trophy starts as an idea: a shape that stands for the sport or the reason for the award, a logo, a building, a figure. It is drawn and modelled in 3D, and the design is agreed with you before anything is printed, the base and its lettering included.
Printed in the right material
Most trophies are printed by FDM in PETG, which is tough and holds its shape in the warmth of a Doha summer; fine detail, like the DNA's spire or a small figure, is printed in resin. Our materials guide compares them.
The finish makes the trophy
Off the printer, a trophy is raw plastic with its layers showing. The finishing team fills it and sands it smooth, primes it and paints it by hand, in metallic gold, in a team's colours or in a company's, and seals it in a clear coat.
The same shape reads as playful or formal depending on its finish.
One trophy or a set
Without a mould, one trophy is as practical as twenty, and a set can share one design with a different name, year or category on each base. A large piece for a stage or a lobby is printed in sections and joined.
What to send us
- What the award is for, and who gives it
- How many, and what differs between them: names, years, categories
- A size, or where it will stand
- Your logo or artwork, and the finish you have in mind
- The date of the ceremony
Send it on WhatsApp or through the contact page. Every enquiry is answered the same working day, and every quote includes its timeline, so the ceremony's date is planned back from.
Awards for Qatar National Day have a guide of their own: our guide to Qatar National Day gifts.
Follow the studio
The work in these notes, as it is made: pieces off the printers, systems going live.
