In ancient Greece they were memorials to military victory, set up on the field of battle at the precise spot where the enemy was defeated. The trophies of antiquity were constructed in the shape of human effigies, assembled from captured weapons and banners that were hung from trees or tied to stakes. In later centuries the anthropomorphic trophy eventually gave way to temples and triumphal arches. By the modern era trophies routinely combined elements borrowed from classical architecture with generic figures symbolizing various sports and achievements. Hollywood's Oscar, first presented in 1929, offered a streamlined version of the stereotypical trophy, paving the way for contemporary awards that have assumed a slew of imaginative shapes and forms.

Symbolic of the organizations that sponsor them, trophies are first and foremost a branding exercise. They are also unwitting time capsules--perfect expressions, in spite of themselves, of the era in which they were produced. Often oversize in keeping with their air of self-importance, and meant to look like they'll last, they're usually crafted from dense precious or semiprecious materials.

Creating a design award can be a daunting task. The challenge involves conceiving an object that's not only new but somehow noble, based on a genre that is essentially kitsch (think bowling trophies). At the same time the trophy should have a timeless, abstract quality that doesn't appear too suggestive of any style or period. Awards have morphed in recent years, as manufacturers have progressed in their ability to manipulate technologies and materials. Designers are beginning to push the limits of what we think of as a representative trophy: witness the optical illusion of Henk Stallinga's European Engineering Award; the cross-disciplinary design program led by William Drenttel, for the National Design Award; and this year's shape-shifting Chrysler Award, by Chuck Hoberman.


National Design Award (NDA)
Since 2000
DESIGNER: Helfand/Drenttel
materials: Silicon carbide
10.5"H x 3.5"W, 8 lbs
Announced in September to considerable fanfare, the new National Design Awards are given out by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, to honor recipients in five distinct categories "whose work demonstrates extraordinary vision and contributes to the national quality of life." In its first year awards went to Frank Gehry for Lifetime Achievement (a safe bet) and Apple Computer Inc. for Corporate Achievement (an even safer one), as well as winners in competitive categories for environment, product, and communications design. The NDA also recognized two "American Originals," 98-year-old Miami Beach architect Morris Lapidus, and the late teacher, dean, and architect John Hejduk.

The visual identity of the awards program is based on the asterisk (a device bordering on the cliché). "We chose the asterisk because of its formal beauty, its flexible meanings, and its inherently multidimensional shape," states the designer's Web page. A team of designers has taken an interdisciplinary approach to the award's identity, repeating the asterisk motif in varied renderings across a range of media that provide for stationery, signage, and the like. "It seemed a little nuts to say, in the year 2000, eThis is the NDA symbol, and you should be stuck with it forever,'" trophy design director Bill Drenttel observes. "The award celebrates all the design professions, so we wanted to give lots of people a chance to contribute their own interpretations."

The trophy--an extruded, torqued asterisk in section form--is crafted from silicon carbide, a diamond-hard material that's used to make the trays in which memory chips are manufactured. (The museum plans to use a different material each year to reflect advances in design.) "We wanted it to be a strong presentation of the basic identity," Drenttel says, "but we also wanted to make a beautiful object." Although the jury is still out on that one (reportedly some National Design Museum staff members are not pleased with the results), the trophy does do one thing well: you ought to be able to brandish a trophy--and this one you surely can.

Chrysler Award
Since 1993
Various designers and materials
The Chrysler--formerly the Daimler-Chrysler--is the chameleon of design awards. Given its automotive origins, it is fitting that the trophy changes styling every year. Whenever possible, the designer is a past winner (six are chosen annually). Gaetano Pesce, Lebbeus Woods, and Tod Williams and Billie Tsien have designed previous trophies. Magnificently oversize throughout its lifetime, the Chrysler has endured a succession of slights (Milton Glaser once withdrew his nomination in protest) and overwrought reiterations. This year's award is described by its designer, sculptor-turned-engineer-and-toy-whiz Chuck Hoberman, as "a pair of geometrical shapes that interactively transform into a second, different pair of geometrical shapes." Readers who have trouble visualizing this feat are referred to the illustrations.

 

EUROPEAN ENGINEERING AWARD
since 1998
DESIGNER: HENK STALLINGA
materials: Silver-plated metal
8"H x 4" diam., 2.5 lbs.
Young Dutch design lion Henk Stallinga is perhaps best known on these shores for his Blister Lamps, formerly hanging in the Museum of Modern Art's Garden Cafe. "The field of award design is still a virgin one," he says, as if he intends to violate it. For this award, which is given out every other year, Stallinga devised a rather distracting trophy, which is in effect an optical illusion. It is crafted from a single length of wire that is bent and twisted in the shape of a modified S-curve. The vertical wire represents one half of the typical trophy's silhouette. The award revolves on a motorized base, its speed of rotation creating the appearance of a three-dimensional object.

 

The National Magazine Award
Since 1966
DESIGNER: ALEXANDER CALDER
materials: copper
10"H x 14"W, 4 lbs.
A maquette for one of Calder's stabiles--an elephant rendered abstractly in the late American master's signature style--the model was purchased originally from a New York City gallery. The hefty trophy (Ellie, as it's informally known in magazine circles) has been fabricated over the years by a foundry approved by the Calder estate. Awards in the category of magazine design, given out since 1980, have gone to publications as diverse as Nautical Quarterly, Wired, and Martha Stewart Living.

 

American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA)
Since 1920
DESIGNER: James Earle Frazer
materials: Gold
2.75" diam., 4.9 oz.
Created by the designer of the Indian head/buffalo nickel, who later made some monumental sculptures for the 1939 New York World's Fair, the AIGA medal shows on its front a gnarled old tree with fruit hanging from it. On the reverse a muscular workman, stripped to the waist, cranks an etching press. According to Steven Heller, author of a history of the AIGA, the award belongs to the tradition of artisans' medals from an era when "graphic arts" meant the draftsmen's and the printers' trades, and the organization's members included such artistic giants as Louis Comfort Tiffany and Charles Dana Gibson.

 

The Pritzker Architecture Prize
Since 1979
DESIGNER: Bill Lacey
materials: Bronze
2.25" diam., 4 oz.
Called the Nobel Prize of Architecture, the Pritzker was originally presented in the form of a biomorphic statuette created by sculptor Henry Moore. When copies of the limited edition ran out, the Pritzker committee made the curiously anachronistic decision to mint a traditional medal. The medallion itself is based on the designs of Louis Sullivan, the famed Chicago architect generally acknowledged as the father of the skyscraper. On one side is the name of the prize, where the laureate's name is also inscribed; on the reverse, Vitruvius's three rules of architecture: "firmness, commodity, delight." Definitely a class act.

 

Society of Publication Designers (SPD)
Since 1965
DESIGNER: MASSIMO VIGNELLI
materials: SOLID BRASS
6" sq., 8 oz.
The SPD was born out of frustration. The society was founded because the Art Directors Club at the time did not welcome editorial art directors who specialized in magazines. Jack Golden and Massimo Vignelli set out to redress the slight, and today the society honors designers of newspapers, corporate and academic publications, consumer and trade magazines, and yes, Web sites. The SPD award looks like a folded piece of paper. This minimalist cast is understandable, given its design by Modernist stalwart Vignelli. Yet you can't help but get the feeling the trophy's a bit, well... undernourished.

 

Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA)
Since 1983
DESIGNER: B. K. Weise
materials: Brushed aluminum
5.5"H x 7.25"W, 2 lbs.
Originally a mere certificate, the society's IDEA award was itself eventually put up for competition. According to the friendly folks at the awards office, the winning trophy--a playful but flimsy interpretation of Milton Glaser's Art Deco-ish typeface Babyteeth--has an unfortunate tendency to pull apart (an obvious drawback in an award for industrial design). However, the society assured us that with proper coaching award winners have managed to hold on to their spoils. (Only once has the trophy slipped apart onstage.) Originally fabricated in ColorCore, the IDEA is currently executed in a more upscale--and slippery--metallic version.

 

Art Directors Club (ADC)
Since 1978
DESIGNER: Gene Federico
materials: Gold award: Polished solid brass, 3" sq., 9 lbs.;
Silver award: Polished solid aluminum, 3" sq., 3 lbs.
The Art Directors Club has been doling out awards since 1920, and its list of previous winners--among them Herbert Bayer, Paul Rand, and Ben Shahn--reads like a pantheon of graphic design. During the 1960s, the Club's gold medallion was encased in a lucite cube, since replaced by the current design by late New York advertising great and past winner Gene Federico. His brainstorm was to get rid of the medal and to substitute a metal cube inscribed with a diminutive ADC logo--lifted from Albrecht Dürer's monogram--along with the winner's name. To celebrate its 75th anniversary, the Club that year reissued the lucite-encased medallion (reportedly, to mixed response from members who had grown attached to Federico's tongue-in-cheek concept).