YOU design an FRC trophy!

[EricH]

To go along with Billfred's suggestion here, I'm starting this thread to collect ideas for trophy designs. This is entirely unofficial, and more of a personal challenge than anything else. Comments are welcomed on any design posted

Here's the challenge: Come up with a design that you think would:
a) look good in your favorite trophy case (AKA yours)
b) be cheap to make
c) be lightweight to reduce shipping costs
d) be durable

Flex your creative juices, and let's see what we can come up with. Hopefully, FRC HQ sees some of these ideas. (If not, then AndyMark...)

Starting out, I've got one in the attachment. That is not meant to be the FIRST logo, BTW--it's meant to be a representation of the shapes. The base is left very generic for simplicity. Material is something durable and ideally somewhat translucent.

[ATannahill]

May I submit a 5th design requirement? (It's not engineering if the demanded product doesn't change.)

e. Easy to stack/interlock to reduce space in storage and shipping.

[ChuckDickerson]

Originally Posted by rtfgnow

e. Easy to stack/interlock to reduce space in storage and shipping.

Or maybe even better, could be shipped in a couple of smaller pieces and assembled quickly and easily at the event prior to the awards ceremony(s). This would allow teams to also disassemble them for more easy shipment for the journey home. I know teams have received some flack from TSA trying to board and airplane with sharp pointy trophies and I couldn't imagine putting them in checked baggage for fear of breaking.

[EricH]

Or, we'll go with the generic requirement:
e) Easy to transport in luggage on an airplane by a team
e1) Also easy to transport with the field (or make locally)

[dag0620]

Here is the trophy design we did for the 2011 WIWI. We always design and complete final assembly in house, and have a new design each year.

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/252870_1813497372382_1088460135_31574210_1466122_n .jpg?dl=1

[Billfred]

I like both Alex's and Chuck's ideas, and came up with this rough, not-even-remotely-to-scale sketch on my iPad. (In my mind, the visible parts of each stage of the trophy would be roughly equal.)

What I envision are three extruded shapes nested inside each other--square and round tubing is abundant, and finding triangular extrusion can't be THAT hard. The exact sizes of the tubes can be adjusted to suit the significance of the award, and the trophy could be made to (dis)assemble by use of set screws in the back; wrapped in tissue paper to protect the finish, the pieces should be able to nest in the square to make shipping them more compact. (As for finish, I'd want some expert opinions--anodizing anything in white appears prohibitively complex, and thus likely expensive if my Google-fu is strong.)

The blue bottom member would carry the FRC logo, while the award name and event could be engraved on the red top piece (perhaps turned 90 degrees for space). I believe engraving the red piece would make the trophy more visually appealing, though if cost savings ruled that out I'd suggest to rotate the square 45 degrees and engrave the FRC logo and award on adjacent sides. To save FIRST from wasting a bunch of engraved pieces on relatively rare four-team alliances, the policy becomes that the alternate team and the team it replaced leave the venue that day with one trophy each; the money FIRST spends on shipping the second trophy to those two teams will almost certainly be less if history is any indication.

I encourage anyone who actually knows what they're doing to chime in with feedback.

[BHS_STopping]

Here's a pretty simple design I whipped up fairly quickly. Basically it comes in two parts, the upright and the base. Easily disassembled for transport/storage. I envision that this would be a good trophy for the "minor" awards (i.e. anything but Chairman's, Regional Champion, maybe EI as well?). Both parts would probably be made in a mold (it'd be pretty difficult to engrave the logo and text). I feel like it'd be more durable (and less pointy!) than the current award design, and could probably survive a drop without any parts breaking off.

Fun challenge Eric! I might make some more designs later.

http://i.imgur.com/MyYYr.png

[J93Wagner]

Hmm... Interesting idea for a thread. Bookmarking for revisiting at a later time.

[Eugene Fang]

Not FRC, but Team 604 made these trophies a few years ago for FLL teams the NorCal Championship. (The puzzles, water droplet, etc. reflected the FLL challenge theme for those two years).

They were 0.25" smoked lexan on an aluminum base.

[Ankit S.]

The lexan pieces are bolted in via holes at the back of the base, and can be removed.

The plate is for any engravings needed.

[JB987]

Originally Posted by BeltSanderRocks

The lexan pieces are bolted in via holes at the back of the base, and can be removed.

The plate is for any engravings needed.

Great design! Easily scaled up in size for those who think that "size really does matter".

[PAR_WIG1350]

The top would be some visually appealing metal, or at least plated in something decorative. I personally like anodized aluminium.

One possible variation would be to tilt the pillar to one side to make it seem more dramatic.

[Chris is me]

I think the Winner style trophies are perfect if they were made as big as before.

The technical award trophies having just a single base piece looks nice, but maybe with a better FIRST logo on top it would be better. I'd love if the trophies looked like their respective awards - Motorola Quality being a beautiful, polished brushed aluminium FIRST logo on stands, Xerox Creativity being something completely off the wall, etc.