Crystal cubes are a popular option for many deal toy and award designs. It’s not hard to understand their appeal. They combine the elegance of crystal with the subtlety of a simple geometric shape. What tends to be far less known and appreciated is the range of design possibilities offered by “basic” cube designs. There are, in fact, a number of techniques and features available within the “simple but elegant” effect that Crystal promises—and that most clients are seeking.
This post will explore five variations that can give your crystal cube design additional impact and cachet.
1) 3D Laser Etching: Uniquely Suited to Crystal Cubes
Laser engraving in crystal is a visually striking effect that is unique to crystal. The obvious depth of the cube shape makes it ideal for capturing the rich detail of this three-dimensional etching process.
The gallery below features a number of examples of 3D laser etching. You can see the high level of precision possible in replicating complex artwork. This opens up a wealth of creative options.
For example, the first cube design (in profile, on the top-left corner) celebrates a commercialization agreement between American and Japanese pharmaceutical firms. The virtue of this design is that it conveys the very nature—and significance— of the agreement itself. The internal etching depicts human lungs; the drug at the center of the agreement was a treatment for lung disease.
Not many other designs could convey this kind of information (that the piece celebrates an agreement making a lung disease treatment accessible to Japan) so seamlessly and elegantly. The piece below it, with the laser-etched syringe, is another example. It not only celebrates the successful launch of an investment fund but also makes clear its primary focus: healthcare.
2) Base Variations in Cube Designs
The addition of a base opens up another creative avenue for cube designs. Several of the pieces below (such as the Blackstone fund launch commemorative) involve the addition of a simple offsetting black base. Some of the other designs are more elaborate. The green motherboard-patterned base also featured here provides some contrasting color to the overall design. But it also conveys unmistakably the focus of the investment fund whose successful launch is being celebrated: the technology sector.
Other base options can be even more involved. In the Zendesk piece, also featured here, the crystal piece itself is a much smaller component of the overall design.
3) Shape Variations that Can Enliven Crystal Cubes
A small repositioning of a crystal cube can transform its visibility and prominence—and therefore increase its perceived value among recipients and others. This can be achieved simply by laying the cube on its corner, as in the Blackstone piece above, and the two pieces shown below. Again, the alteration to the design is relatively minor, but the effect on its impact can be considerable.
4) Introducing Color to Your Crystal Design
Many clients have seen crystal pieces in a variety of tints and colors. But they tend to have seen them only in decorative household pieces such as vases and glasses. They tend to assume for relatively small-quantity orders (such as for deal toys and most awards) crystal is only available in two variations: clear and jade green.
In fact, crystal is available in an entire spectrum of colors and tints. The pieces shown below represent only a small portion of possible color variations.
5) Assorted Tweaks to Your Crystal Cube Design
There are any number of additional techniques that enhance a cube design . The designs shown below highlight just a few. The Spirit piece below demonstrates how the mere addition of bevelled edges can heighten the effect of a design. The UL piece illustrates the effect of external laser etching, and the Martin Scorsese DOC NYC award the effect of “frosting”.
Crystal Cubes and The Corporate Presence
At The Corporate Presence, we’ve been providing clients with crystal cube deal toys and awards for over 40 years. Many have incorporated some of the design techniques and features we’ve discussed above. But we’ve also provided clients with countless designs that were simple, unadorned cubes. And that may ultimately prove to be a design that is neither crystal or a cube.The important point is that we have the expertise and experience to guide you to the piece that best suits your budget, deadline, and design preferences.
Get the creative process started. Reach out to us today.
Will Ferrell and Frida Kahlo, along with three Ukrainian artists, a one-handed Yankees pitcher, a group of disgrutled Amazon workers, South Korean fisherwomen, Congolese CIA operatives, Sudanese revolutionaries, and 1970’s disco musicians, will all be appearing in downtown Manhattan during the month of November.
They’re all subjects of features and shorts showcased at DOC NYC, the 15th edition of what is now America’s largest documentary film festival.
The Corporate Presence/Prestige Custom Awards is proud once again to be providing awards for the event, whose honorees have included iconic filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Michael Moore, and Sam Pollard, but also less familiar, emerging talents like Tanaz Eshaghian, Cecilia Aldarondo, and Steven Bognar.
Awards Providing a Preview of Oscar Winners
DOC NYC has also become a reliable indicator (and driving force) for eventual Oscar recognition. In 2023, 12 of the 15 films named to the Academy Award Documentary Feature Shortlist had previously been screened at the festival.
Heading into 2024, an astounding 53 of the last 60 Academy Award-nominated documentary features were first presented at the festival. Those Oscar winners include “O.J.: Made in America”, “Navalny”, “20 Feet From Stardom”, “Searching for Sugar Man”, and “Icarus”.
Recognizing Diversity and Breadth
The 2024 festival, which runs between November 13th-21st, will feature over 200 films. As in previous years, they will be noteworthy for the diversity of their subjects, their perspectives, their locales, and of the filmmakers themselves.
Among the subjects of films this year will be Eastern Himalayan moths, repatriated African artifacts, the Russian coal mafia, the evolution of Yacht Rock, an eclipsed stand-up comedy icon, a notorious punk rock drummer, and an embattled prime minister.
The DOC NYC Experience
But the cachet of DOC NYC goes beyond taking in new works. Its appeal has been described as “not only about seeing new films before everybody else does. It’s more about entering the conversation between actors, filmmakers, and film fans.”
The festival offers not only screenings but panel discussions, industry roundtables, case studies, live pitches, with Q & A opportunities with filmmakers.
As invaluable as that in-person experience can be, online screenings will also be available through December 1st.
Providing The DOC NYC Awards
The Corporate Presence/Prestige Custom Awards is honored to continue its association with DOC NYC. Along with the National Football League Commissioner’s Awards, and ESPN’s annual ESPY Awards, the festival is another prestigious event for which we provide custom awards.
If you do a quick online search for “unique crystal awards”, you’ll make a surprising discovery. The search will turn up endless galleries featuring crystal designs. But very few of those designs would probably fit the definition of what you—and most other people—would have in mind for the word “unique”.
The sad fact is that these designs bring to mind instead words like “unorginal”, “generic”, “prefab”, and, perhaps most of all, “lookalike”.
In other words, these “unique” crystal awards are actually anything but unique.
So why do many vendors try to pass off their tired menu of interchangeable crystal pieces as somehow being one-of-a-kind?
The Hidden Agenda of Most Crystal Vendors
There are two reasons most crystal vendors are deceptive on this point.
The first involves their business model.
Most crystal vendors have a simple strategy. They buy huge amounts of mass-produced, generic pieces that arrive in bulk via containers at their warehouses.
Once off-loaded at the warehouse, these pieces sit side-by-side with other dusty veterans until the vendor can unload them and begin to recoup their considerable upfront investment.
The second reason stems directly from the first. These vendors have conveniently re-defined the word “unique“. They argue that, yes, their crystal designs are unique—for the simple reason that they will (eventually) have “your” award text engraved on them.
But does that really make sense?
So when, five minutes later that same crystal piece is grabbed off the same shelf and engraved with some other organization’s award information, that award will also be…”unique”?
Do you really transform a cookie-cutter design—designs so entrenched that they have product numbers—simply by engraving several lines of text?
Unique Crystal Awards: The Truth about Crystal’s Capabilities
Most crystal companies want you to believe two things.
First, they’d like to convince you that their preset menu of canned designs somehow offers something unique.
More importantly, they want you to believe that this same line-up of familiar designs defines the entire spectrum of unique crystal awards.
What they absolutely don’t want you to know is that there’s an alternative to their slate of stale, copycat designs.
In fact, crystal offers an almost infinite number of design possibilities.
This post will help dispel 5 of the most common myths about unique crystal awards that most vendors are pushing.
“Unique” Crystal Awards: 5 Myths Most Vendors Push
Myth # 1: Crystal awards only come in a limited number of shapes: take it or leave it.
Don’t get us wrong. We regularly provide clients with crystal awards in standard, geometric shapes. These kinds of classic shapes can be very effective and have considerable perceived value.
But what we don’t do is try to convince those clients (and others) that these conventional award shapes and designs and the only shapes available to them.
In fact, as shown in the small sampling in the gallery below, unique crystal awards can produced in a range of shapes.
A crystal award could, for instance, follow the shape of your logo or product. Or it could follow the contours of a geographic area, such as a state or country.
Again, most crystal vendors have a vested interest in pushing (and getting off their factory shelves) their line of pre-made pieces. The less you know about crystal’s potential for capturing shapes, the easier it is for them to push their limited line.
Myth #2: Crystal awards only come in a limited number of predetermined sizes.
This is related to myth #1. Want to tailor your design slightly —maybe make a piece slightly taller, wider, or thicker? With the vast majority of crystal vendors, you’ll hear emphatically that a certain design “doesn’t come in that size”. If you want your piece to be, say, 6 1/2″ inches high and they only offer it at 6″ and 8″‘, you’re out of luck.
Myth #3: You can’t place items or artwork inside crystal.
This myth is partially true. You can’t place solid objects inside crystal. But that’s not the full story.
Remember that most crystal companies have a warehouse full of pieces already made.
What they want you to do is buy their pre-made pieces and have something engraved (or printed) onto them. The option of involving the inside of a crystal piece is something they’re not eager to share.
But in fact, there is a process to creating unique crystal awards, that can laser engrave artwork within the piece itself. 3D laser etching is a technique that can render detailed artwork involving, for instance, products or buildings (see example below) with striking precision. Once again, the less you know about design options like this, the easier it is for many crystal vendors to push their limited array of designs.
Myth #4: Crystal comes in only one color: clear
Some crystal vendors might show a limited number of jade crystal pieces (with a green tint) but for the most part their line-up consists of clear designs. Here again, we regularly provide clear pieces of this sort. The play of light in and around clear crystal can make for especially dramatic effects.
But what most crystal companies don’t want you to know is that clear crystal isn’t your only option. (See the gallery below for examples).
Crystal awards can actually be tailored to a broad spectrum of colors. But once again, if you’re locked into an inflexible menu of designs, this isn’t something you want your customers to know.
Myth #5: Ordering a custom piece will take forever/cost a fortune/jeopardize your deadline.
This myth is an all-purpose catch-all of potential problems and headaches. It will take you months to get a custom crystal piece. And you’re going to have to order hundreds of them. And maybe worst of all, you’re going to have to spend a lot of time coming up with design ideas and overseeing and tweaking them over countless iterations.
Getting a custom crystal award, one that is truly unique to your company or organization doesn’t necessarily involve these pitfalls. You can get small-batch quantities of a truly unique award design, and within several weeks and at competitive prices. And perhaps most importantly, you don’t have to assume the burden of creative duties in the process.
Unique Crystal Awards at The Corporate Presence
Yes, there are a number of crystal vendors that could potentially provide you with satisfactory awards. But if your goal is to provide recipients with truly “unique crystal awards”, something that not only reflects but furthers your organization’s brand, you need to look beyond the limited offerings of most vendors.
At The Corporate Presence, we’ve been designing and producing crystal awards for over 40 years. We have the experience and expertise to provide you with a range of creative options—and a full range of creative options. Whether you’re looking for a conventional award design, or something more customized, reach out to us and get the process started.
How long will it take to produce your custom deal toy? If you’ve been looking for a precise answer to this question online, you’ve probably been disappointed. You may already have seen estimates of anywhere from 1-6 weeks, which seems to provide an almost meaninglessly broad range of possibilities.
After all, getting something in a week sounds considerably different than having to wait a month and a half.
But most of these estimates, however seemingly vague, are pretty reliable. A good rule of thumb is to allot about 4-6 weeks for the entire deal toy process. Generally speaking, that will often be sufficient time for you to finalize a custom deal toy design, approve full production, and ultimately receive your pieces.
But that probably only goes so far in addressing your real, underlying concerns.
You may be hoping to approach the custom deal toy process a little more strategically.
You may want to understand where and why your order might fall at any given point in that vast 1-6-week continuum. That might require a more thorough understanding of the factors that could influence—even dictate—your eventual timeline.
This post will lay out some of the factors affecting the timing of your deal toy order. The goal here is two-fold. This information will help you make better decisions regarding your options. But it’s also intended to help anyone given the responsibility for ordering deal toys better explain, and account for, those decisions to other members of your group.
Some vendors promise quick turnaround times for “custom deal toys”. They’ll then show you prefab pieces lacking any truly “custom” touches.
What Exactly is a “Custom” Deal Toy?
Some deal toy vendors use the word “custom” inaccurately, if not deceptively.
They hold out as “custom” prefab pieces that are literally pulled off a shelf and simply engraved or printed with your deal terms.
Excluding off-the-shelf items, a wide spectrum of deal toy designs could still qualify as being “custom”. A custom design could be highly intricate and complex. But that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case.
There are ways of bringing creative, “custom” touches to relatively simple designs. It’s still very possible for a standard or “basic” design to incorporate distinctive elements and have high perceived value.
Not surprisingly, as with most things in life, the more complicated and involved the design, the longer a deal toy will require for production.
But again, if you’re pressed for time, your creative options aren’t completely curtailed. A simpler approach doesn’t have to result in an uninspired, generic design. (Elsewhere on this site we highlight some overlooked “basic” deal toy designs that can still have considerable cachet.)
Your choice of materials can have a significant impact on turnaround time—and for more than one reason.
How Your Choice of Materials Impacts Turnaround Time
The most significant factor in turnaround time for custom deal toys involves materials.
The gallery below showcases a selection of custom deal toys featuring assorted materials and material combinations.
You should recognize that certain media, notably pewter and resin, will usually require substantially more set-up time (and expense). Both options tend to involve the creation of molds, a process that can be highly time-consuming. It’s not unusual for a custom mold of this sort to require 4-6 weeks of production time alone.
Other materials, notably Lucite and crystal, allow for quicker production times.
But here you have to be alert to the self-serving claims of some vendors that specialize in only one material.
Some factories that only offer crystal deal toys and awards, for instance, unsurprisingly often push crystal as being your “fastest” option. A vendor’s guidelines on materials should be based on your specific deadline and circumstances, and not on obvious self-interest. Be wary of any ironclad, all-purpose claims made by vendors with an agenda.
That said, once a design has been finalized and approved, Lucite orders will generally require about 10business days for production and shipping. Crystal, on the other hand, will generally require about 14 business days for delivery after the approval of a design. Please note that your location will affect these estimates, as explained below.
Factory Locations and Shipping Times
Your selection of materials affects timing in another significant way: factory locations.
There are a handful of competent Lucite manufacturing facilities in the United States. But the best Lucite facilities—especially the ones most capable of reliably producing custom designs—tend to be in Canada. Shipping times, therefore, tend to be of the sort you’re accustomed to from businesses in North America. That means generally about 1-5 business days depending on your location and what kind of service (ground vs, priority vs. overnight, etc.) you have selected.
Shipping times for crystal are longer—and this again is due to the location of the relevant factories. The overwhelming majority of the vendors offering “custom” crystal in the U.S. and Canada are making use of stock and prefab pieces. By contrast, the factories that can fulfill small-batch, truly custom designs are located in China. Shipping times for completed orders can therefore typically range from about 4-6 business days.
A Warning about Expedited Shipping Traps
Shipping is an unavoidable factor in calculating turnaround times.
But if you’re facing a tight deadline, you should be wary of certain pitfalls in opting for expedited or priority shipping for your order.
Before you spring for expedited shipping, make sure you think through your options fully.
For instance, do you really need all the pieces in your order to be delivered by a certain date? Could some part of your order (most likely those pieces going to internal recipients) be sent by non-priority service? If so, taking advantage of that option could save you a considerable amount of money.
Custom Deal Toy Turnaround Time and Order Size
It might seem self-evident that larger orders tend to require more production time than smaller ones.
This is especially true with custom deal toys since much of the labor performed in their production is done by hand. This is largely the case whether the material is crystal, Lucite, wood, etc.
Be sure to share the expected quantity of your order with your vendor as early in the process as possible. Most estimates of turnaround time are based on a standard order size of approximately 25 pieces. If your vendor knows early on that your order will significantly exceed that number, you have a much greater chance of meeting your deadline.
Certain custom designs–such as this one incorporating an actual drug vial—may require a physical sample. Still, there are ways of streamlining this process.
Factoring in Time for a Custom Deal Toy Sample
Ordering a sample piece prior to placing the custom deal toy order is a common practice. It’s also a highly beneficial one, especially with more custom deal toy designs. A physical sample provides your deal team the opportunity to inspect and approve the design.
Admittedly, you may not have enough time to inspect a physical sample. Even so, one enduring change in the deal toy process brought about by the pandemic involves the approval of samples.
It’s now increasingly common for samples to be approved on the basis of detailed photographs sent from the production factory—rather than having the physical sample itself shipped to your location. This can save a meaningful amount of time, and still provide you with peace of mind before proceeding with the full order.
Please note that some custom designs, such as those involving Lucite embedments such as drug vials, will ordinarily require a physical sample.
Your account executive can help you determine whether a physical sample is advisable based on your specific design and deadline.
Your Custom Deal Toy Order and The Corporate Presence
Over the course of 40+ years, The Corporate Presence has gained invaluable experience and insights into streamlining the custom deal toy ordering process. We’ll be responsive in providing guidance—whether you’re looking for immediate tips on ordering rush deal toys, or simply want to understand the process more fully.
Keep in mind as well that you yourself have a good deal of control in shaping turnaround times.
For instance, you can save time at the very outset of the process by providing your vendor with specific information about your precise deadline, expected quantity, and any special shipping arrangements. Similarly, you should anticipate being asked to furnish all necessary logos in their proper, vector formats.
We’re happy to guide you through these details, and all other elements of ordering a custom deal toy. Get the process started now. Reach out to us today.
David Parry is the Director of Digital Strategy for The Corporate Presence, and for Prestige Custom Awards, a designer and provider of custom corporate awards ranging from creative employee and client recognition pieces to the N.F.L. Commissioner’s Awards, and ESPN’s ESPY awards.
You probably don’t spend a lot of time monitoring trends in deal toy design, specifically classic deal toy shapes. Certainly, no one’s suggesting that you should be. You’re much more likely to be attuned to even subtle changes in the world of fashion, or to the announced design tweaks to the latest iteration of your smartphone or watch.
But if you’re as focused on deal toys as we are, and you have been for over 40 years, you tend to notice designs that fall in and out of favor.
Some of these deal toy shapes seem to have been relegated to yesteryear. It’s not likely you’ve seen too many examples recently of such once-popular designs as the “faceted cube”, the “pup tent”, or the “lying wedge”. And you probably won’t see many of those shapes in the future.
The seven variations in common, classic deal toy shapes that we’ve highlighted below aren’t in danger of disappearing anytime soon. But you still might want to keep them in mind as variations offering an extra element of cachet—even to otherwise relatively conventional deal toy designs.
Top view of a flat-back curve, a deal toy design combining elements of a curve and a rectangle.
The Flat-Back Curve Deal Toy Design
The flat-back curve is a pretty simple variation of a rectangle design. But the scooped-out front still manages to give it a distinctive, and eye-catching touch.
Flat-back curves tend to work especially well when there is a dominant visual element. An example is the Swedish flag in the deal toy design above.
A lying cylinder deal toy featuring the 3D etching effect.
The Lying Cylinder
The product at the heart of the transaction above is a heat exchanger. It’s effectively showcased here with the use of 3D laser etching, a process that’s specific to crystal.
Beyond the 3D etch effect, what really makes this design so effective is the chosen shape. A lying cylinder design is a great way to display a central element like this with a horizontal orientation.
A thin or “skinny” trapezoid design.
The “Skinny Trap” Deal Toy Shape
The mere mention of the word “trapezoid” can launch some of us into a traumatic, eye-twitching flashback to high-school geometry classes, and long-forgotten formulas for area and circumference.
As much as you assumed in high school you’d never encounter the shape in adult life, you may want to give some thought to a thin trapezoid—or, as it’s often called, a “skinny trap”.
The skinny trap is another example of a design variation that plays off a more conventional shape. That said, it’s one that can give a little more prominence to a simple rectangle design. It can also bring additional focus to the featured visual element, in this case photos from the property portfolio that the transaction involved.
Top view of “open book” design.
The “Open Book” Design
The two-panel or “open book” design is pretty self-explanatory. You often see it used along pretty literal lines, in a deal toy design commemorating a deal in the media, publishing or education space.
But the open book shape can work well in any design in which two visual elements are meant to receive equal emphasis and weight. The piece shown above is not strictly a deal toy. It’s a design ordered by a law firm commemorating a successful patent infringement action. Appearing alongside the details of the litigation—and receiving equal prominence—are photos of the attorneys who contributed to the victory.
Though not strictly a deal toy, this Broadway opening commemorative is a great example of a slant-top oval.
Slant-Top Oval Design
The piece shown above is also not a deal toy. However, it is relevant when considering classic deal toy shapes. It commemorates the opening night of the long-running Broadway musical “Hadestown”.
But we’ve included the piece here because it’s such a great example of the virtues of the slant-top oval design. The slanted top gives the piece an extra design element, and frequently this is a spot where, for instance, a logo can be printed or laser-etched.
The other, somewhat less obvious advantage of the slant is a practical one.
The additional space maximizes the design elements and information clearly visible from the front. The words “Opening Night”—along with the date—could conceivably have been placed on the back, or even etched at the bottom of the piece. But placing them on the slant, though, gives them significantly more visibility and prominence.
Slant-top Cylinder Shapes
The slant-top oval design has two virtues that tend to set it apart from other deal toys and awards you might have on display. Its compact desgin makes it shorter than most other desgins. Also, the angled face can the text, image, or logo more prominent.
The gallery above showcases a variety of slant-top designs in both crystal and Lucite.
Curve designs can vary in the severity of the bend. This Lucite design has a more subtle, less pronounced curve.
Curve Designs
Curves offer another way of enlivening a simple rectangle design. The degree of curvature can be more extreme. But it can also be relatively subtle, as in this Lucite piece above.
“Standard” Deal Toy Shapes Don’t Have to Be Boring
At The Corporate Presence, we’ve been designing deal toys for over four decades. We pride ourselves on offering clients a full range of design possibilities, from highly customized and complex, to more conventional and understated.
Hopefully this post has shown you that even relatively conventional shapes and designs don’t have to be boring or commonplace. Whatever your preference, you can rely on us to provide you with some truly memorable deal toy design options. Reach out to us today.
David Parry is the Director of Digital Strategy for The Corporate Presence, and for Prestige Custom Awards, a designer and provider of custom corporate awards ranging from creative employee and client recognition pieces to the N.F.L. Commissioner’s Awards, and ESPN’s ESPY awards.der
“Transaction tombstones” is one of a medley of terms that are roughly similar in meaning. They include “financial tombstones”, “deal gifts”, “deal tombstones”, “cubes”, and “corporate tombstones”.
There is a common denominator among these terms. They all refer to gifts or awards, typically highly customized in their design and usually made of crystal, Lucite, resin, or wood, that commemorate and celebrate financial transactions.
But there are also subtle differences between what these terms signify. Transaction tombstones, for example, have a different connotation than the term that is by far the most prominent and recognizable in what’s known as the financial recognition industry.
That dominant term is “deal toy”.
So what exactly is the difference between transaction tombstones and deal toys?
Some of the financial recognition industry’s terminology is a holdover from its early days—when commemoratives were overwhelmingly made of Lucite and fashioned in very basic shapes like cubes.
Transaction Tombstones and Terminology
Like many industries, the financial recognition industry has retained much of the language of its early history.
And like many industries, it has retained some of that terminology long after its initial, or intended meaning has ended.
One particular term comes immediately to mind. It derived from the simple, austere newspaper advertisements that for decades once grimly announced the completion of deals.
The resemblance of these ads to grave markers gave rise to a term—one that still seems at odds with their celebratory purpose: “tombstones”.
Similarly, “Lucites” as a generic term for all deal toys also has its origins in the industry’s early days.
Though crystal has largely eclipsed it in the past decade, Lucite was once, and by a significant margin, the material of choice for celebrating deals.
The term “cubes” as in deal cubes—also takes its origins from decades past. Cube shapes, especially ones containing a miniature prospectus booklet of a stock or bond issue fanned out inside Lucite, tended to be the default design, along with rectangles and other very basic shapes.
Lawyers were among the first groups outside investment banking to order “transaction tombstones” and “deal toys” to commemorate successes involving no transaction or deal.
Deal Toys Evolve Beyond the Deal
As the practice of giving out deal toys became more entrenched in the investment banking industry over the years, the term “deal toys” spread to other industries.
Lawyers, for instance, who had traditionally only been on the receiving end of deal toys from investment banks, began to appreciate their usefulness in both brand building and solidifying client relationships.
They began to order their own deal toys. But law firms weren’t simply ordering deal toys when commemorating their advisory work on a transaction.
Only in many cases, there was no deal or transaction—at least in the traditional sense.
Though they commonly used the term deal toys in placing an order, what they were in fact typically celebrating were favorable legal outcomes such as successful verdicts and settlements. For that matter, law firms also tended to use the term “deal toy” to recognize internal achievements, such as those involving pro bono work and summer internships.
Lawyers weren’t the only ones to adopt the term.
Inceasingly over the years, we’ve received requests for “deal toys” to commemorate everything from product launches and groundbreakings to organizational anniversaries and milestones and regulatory approvals.
Similarly, clients requesting “cubes” don’t necessarily want that specific geometric shape. Just as those asking for “Lucites” often actually have in mind a design made of an entirely different material like crystal.
And those requesting deal toys aren’t necessarily looking to celebrate a deal.
Tombstones in a Deal Toy World
So where does that leave the term “transaction tombstones”?
We still typically hear and see it used with respect to the kind of traditional bread-and-butter transactions that investment banks originally sought to commemorate with deal toys.
Those transactions include mergers and acquisitions, financings, public offerings, and private placements—to name just a few.
So as much as “deal toys” may have become a generic, all-encompassing term, “transaction tombstones” is still very much in usage.
The “tombstones” in the gallery below, for instance, represent a number of achievements not traditionally associated with investment banking. These include a successful Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, a fund launch, a regulatory approval, a legal settlement, a commercialization agreement, and a joint venture.
Transaction Tombstones at The Corporate Presence
At The Corporate Presence, we’ve been providing transaction tombstones for over 40 years.
And during that time, we’ve learned not to be too literal-minded. We recognize that clients requesting “Lucites” might actually want (or be better suited for) commemoratives in crystal, wood, or some other material. And that clients requesting “cubes” are necessarily insisting on a design with six square faces.
Whatever it is you’re commemorating—and whatever terminology you use—you can count on us to steer you to a memorable design that will have high perceived value among recipients. That’s the very reason tombstones, by any name, continued to have enduring appeal over a number of decades.
David Parry is the Director of Digital Strategy for The Corporate Presence, and for Prestige Custom Awards, a designer and provider of custom corporate awards ranging from creative employee and client recognition pieces to the N.F.L. Commissioner’s Awards, and ESPN’s ESPY awards.
This Friday, September 20th, marks what would have been Jay Ward’s 124th birthday.
The classic deal toy above may conjure up some dim memories, and not just of Casper the Friendly Ghost. The Lucite tombstone is also a vestige of another spectral presence: the now-defunct investment banking powerhouse Bear Stearns.
But the centerpiece of the deal toy design—and the transaction it commemorates—is an assemblage of cartoon talent.
Beyond Casper, the piece also features three other enduring and beloved characters: Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, and George of The Jungle— three guys who don’t exactly come to mind as “Harvard Material”.
But there is a Harvard connection here.
Though the Bullwinkle-Dudley-George brain trust might not have ventured anywhere near the banks of the Charles, their creator, Jay Ward, did.
The 2005 transaction recognized here involves another word you might not associate with this animated trio: “intellectual”.
The deal centered on the sale of the intellectual property and character brands relating to a cavalcade of animated icons, including as well Underdog, Frosty the Snowman, and Richie Rich.
More specifically, the underlying transaction was a majority investment by two private equity firms, Spectrum Equity Investors and Pegasus Capital Partners, in Classic Media. Classic held an extensive library of more than 3,000 television and cartoon properties, including not only Ward’s creations but also non-animated titles such as Lassie and The Lone Ranger.
DreamWorks ultimately acquired Classic in 2012 for $157.6 million. It has since rebranded as DreamWorks Classics. The full catalog then totaled over 6,100 animated and live-action shows, such as Casper, Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, VeggieTales, Where’s Waldo, and Voltron, as well as comic book archives and rights to the Golden Book series. (See our separate post for information on the DreamWorks IPO deal toy.)
Jay Ward’s Post-MBA Career: Surviving a Real Estate Crash
So how did Jay Ward go from Harvard MBA to the creative mind behind a group of affable, animated dunces, one that the Washington Post once described as “savvy, dumb, well-meaning, brave, flawed”?
It begins with what might qualify as the history’s shortest career in real estate.
On his very first day on the job in the California real estate business, Jay Ward was thrown against a wall.
By a truck.
The careening vehicle had lost its brakes and, improbably, ended up crashing through Ward’s store front, pinning him against a wall and breaking both his legs.
All of which sounds like just an average morning for most of his cartoon creations.
But for Ward, it marked the beginning of career change.
As they say, one door closes, and another door—or in this case, the entire front façade of the building—opens up.
While recovering from his injuries, Ward came up with his first cartoon idea, Crusader Rabbit.
The Masterful Marketing of Moose and Squirrel
Make no mistake: Ward did show evidence of skills he either learned (or more likely) at least honed at HBS. His characters may have been plagued by ineptitude and lack of foresight, but Ward himself was a savvy promoter and marketer.
Dissatisfied with NBC’s publicity for the early 60’s premiere of Rocky and Bullwinkle—he recognized the network’s half-hearted efforts in a series of mock, “Mediocrity Awards”—he staged events such as Bullwinkle’s Block Party. Typically, the event drew both A-list Hollywood talent and publicity-deprived celebrity retreads.
Confronted with a view from his studio offices dominated by a “scantily-clad, mechanized showgirl” promoting a Las Vegas casino, Ward countered with a monument of his own. He commissioned a statue of Bullwinkle antically posed in a swimsuit, and holding aloft his sidekick squirrel. Like its counterpart across Sunset Boulevard, the 14-foot Bullwinkle rotated on a motorized pole.
But Ward’s signature marketing feat was both elevating and re-positioning traditional cartoon fare.
His pun-heavy content, studded with both literary and historical allusions, simultaneously appealed to both kids and their parents. It inspired a genre that includes far more recent offerings such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Fairly OddParents.
One Classic Deal Toy, Two Legacies: Bear Steans and Jay Ward
The most recent evidence of the enduring legacy of Jay Ward, who died in 1989, was the 2020 re-installation in West Hollywood of the fully refurbished Rocky and Bullwinkle statue.
In 2015, there had also been an exhibit in his honor at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills.
The legacy of Bear Stearns, on the other hand, is less immediately apparent. Three years after this deal, facing an imminent collapse that would signal a broader systemic crisis, Bear Stearns was acquired by J.P. Morgan Chase—after 85 years of operation.
Bear alums are still prominent. They range from Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon to some unlikely figures such as actor and filmmaker Jon Favreau. But the abrupt disappearance over a single week of what had been the 5th largest U.S. investment bank is still hard to process.
Bear Stearns had been our client, not only on this tombstone project but on countless others. We have paid tribute to the firm, and a number of other former clients, also now-defunct, in several posts, including our Dinosaur Deal Toys series.
ESPN’s annual ESPY awards telecast is celebrated for bringing full-on Oscar-style glitz and red carpet trappings to the international sports world. The event is also famed for emotional, and often galvanizing acceptance speeches. (ESPN itself recently catalogued these according to a litany of emotions, ranging from joy and surprise, to fear, anger, and disgust.)
To those of us at The Corporate Presence/Prestige Custom Awards, the emotions run closer to honor and pride.
We were delighted once again to provide the awards for last night’s 2024 event, hosted by Serena Williams. We wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate all the 2024 nominees and winners.
Speaking again of emotions, we also feel a deep sense of satisfaction and fulfillment from our long-term association with an event that has, over its history, raised awareness—-and over $200,000,000—for the V Foundation for Cancer Research.
David Parry is the Director of Digital Strategy for The Corporate Presence, and for Prestige Custom Awards, a designer and provider of custom corporate awards ranging from creative employee and client recognition pieces to the N.F.L. Commissioner’s Awards, and ESPN’s ESPY awards.
What’s so special about these financial transactions—and their tombstones?
Maybe it’s the fact that they usually involve common, everyday items. Add to that the fact they often also involve highly-recognizable brands, sometimes ones that you might’ve seen, purchased, and even loved, for as long as you can remember.
Our design for that transaction replicated a product; but it wasn’t just any product.
It was a life-size Lucite replica of a Heinz ketchup bottle, one of the most durable and beloved bands in American culture. It’s no wonder that the piece was so often borrowed “just for a second” to show off to another banker or visitor, only to then disappear—permanently.
Product replicas, similar to the design commemorating the Heinz deal, are just one source of inspiration for food and beverage deals. We cover that category below, along with four other ideas for memorable food and beverage tombstones.
Product Replica Deal Tombstones
It’s hard to think of anything more unique to a company than one of its products. Not surprisingly, as with the Heinz piece mentioned above, products can provide inspiration for some of the most effective tombstones, and corporate and custom awards as well.
Over the years, we’ve designed a number of highly eye-catching tombstones based on products.
But that’s usually not the full extent of the fascination these designs tend to hold.
Whether these tombstones are displayed in an office shelf or bookcase, a reception area, or a conference room, people tend not only to gravitate to them, but also experience an almost compulsive need to handle and inspect them.
A great example is the piece shown above, replicating a Starbucks Frappuccino.
Just imagine how many people over the years have picked up and closely scrutinized and admired one of these Frappuccino-inspired tombstones. In the process, they’ve obviously seen the Starbucks logo, but they also had to notice the three logos of the banks involved in the transaction. It’s really hard to match that in terms of positive brand exposure.
Product Embedment Tombstones
Product embedment tombstones can have the same kind of allure that product replica designs often have.
An example that immediately comes to mind involves one of the most recognizable and iconic brands—and beverage bottles—internationally, and of all time.
The piece shown below, celebrating a longstanding partnership between the soda brand and a university, involved the embedment of an actual Coca-Cola bottle.
As powerful and seemingly straightforward as this design appears, there’s one note of caution necessary here. Embedding objects in Lucite can be tricky; it truly requires an appreciation and mastery of both the science and art of embedment.
At The Corporate Presence we have over 40 years of experience embedding all kinds of objects in Lucite. We can provide the needed expertise to make a design like this work, both practically and aesthetically.
Brand Mascot-Inspired Food & Beverage Tombstones
Brand mascots offer another rich source of design ideas here. This crystal piece, commemorating Hershey’s acquisition of Pirate Brands, plays off the distinctive Pirate Booty mascot.
Food & Beverage Tombstones Based on Packaging
Product packaging is yet another source of designs in the food and beverage sector. This seems pretty self-evident; but, on the other hand, there’ve been a range of inventive, highly creative tombstones designed over the years that have played off food or beverage packaging.
The imaginative design below, incorporating a hinge that reveals the deal details, is just one example. The design plays off the distinctive wrapper of Cadbury chocolates.
Logo-Themed Tombstone Designs
As with a number of other sectors, logo-based designs offer a ready source of ideas for food and beverage tombstones.
That said, logo-based designs tend to be even more effective and compelling in this industry. As mentioned above, so many of the logos involved in this space are not only recognizable, but can also be admired at a very deep, sometimes visceral level.
That means that the logo is likely to resonate not only with the immediate recipients of the tombstone (or custom award), but also among the general public.
That potentially magnifies the impact of displaying this kind of tombstone; it vastly increases the odds that anyone seeing the design will immediately relate to it. It will also attract and hold attention and, in turn, multiply the impact of favorable brand exposure.
We’re Here to Deliver Unforgettable Food & Beverage Tombstones
The food and beverage industry really lends itself to a lot of highly creative and memorable tombstone designs. At The Corporate Presence, we’re here to help you navigate all these creative choices, whether you’re in the market for a tombstone to commemorate a landmark deal, or just looking to recognize a smaller transaction with some simpler, yet distinctive touches.
Whatever your needs, get the process started. Reach out to us today.
David Parry is the Director of Digital Strategy for The Corporate Presence, and for Prestige Custom Awards, a designer and provider of custom corporate awards ranging from creative employee and client recognition pieces to the N.F.L. Commissioner’s Awards, and ESPN’s ESPY awards.
