Custom Shaped Medals Cut To The Outline Of Your Own Artwork

Does the medal have to be round, or can it follow our own silhouette?

Round is only the default, not a rule. Send the artwork and the outline gets traced from it — a hat, a skyline, a state, a mascot, all of it can stand outside the disc, which is the point of the product. What matters is that the shape holds together as one piece: thin spikes and long narrow arms tend to bend in transit, so we will tell you where an outline needs a little more body before anything is cut. The sample is where you see whether your shape survives contact with real metal.

How many colours can the face carry?

The face is built in flat colour zones, so every colour you add is its own zone with its own edge. Six to eight colours is where most race medals land and where the piece price stays sane; past that the cost climbs faster than the visual gain, because each zone has to be separated and registered. Gradients and photographic imagery do not belong on a medal face — they read as flat bands. If your event artwork is a photograph, we will rebuild it as solid shapes and send you the simplified version first.

How do we approve the outline before you cut anything?

Two checkpoints, in this order. First a line drawing of the silhouette with the overall size marked, so you can confirm the proportions before colour is involved. Then a colour proof of the full face. Nothing goes to the tooling stage until the line drawing is signed, because the outline is the one thing that cannot be adjusted later without starting over. If your committee needs to see it in their hands, the physical sample is the second checkpoint.

Can the lanyard carry our own artwork too?

Yes, and it is worth doing — a plain ribbon under a shaped medal looks unfinished. The lanyard can carry the same colours and motifs as the face, run in full colour, or be kept to a single ground colour with one repeating mark if you want something calmer. Width, length and the clip at the top are all your call. Send the artwork at the same time as the face so both are approved together rather than in two rounds.

What does a run of 100 cost?

It depends on four things: volume, the size of the outline, how many colour zones the face carries, and whether a lanyard comes with it. An outline full of fine detail costs more than a simple one at the same size, because the tooling has to hold every notch. Give us the volume and the date it has to land, and the figure is built around that date instead of a placeholder one.

Which certificates can you supply?

RoHS, SGS, EN71 and California Prop 65 reports, the last two on request. The plant itself holds ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and a current Sedex audit. A junior race changes what is required, so send the age range and the destination country at the enquiry stage, and the paperwork is closed off while you are still comparing suppliers rather than afterwards.

We run this race every year — will the next edition match?

It will, provided the tooling survives, and it does: three years of storage, with no mould charge on a repeat. The signed proof is archived beside it and any later run is checked against that file. Anniversaries are the usual edit — a numeral moves on, a year changes, the silhouette does not move at all.

Send your artwork and the outline gets traced from it

Planning a race? Send your artwork file, how many pieces you need and the deadline they have to land by, to sean@vistarts.net — or start from the contact page. A line drawing of the silhouette comes back before anyone mentions price.

The outline is the first thing that registers: a wide horizontal body with a cowboy hat standing clear of it at the top, flanked by two panels of blue and white diamond work. Inside, the body runs deep red with a fine dotted texture across its lower half, and the lettering sits in layers — the city name small in white brush capitals at upper left, the festival name huge in orange across the middle, the race distance in white across the right. A dark outline traces the whole silhouette, so the shape reads cleanly against a shirt. Below the festival name, a small raised word marks the finisher; to the right, the distance sits in white italics on a blue oval, with a line of small capitals beside it marking the anniversary. The lanyard repeats the palette, full colour, with the diamond motif carried down its length.

We run our own plant in Longgang, Shenzhen: 130-plus staff, more than ten designers and twenty-plus engineers under one roof, which is what makes a non-standard outline practical rather than a favour. Contour work needs the designer and the tooling engineer in the same conversation, and here they are down the same corridor. The factory holds ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and a current Sedex audit. Every order carries a line drawing, a colour proof and a physical sample before the run starts, and the approved proof is what the production pieces are measured against.

A shaped medal is a drawing problem before it is a manufacturing one, and most suppliers quote the shape without ever telling you which parts of it will fail. We will: spikes thinner than a couple of millimetres will bend, long unsupported arms will flex, and lettering smaller than roughly three millimetres tall will close up once the colour zones are separated. None of that is a reason to simplify your artwork — it is a reason to have the conversation at the line drawing stage rather than after the sample arrives. What we will not do is reproduce a school crest, a club badge, a mascot or a licensed character without written permission from whoever owns it.

Send us four things and the reply is a line drawing rather than a price list: the artwork, the finished height you want, the number of medals, and the day they have to reach you. Add the lanyard artwork if you have it. Everything goes to sean@vistarts.net, or through the contact page at https://vistarts.com/about_us/. If the outline has a weak point we will mark it on the drawing instead of letting you find it in the sample.

FAQ

Q1: Is a shaped medal as strong as a round one?

A round medal has no thin extremities, a shaped one usually does, so the honest answer is that strength depends on the outline rather than on the category. A hat brim or a skyline spike is a lever, and levers bend. We check the drawing for narrow necks before tooling and will propose a small thickening where it matters — a millimetre of extra body at one weak point is invisible to a runner and removes the failure. The loop at the top is formed with the body so there is no joint for the lanyard to work against.

Q2: Do we pay again when the artwork changes?

It depends which change. Text edits — a year, a date, an anniversary number — reuse the existing tooling and carry no new tooling charge. A new silhouette, or a different subject in the middle, is a new tooling job and is quoted as one. We will tell you which side of that line your change falls on, with both figures, before you commit to either.

Q3: What is the smallest order you will take?

One hundred pieces per design, and the hundred does not have to be one configuration — sizes and lanyard colours can be mixed inside it. Below a hundred the tooling cost dominates the piece price and the number stops making sense for either side.

Q4: How is the total built up?

Four inputs: how many pieces, how large the outline is, how many colour zones the face carries, and whether a lanyard is included. Freight is separate and depends on destination and on sea versus air. Volume and deadline need to arrive together, because a figure quoted without the deadline is one you cannot plan around.

Q5: How long does it take end to end?

A sample in 7-10 days from approved artwork, bulk in 15-20 days after the sample is signed, and a rush path at 12 working days when the schedule is tight. Transit sits on top of that and is quoted by destination. The clock starts at the signed line drawing, not at the enquiry.

Q6: What is supplied to prove compliance?

RoHS, SGS, EN71 and California Prop 65, the latter two on request, together with the plant's ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and current Sedex audit. If one specific certificate decides whether you can sell into a market, name it at quotation stage so it is confirmed up front rather than chased once the goods are moving.

Q7: An annual race — will year two look like year one?

The tooling is stored for three years and repeating carries no mould charge. The signed proof is archived with it, and each later edition is checked against that file before it runs. This is what stops an annual event from ending up with a drawer of finisher medals that are each a little off from the others.

Q8: What do we see before any money moves?

A line drawing of the silhouette with the size marked, then a colour proof of the full face, then the physical sample. Three chances to stop, and the drawing costs nothing to change because nothing has been cut yet. If the sample is wrong we redo it; if the drawing is wrong we redraw it. What we do not do is take a deposit against a verbal brief.