Laser Etching & Router Cutting

Aquis Park TAB Wave Raceday Trophies

The annual 1800m race, known as the Aquis Park TAB Wave Raceday, takes place against the stunning backdrop of the Gold Coast. Our services were recently engaged to craft an exceptional and bespoke trophy, tailored exclusively for this occasion, incorporating a distinctive wave motif as a key design element.

Our team expertly combined laser-cut acrylic components in captivating blue hues to create a wave feature in the centre of the trophy, creating a unique sense of depth. A silver mirror embellishment was added to accentuate its visual appeal and highlight the dynamic wave feature. The body of the trophy was hand veneered by out in-house joinery team, and was carefully shaped, giving it a polished and refined character. The race details were then laser etched onto the body of the trophy, with logos UV printed onto the acrylic centre of the trophy.

We loved creating the unique trophy! Contact us today to get started on your next custom project.

Photos courtesy of the Gold Coast Turf Club’s Facebook page.

Queensland Government Reconciliation Awards 2023

The Queensland Government Reconciliation Awards are an esteemed annual event, dedicated to honoring outstanding collaborations and projects that propel reconciliation forward across businesses, community organizations, educational institutions, and government agencies.

This year, we had the privilege of collaborating with the Queensland Government to craft a brand-new design for the 2023 awards. Drawing inspiration from the profound heritage of the land, we were provided with indigenous artwork from Gilimbaa, an Indigenous creative agency. This powerful and captivating artwork served as the foundation for our artistic journey.

The design team sought to create an award that would not only be a symbol of recognition but also a piece of art in its own right. We envisioned a design that embraced the essence of the indigenous artwork while infusing it with a sense of depth and dimension.

To bring this vision to life, selected a thoughtful blend of timber and acrylic—a meticulous combination that allowed us to artistically deconstruct the artwork into multiple layers, achieving a unique 3D effect.

The timber base became a canvas for innovation, laser-cut to mirror the lines and patterns of the artwork. The logos and text were laser-etched the onto the base, adding a touch of sophistication and personalization.

We loved creating this unique design for the Queensland Health 2023 Reconciliation awards! Contact us today to get started on your next custom project.

 

Photo courtesy of: https://womensagenda.com.au/business/2023-queensland-reconciliation-awards-recognises-six-inspiring-initiatives/

Brisbane Racing Q22 Awards 2023

Introducing the Q22 Annual Race in Brisbane, renowned as the city’s second-richest race, boasting a remarkable $1.2 million prize. To honour this occasion, a one-of-a-kind trophy was created to celebrate the winners of the event.

Fashioned from walnut timber and a clear acrylic centrepiece, the award proudly displays a gold ‘Q,’ symbolising achievement and the race’s identity. The ‘Q’ motif elegantly merges racetrack contours with the letter’s form, embodying the spirit of this extraordinary occasion. The trophy’s base features coordinating gold mirror elements, ensuring unity and elegance. Laser-etched text and logos add a personalised touch to these awards.

At Potato Press, we’re passionate about crafting one-of-a-kind creations. The Q22 Annual Race Trophy embodies grace, speed, and perseverance, reflecting the essence of our craftsmanship. Reach out to us today to start your next custom project.

Photos Courtesy of Brisbane Racing Facebook page

Nautique Dealers Awards

Nautique is an industry leading American boat manufacturer that produces the very best waterski, wakeboard and wakesurf boats on the market.

One of our favourite long-standing U.S. clients, Nautique, contacted us once more to have a highly original and personalised piece made for their 2022 Dealers Awards. For the awards, we were challenged with developing a fresh look that reflected the features of their boats. We were able to base the design around the unique geometric pattern that features heavily throughout their vessels, from the speaker design, seat upholstery and faceted sides of the hull.

To develop these awards, our design team used a unique blend of materials and printing procedures. The body of the awards were made from black stained timber with features of spot gloss and UV embellishments. We designed and manufactured 3D geometric patterns to protrude out of the award face creating a unique look. A combination of black, gold, silver, and white brand colours were chosen for the various categories of awards.

We loved creating this unique design for Nautique! Contact us today to get started on your next custom design project.

Gold Coast Marathon Trophies 2023

Gold Coast Marathon is a world class international event and has excitingly entered its 43rd consecutive year! The event attracts participants of all ages and abilities, combining multiple 42km, 21km, 10km, 5km and CPL Wheelchair Marathon races.

This year, we were contacted to create something a little different to align with the new branding for the event. Their new branding includes a wide range of bright, vibrant colours and a wave like pattern. The design team wanted to make both elements a huge feature of the new awards.

We used a combination of native Australian timber and layers of acrylic to achieve bold, eye-catching feature numbers that correlate to the kilometres the athletes run. Layers of acrylic were laser cut to shape, printed and layered upon one another to achieve a 3D effect and a unique sense of depth. All text and logos were laser etched onto the body of the award, with the edges left exposed to reveal the varying colours used within the award.

We loved creating this unique award for the Gold Coast Marathon! Contact us today to get started on your next custom project.

 

NASA Awards

NASA is an independent agency of the U.S. Federal Government responsible for the civil space program aeronautic research, and space research. Every year, NASA recognises the best contributions to the future of aerospace research with their software of the year award, invention of the year award and James Kerley Awards.

The team at NASA wanted to create two extremely unique trophies, with the nature of the awards being ‘innovation’.

For all of these awards, we used a combination of acrylic and layers of timber stacked upon each other to create a detailed 3D effect. On the James Kerley award, to create an even further sense of depth we included laser cut screen details to create a 3D tunnel to emphasise the portrait into the centre of the trophy, creating an eye-catching focal piece. To increase the longevity of the perpetual trophy, we included silver plaques to be etched yearly when new winners are announced.

We loved creating this fun and innovative trophy! Contact us today to get started on your next custom design project.

Magic Millions 3YO Guineas Trophy

The Magic Millions 3YO Guineas is an event which is held annually at the Gold Coast Racecourse each January. The total prize money for the day is a lucrative $11.75 million, with the 3YO Guineas offering $2 millions dollars of the total amount. We created this unique and eye-catching trophy for the winning owner, trainer and jockey of the race.

We decided to do something a little bit different for this prestigious race and crafted a unique sculptural base for the award out of hand veneered Australian hardwood and black acrylic ribbed sections. The focal piece of the award is the black anodised metal horse head on top of the award, designed in house by our creative team. The layers of metal and gold are broken down into layers to illustrate the powerful anatomy of a horse. Each of these awards took our team hours in production to hand craft and we are thrilled with the result.

We loved creating this eye-catching and unique trophy! Contact us today to get started on your next custom project.

  

King of the Mountain Trophy 2022

The 2022 King of the Mountain race was part of a new inaugural race held in Toowoomba and is Queensland’s newest slot race. The race is a 1200m sprint and is worth $750,000 in prize money, with the winner receiving a wild card entry into the $1 millions Magic Millions QTIS race.

We were contacted to create this prestigious trophy for the race day, with a request to feature a piece of jewellery that was hand crafted by a local jeweller in Toowoomba. Hogan’s Family Jewellers presented us with the dazzling piece of jewellery to base the trophy design around, which included 18 carat gold and a diamond set crown.

After the jewellery piece was delivered to us, we got to work on the design phase of the trophy design, brainstorming concepts. We created this luxurious trophy to replicate the peaks of a mountain, using a combination of laser cut timbers and soft frosted white acrylics to create a modern, abstract mountain scape. We used a mixture of laser etched and gold text on the base of the trophy, to tie in with the gold of the jewellery feature piece.

We loved creating this unique and custom trophy based around an existing piece of jewellery. Contact us today to get started on your next custom project!

ABT Associates Acknowledgment Plaques

ABT Associates is a global leader in research, who use an evidence-based approach to solving difficult challenges in health, social and environmental policies. Over their 50-year history, ABT Associates have expanded rapidly, quickly growing into an international company with over 3,000 global staff.

We were contacted to create these recognition plaques to be used across their Australian offices. We selected a natural Australian timber, which was then hand-veneered by our in-house joinery team. Custom indigenous artwork was laser etched onto the front of the plaques, along with the company logo and text. We added a stepped in effect for the main information area to create a sense of depth. D-rings were added to the back of the plaque to allow the recipients to mount the plaque on the wall or to stand independently depending on their preference.

We loved creating this unique acknowledgement plaque! Contact us today to get started on your next custom project.

Nautique Marketing Awards 2022

Nautique is an industry leading American boat manufacturer that produces the very best waterski, wakeboard and wakesurf boats on the market. Nautique continues to drive progression in their award-winning, high-quality boats and products.

Nautique is one of our favourite long-term U.S clients, and once again they reached out to us to create an extremely unique and bespoke piece for their 2022 Marketing Awards. Nautique wanted an award to present back to their top performing dealers with a design that would blow their minds. After initial discussions around the design, they had mentioned an idea of a levitating element in the award but didn’t think this would be possible to produce. After hours of researching and lots of trial and error we were able to design and create a levitating award.

Keeping in-line with the Nautique branding, we utilised black stained timber paired with a mixture of gloss and matte black acrylic. The distinctive feature in this award is the floating and rotating red Nautique logo cube. When the cube is placed over the base, it floats and rotates independently creating a unique focal piece.

This was certainly one of our biggest design challenges in recent years and we loved creating every second of it! Contact us today to discuss your next custom project.

Airtech 50 Year Anniversary Plaques

Airtech is one of the largest manufacturers of vacuum bagging and composite tooling materials in the USA with numerous international locations.

We were contacted to create these plaques in honour of their 50th anniversary to gift to their loyal customers who have been supporting them over their long spanning history. In the initial design brief, carbon fibre was a texture the client really loved and wanted to be a feature as it ties in with the nature of their business.

We paired the carbon fibre with a natural timber which was hand veneered by our in-house joinery team. The main text of the plaque was laser etched onto the plaque with a silver acrylic plate left blank so that names could be added when required. D-rings were also mounted to the back of the plaques so that they could be hung on to the wall. The Airtech logo was printed onto white acrylic and added as a feature piece to the top of the plaque.

We loved creating these unique, custom plaques. Contact us today to get started on your next custom project.

Coast to Coast 2023 Trophy

The Coast-to-Coast race day is an annual event traditionally held at Aquis Park, but was staged at the Sunshine Coast Turb Club due to a $63 million redevelopment underway at the Gold Coast Turf Club. The Coast-to-Coast race day is comprised of multiple races of varying distances and prizes, all including a quality line-up of horses.

We were contacted to create a refreshed, luxurious trophy suite for the 2023 event, to coincide with the renaming of the event. We created a trophy for the winning owner, trainer and jockey of each race. For the top tier race, the $500,000 Group 2 TAB A.D Hollindale Stakes, we created a more opulent version of the trophy to emulate the prestigious nature of the race.

As this event was to be held on the Sunshine Coast as opposed to the usual Gold Coast grounds, We selected a whitewashed natural Australian timber for the main body of the awards instead of the usual natural timber finish. We adorned the awards with an intricate floral detail that was laser cut to reveal gold detailing underneath. The top of the trophy included a laser cut timber horse motif and the text and logo were laser etched onto the body of the trophy.

To add a layer of luxury to the prestigious TAB A.D Hollindale Stakes race, we elected a different laser cut floral pattern to differentiate between the awards.

We loved creating this custom trophy! Contact us today to get started on your next project.

 

Photos courtesy of Gold Coast Turf Club Facebook page.

Hand crafted design solutions for forward thinking industries

Some of our valued clients

Quiksilver
Bond University
Chobani
Nasa
Pepsico
Alpha flight services
Amazon
Jetstar
Ripcurl
Nike
Uppercut
Hilton
Billabong
Mantra
Gunnersen
MCG
Lend Lease
Vittoria Coffee
Olympus
Monster Energy