What to Put On It, and What to Leave Off

Companies want the name, the role, the department, the years, the category, the company name, the year and a line of thanks. All of it fits and none of it reads. An award crowded with text looks like a certificate transcribed onto metal, and the recipient stops noticing it within a week.

Crowding also ages badly. Text that seemed essential at the time — a department name, a program title, a strapline — dates quickly, while a name and a year does not. The pieces that still read well after a decade are almost always the ones with less on them.

Send the proof to somebody who knows the recipients rather than only to whoever raised the purchase order. Name spellings, preferred forms and the difference between a legal name and the name somebody actually uses are not things a procurement contact can verify.

It takes one email and thirty seconds of their attention, and it is the only check that reliably catches the error nobody forgets.

1. 01Lay out the text rather than fitting it in.
2. 02Proof every name and send it for written sign-off.
3. 03Check spelling against your list, not against what looks right.
4. 04Advise where text should be cut, even when asked for more.

Have somebody who knows the recipients check the proof, not just whoever placed the order. A misspelled name on a permanent object is the kind of mistake that is remembered for years, and it is caught in thirty seconds by the right person.

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