← All work
Production-Scale Fabrication

Creative Circle Awards

Design, material R&D, and production of over 300 bespoke awards for a national creative industry awards programme, led end-to-end from digital concept through to finished objects at scale.

  • ClientCreative Circle
  • ViaPlunge Creations
  • Output300+ awards
  • RoleDesign lead, R&D, mould-making, production management
  • MaterialEco-resin Jesmonite
  • DisciplinesCAD, digital modelling, silicone mould-making, material R&D, small-batch casting
Finished Creative Circle Award — marbled gold and black Jesmonite casting

Context

The Creative Circle is one of the UK's longest-running creative industry awards organisations. While working at Plunge Creations, the brief landed to design and produce a new series of awards, objects that needed to be visually distinctive, consistent across a large run, and durable enough to represent the programme credibly on agency shelves and in studios across the country.

The design and production process was led entirely in-house, working with the wider Plunge team to hit the timeline. The recipients of these awards are some of the most recognisable names in UK advertising and design. The object had to be worthy of the room it would end up in.

Four 3D rendered award design variants presented to client for approval

Four design directions developed and presented digitally for client approval before any fabrication began.

Approach

Multiple design directions were developed in CAD and presented digitally for client review. Once a direction was selected, the mould-making process began: mould boxes were designed in CAD, 3D printed, and used to produce resin masters. Those masters were then replicated across 20 production-ready silicone moulds.

3D printed mould master for the Creative Circle Award

3D printed master prior to silicone mould production.

The material specification required a dedicated R&D phase. The awards were cast in eco-resin Jesmonite, which demanded careful work on curing ratios, structural reinforcement, pigmentation behaviour, and surface consistency across a long production run. Getting the marbled visual effect to remain readable and repeatable — without becoming mechanical or identical — was a particular challenge that required iteration and restraint.

Scaling the output meant coordinating production across the team within Plunge, establishing clear protocols and quality benchmarks that could be held consistently under time pressure.

Full production run of Creative Circle Awards laid out on workbench

Production run laid out for inspection.

Multiple colourways of Creative Circle Awards in production

Multiple colourways across the run.

Outcome

Over 300 awards were delivered to brief, on time, and consistent in finish across the full run. The project demonstrated that a small team can manage design-through-production workflows at a scale more often associated with larger manufacturing operations, provided the systems thinking is in place from the start.

Those awards now sit on shelves and in meeting rooms at agencies including BBH, Uncommon Creative Studio, Mother, and Wieden+Kennedy London.

Winner holding Creative Circle Award at the awards evening

Awards evening — the finished object in the room.

BBH team on stage at Creative Circle Awards ceremony holding the award

BBH collecting on stage.

Capability demonstrated

Product development and manufacturing management at scale for a recognised national awards programme — leading the full process from digital concept and material R&D through to quality-controlled production under real deadline pressure.

← AILA Next: Killstar Offices →

Need production at scale?

From R&D through to consistent batch output, Rumblforge can manage the full process.

Start a project