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1. The most popular selling plaques are called "cherry finish" in most parts books. These are not real wood, but look great. "Walnut finish" does not sell as well. Hold off on inventorying real walnut until you are more experienced. The standard rectangular sizes of cherry finish plaques are- 4x6, 5x7, 6x8, 7x9, 8x10, 9x12, 10.5x13 and 12x15.

2. Plaques are made with one or two plates on them. Two plates are usually called "double facing." The top plate is cut smaller, to produce a border around it. The bottom plate is sometimes referred to as the "under-plate." By far the most common look would be a brushed (also called "satin") gold or silver aluminum top plate with a glossy black under plate. This is the prettiest. If a customer is on a tight budget you can eliminate the bottom plate and reduce the price of your plaque up to 8% without actually giving up any money. When you do this you normally make the single lettering plate the size of the under-plate.

3. You may get occasional requests for a color, other than black print. A good way to handle this is to suggest that color for an under-plate. There are many colors and shades of plates (red, blue, green, etc.). Most metal comes brushed or glossy. Use brushed for top plates and glossy for bottom plates.

4. Plaque plates are attached with pins, screws or tape. Tape is the fastest. Be sure and get a very hi-tack tape. It will have to be cut with scissors. Aggravating, but the kind you can tear does not give enough security. To start, we suggest a roll each of half inch and one inch hi-tack. Also a roll of half-inch tape that is commonly called "trophy tape". It tears easily and is handy to have. If you use screws you will need 1/4" for single plates and 3/8" for double plates. They are cheap. Good to have some on hand anyway. Get Phillips head. You will also need them to mount pictures under Plexiglas. More on this later.

5. You will need to protect your finished plaques. Remember the metal scratches easily. Foam pouches are cheap and great for protection. If you want to up-scale later, there are plaque boxes available.

6. The slower you cut metal with a plate cutter, the more the cut wants to curl under. This is especially true if you are trimming a sliver off the plate. Don't break your hand but do it fast and forcefully (you won't hurt the cutter). Actually the best technique is to "snap" the cutter handle. When I cut metal, I snap the blade down and then back up, before it "bottoms out." With practice you can do this too.

7. With minimum experience, you will "feel" when you have not made a clean cut. It is good to keep a flat file around. If a slight curl has developed you can knock it off with the file. This is not a big issue, except that if it is a top plate, it will easily scratch the under-plate when you attach them- Warning! If you use your finger to test for a curl, run it lightly across the edge, not with it. That little curl will slice like a razor blade.

8. Unless you have our 3 in 1 Maxi Press the file will also come in handy to knock the pointed corners of a badge off also. You don't have to have an actual radius, just get rid of the point.

9. Two last tips. - Sometimes a plaque will have a flake of vinyl on the edge, where the trimmer didn't knock it off at the factory. Your fingernail will take care of it. Also, get a "marker" about the same color as your plaques. Darker is also fine. This is good for touching up any small "dings" on the boards.

Plate sizes are a bit subjective, i.e., what looks good to you. The suggested sizes we have listed can be adjusted.
(chart shown is in inches)

Plaque	Top Plate	Bottom Plate
4 x 6	2 7/8 x 4 7/8	3 1/4 x 5 1/4
5 x 7	3 1/8 x 5 1/8	3 1/2 x 5 1/2
6 x 8	3 7/8 x 5 7/8	4 1/4 x 6 1/4
7 x 9	4 5/8 x 6 5/8	5 x 7
8 x 10	5 1/2 x 7 1/2	6 x 8
9 x 12	6 x 9	6 1/2 x 9 1/2
10 1/2 x 13	7 1/2 x 10	7 7/8 x 10 3/8
12 x 15	9 x 12	8 x 11

1. Like a newspaper article, a personalized plaque answers who, what, when, where and why questions. Look at any layout example. What - is the title, who - is the presented to, why - is the main body of text, where - is who presented it, when - is the year date.

2. The layout is usually in four groups, with a little extra space between each group. The title, presented to and main text comprises three of the groups. Who it is from, and the date is the fourth group.

3. For good looks- Do not let any line of text get closer than .25" to the edge of the plate. Increase this rule of thumb for a greater plate size. Generally, the title is the boldest, the name next, with presented to, the main text and date the next. Who the plaque is from (part of what is called the "signature" of the plaque) can be bigger than text, but should not be as big as the recipient's name. Do not use all caps for text.

4. You want wording to stand out, but not punch you in the nose. Most lettering is done in bold. If you need to fill the plate more, increase font size. If there is so much text that you would crowd a plate, suggest a larger size. Different size font is fine, but you almost never use more than two different fonts on a plaque.

5. This is very important. Grain direction of the metal will affect how your eyes see color shade, especially on brushed gold aluminum. Experiment and you will see that. Customers never notice this, unless they are getting more than one plaque and you have grain direction going both ways. Keep them the same, on the same order. This way you will get more yields, per 12x24 piece of metal, than if you only sublimated with the grain in one direction.

1. Production - save all layouts, especially in the beginning. Label them by type, for easy location. For example, key in on plaque size and number of lines in the main text body, since the other parts won't change that much. Thus, a 9x12 plaque, with 7 lines of main text would become- 9x12-7. The next time you do a plaque with the same line number layout, you call it up, do a save as, and use your strikeover or highlight feature to put new text in. It won't take long before you won't have to do too many original layouts.

2. Sales - artists get paid more than technicians. Call sublimation anything except sublimation (see Sept. 99, "Toner Times") and you will make more money.

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