City Night Run Finisher Medal
A custom finisher medal for a 10K night run. The event's visual identity — skyline silhouette, two-color palette, and after-dark atmosphere — was translated into a 70 mm die-struck medal with a branded ribbon and a personal reverse-side engraving.
A city night run needed a medal that carried the event's identity.
The client was a North American road-race organizer preparing a 10K night run. They needed a finisher medal that felt specific to their event — not a stock template with a new logo printed on top.
Core Requirements
Silhouette, layers, and the reverse — three decisions that shaped the piece.
We did not start from "pick a good-looking medal." We broke down the event's existing visual assets — color palette, skyline language, and the pacing of a night run — then used those inputs to determine silhouette, surface layers, and the ribbon system.
Dedicated Silhouette
A shield-like profile replaces the standard stock circle, so the medal reads as specific to this race instead of a generic template.
3D Layering
Skyline shapes, headline type, and background texture sit at different relief depths, creating natural metal shadow that reads clearly in finish-line photography.
Reverse Keepsake
The reverse carries the event date and finisher information, giving the piece value as a keepsake beyond race day.
Zinc alloy, two-tone plating, and a five-step production timeline.
The project ran on a fixed race date. Every checkpoint — material, color, sample approval, mass production, packing — was scheduled backward from delivery day, so nothing was left to the last week.
Brief
Confirm the event theme, quantity, size, budget and delivery date.
3D Mockup
Translate the flat visual into a manufacturable three-dimensional design.
Sample
Approve metal finish, colors, reverse information and ribbon before bulk production.
Mass Production
Tooling, stamping / die-casting, plating, coloring, finishing and QC.
Delivery
Individual packing, carton preparation and logistics coordination around the event date.
5,000 medals delivered before the starting gun.
Every piece was individually inspected before packing. No batch sampling. No shipment missed its race-day window. No front-face color-mismatch returns came back from the client.
days from design confirmation to full delivery, with production checkpoints scheduled backward from the race date.
"What mattered most was not making the medal unnecessarily complicated, but making it feel like it genuinely belonged to the race. The metal depth and branded ribbon were especially visible in finish-line photography."
— Event Marketing Lead