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ADVANCE CORPORATION
AUGUST 2016 •
PPB
• 89
“Advance has been witness to a major
shift in the industry,” says Wilson. The shift,
she says, is moving away from a traditional
type of award to a more customized, unique
style that is designed specifically for a recipi-
ent or program.
“This one-of-a-kind award feature is the
latest trend and a perfect fit for Advance.
Our niche is to offer a wide array of standard
products that can be made to order as pic-
tured, or customized in-house to meet the
needs of our customers,” she says.
Advance’s house designers work closely
with the sales team to create conceptual lay-
outs that provide a virtual illustration of the
product options, and newer equipment
allows the supplier to offer larger format
products with shorter lead times. “Our
skilled team of craftsmen has attended some
of the best technical trade schools and uni-
versities,”Wilson says.
The top three products among Advance’s
clients currently are traditional wall-mounted
awards, framed and matted wall awards, and
full-color metal or acrylic awards. “Our per-
petual awards and donor wall units are gain-
ing in popularity,” adds Wilson
“We produce all the standard items pic-
tured in our catalog in our manufacturing
facility in Cottage Grove,” she says. “We
purchase crystal and glass blanks that we
personalize, but all of our artistic glass
awards are made from blank sheet stock
which is cut, fused, slumped and etched in-
house. All of our graphic design is also done
in-house.”
Read on to learn how pieces from
Advance Corp.’s artistic glass desk accessory
collection are crafted.
1. The production process
uses full layers of artistic glass,
depending on the customer’s
choice of color. Pieces are hand-
cut and trimmed to size.
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