The Story Behind The 2023 NEXPO Award

Alexey Ikonomou

SEGD was thrilled to partner with Ashton Design for the creation of this year’s NEXPO award. The following story tells us more about the inspiration behind the award and how it was created, and was written by Alexey Ikonomou, the CEO of Ashton Design and the Co-Chair of this year’s 50th Anniversary Conference Experience.

“I was very excited at the opportunity to design this year’s SEGD NEXPO award, especially since it was the 50th anniversary conference to be held in Washington D.C.

I was inspired by Pierre L’Enfant’s vision and design of Washington, as commissioned by George Washington himself. L’Enfant used sacred geometry to layout the plan and footprint of D.C., specifically to strategically place significant federal buildings and monuments, hence the fragmented street grid, but beautiful site lines and dramatic grandeur. He incorporated Pi, the Fibonacci Sequence and the Golden Mean to derive the geometric proportions but he also wanted to symbolically represent the uniting of heaven and earth that the American ideal of democracy offered.

The award design incorporates L’Enfant’s geometric pattern and proportions as a graphic that is laser etched onto the four outer brass plates. Use of brass was inspired by the classic federal buildings that incorporate the material. All four plates are attached to a painted black metal core that is exposed at the top, bottom and on all four edges.

But wait! Hidden inside the award is a secret map of Washington D.C. that depicts the award’s concept and pinpoints the location of the conference hotel. The hotel’s geographic coordinates are also cryptically engraved on the outer brass. 

Thank you to SEGD for the opportunity and a big thank you to Gelberg Signs that made this concept into a reality. It was a great (and FAST) collaboration with minimal prototypes but we pulled it off in time for the event. And congratulations to all the winners!”

The 2023 NEXPO Award winners are:

Best Booth: Right Way Signs
Best Material Supplier Booth: DE Powder Coated Graphics
Best New Product: Bitro Group
Best Fabricator Booth: MOSS
Best New Resource: SignAgent
Best Artisan: Oat Foundry

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