Our story

We believe that recognition should be sincere, meaningful, and also beautiful. We are on a mission to give the awards and recognition industry a design update and to create awards and gifts that truly reflect the significance of the achievements they honor. We want to design awards that are proudly given, received, and displayed. We are a team of award-winning professionals who take our work seriously and who love what we do. We research materials and packaging products rigorously and purchase them from companies that, like us, manufacture in the United States. We call Austin, Texas home. We are proud that TROPHYOLOGY was honored with the 2012 Chamber of Commerce Austin Innovative Practice Award.

Founder Eva Schone hails from Germany and lived and worked in several European cities before pursuing her architectural studies in the United States in 1998. Eva is a registered architect and has worked over the past decade in award-winning architecture practices on mixed-use developments, commercial and civic projects, and private residences. 

Observing that recognition awards and plaques seemed rather predictable, standardized, and outmoded, Eva founded TROPHYOLOGY in 2011 in order to offer a modern, design-oriented alternative in the award and recognition industry. Since then, TROPHYOLOGY has grown through word-of-mouth recommendations, and we truly enjoy working with our clients. 

When asked for whom Eva would like to design an award, she thinks of the many people who stood up against the government of former East Germany persistently and peacefully. Their brave protest completely changed her life path and allows her to live and work in the United States, something she could have never dreamed of when growing up in East Germany. She’ll be forever grateful to those men and women.