San Antonio is gearing up for Fiesta and a group of designers at a local trophy shop are working to capture the spirit of the season.
Bright colors and bold statements are all part of what makes a Fiesta medal worth collecting.
“The best medals are the ones that are more personal,” said Caterina Gutierrez of Monarch Trophy Studio. Gutierrez has three years of experience designing some of the most sought after medals.
“A lot of fun colors, a lot of glitter and confetti,” she said. “I really try to do something that will reflect the customers’ personality and really make something important and special to them.”
Medals have become big business. This is just one of the places that designs, makes and assembles the collectibles.
“Now Fiesta's become so big, we make medals year round. In June, right after Fiesta is over, a lot of the big companies come in to get started on their art for next year,” said Charlie Drago of Monarch Trophy.
Most are made overseas.
“The medals come back to us and we put ribbons on them and get them all finished up and get them to the customer,” he said.
More than a dozen people handle Fiesta duties here every year.
“Every year we see different themes. This year, we have a lot of spinner medals and a lot of dangle medals, and they're also getting bigger. We're seeing medals as big as three inches this year,” he said.
There are two stories about how medals became part of the San Antonio celebration.
Some tell the story of King Antonio tossing out coins to crowds. Another goes back to a colonel at Fort Sam Houston who handed out the tokens of appreciation.
Whatever the story Gutierrez says, the smiling faces are the best reward.
“I'll do a pretty rough sketch and combine different elements and hope it turns out on this screen as well as it does in my head,” she said.
Monarch Trophy says thousands of medals have already been ordered. They expect more orders to be made right up until Fiesta.