Minneapolis, Dec. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
Jostens, the nation’s leading provider of custom, hand-crafted fine jewelry for college and professional sports teams, is busy spending the end of 2018 designing and manufacturing custom championship rings for high school teams across the United States.
“Our design and manufacturing teams are working overtime this holiday season to help thousands of high school champions design and receive their rings before year’s end,” said John Bibeault, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Jostens Scholastic Division, which services thousands of high schools every year with custom class jewelry and graduation products as well.
The recent influx of activity, amidst an already busy holiday season, is par for the course and driven by the conclusion of high school football championship season, said Bibeault, but the increase in activity compared to last year is a result of advanced creativity and collaboration the company’s sales and design teams are taking with high school champions across the United States.
“Jostens is known for its history and innovation in designing championship rings for professional teams,” said Bibeault, “but our commitment to celebrating champions at the high school level is just as strong – it’s just not as well-publicized nationally. The awareness and impact of delivering champ rings to a high school team is more local, but they’re champions just the same, and Jostens is committed to celebrating champions at all levels.”
A recent example of Jostens celebrating high school championship teams hit close to home, in the company’s founding city of Owatonna, Minnesota. Earlier this month the Owatonna High School Huskies won the Minnesota state 5AAA football championship, and a Jostens team of sales, design, and engineering experts quickly partnered with Owatonna’s players and coaches to design their 2018 season’s championship ring.
“We love partnering with all of the high school champ teams we get to work with,” said Barry Travis, Jostens lead artist who has personally worked with hundreds of championship ring designs at the high school, college, and professional level over his 30-year career. “But getting a chance to work with the Huskies, in the birthplace of Jostens over 120 years ago, was really special.”
A factor that made the design process even more special – and challenging – for the Jostens team: this was the second year in a row the Huskies were crowned state champions, requiring this year’s ring to be even more unique than the last.
“Regardless of the team or league, pro or high school, we always talk about how each championship ring tells the story of the season,” said Jostens sales representative Paul Moe, who has worked with a variety of Owatonna teams over the years to celebrate their sports championships. “And even though this was a back-to-back win, with some of the same players and coaches, every season is still unique. The challenge is in getting all of those unique aspects out of the players and into the ring.”
To do that, Travis and Moe held a design session at Owatonna High School with the team’s head coach and players, to translate the stories of the season into the design elements of the ring. During that session, another team of designers over 60 miles away at the company’s jewelry engineering facility in Eagan, Minnesota participated virtually to render and share computer-generated images of the ring in real time. It’s the same process – called Jostens ChampDXTM (Championship Design Experience) – the company uses when partnering with college and professional championship teams.
“ChampDXTM is a perfect complement to the in-person design session,” said Blaine Stewart, Senior Director of Art Services and leader of the team that turns players’ ideas into elements of their ring. “It’s great for these teams to be able to see their ideas translate into designs in real time, and our designers are able to work with many more teams in the virtual environment. In fact, some of our design session are now being done exclusively with ChampDXTM.”
The speed and efficiencies of the virtual environment are becoming more important as the number of championship teams Jostens partners with increases, said Stewart, with Jostens producing hundreds of designs each day during peak season.
“It’s a busy time of year, but this is a good reason to be busy,” said Stewart.
About Jostens
Jostens is a trusted partner in the academic and achievement channel, providing products, programs and services that help its customers celebrate moments that matter. The company's products include yearbooks, publications, jewelry and consumer goods that serve the K-12 educational, college and professional sports segments. Founded in 1897 and based in Minneapolis, Minn., Jostens can be found online at www.jostens.com.
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