The design of the 2012 Hugo Award trophy was unveiled during the Opening Ceremonies of Chicon 7, the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention, on the evening of August 30. Although in recent years conventions have unveiled that year’s design during the Hugo Award ceremony, Chicon 7 elected to showcase the trophy earlier so that members could see it before the final night of the convention. The trophy has been on display in the convention’s Hugo Award history exhibit.

While the Hugo Award trophy always includes the rocket originally designed by Jack McKnight and Ben Jason as refined by Peter Weston, each year’s Worldcon can design its own base. In recent years, most Worldcons have had an open design competition to design the Hugo Award base. This year’s trophy base designer Deb Kosiba appeared in the Opening Ceremonies and gave a presentation on the design she produced. Deb has graciously provided TheHugoAwards.org with a copy of her presentation text, which we have incorporated into the 2012 Hugo Award Trophy page.

The 2012 Hugo Awards will be presented at a ceremony in Chicago on the evening of Sunday, September 2, 2012, starting at 8 PM CDT. The ceremony will be streamed live on the Worldcon UStream Channel and described on the Hugo Awards web site as a CoverItLive Broadcast.