Design your way

So it seems that bold and large badge logo designs are re-conquering commercial and branding design.

A few years ago, badge logos found their way back to successful marketing strategies, and the trend has continued since as a stylish and personalized way to convey a brand’s identity.

What is a badge logo?

Explained broadly, badges are attachable objects that symbolize and represent a brand, and contain the most important information about it.

Badge logo designs vary from simple emblems containing the name, location, establishment date, or tag line of a business, to brave and colorful attachments that aim to convey an important messages.

For many popular brands, emblems are a core and permanent element of their promotional activity, and an item most designers deem as absolutely necessary. Yet, you’ll come across those who discourage brands from pushing up badge logo ideas, right because their visibility is occasionally compromised upon resizing.

Truth is, brand logo design ought to be dealt with care, as this is the only way to get a truly beautiful product.

Badge logo shapes and size limitations make it difficult to execute an appealing, unique, and informative logo and make sure that the general public can identify with your business concept.

Most badge logos, for example, are oblong or round logos, and employ unique combinations of colors, textures, and vector patterns to make the final product memorable (think of hipster logos, for instance). There is usually an icon placed at the very center of the badge, and a tagline that follows the circumference of the badge.

What’s the difference between badges and logos?

When looking for badge logo inspiration, your first task will be to understand the difference between badges and logos altogether.

As a social media marketer, for instance, you should know that badges are small but highly inviting images that grab peoples’ attention and lead them you your websites and pages, namely tiny portions of content that are easy to share and distribute.

Yet, catching the eye is not everything badges can do – they are the perfect area to place your logo, and explain in a nutshell who you are and what you do. All in all, badge logos make memorable first impressions.

The best way to go when picking a badge logo size is to offer it in several different variants, and let the visitor choose the formats that would look the best on their blogs/sites.

Embedded badges can do miracles for your promotional tactics, as clicking on them will lead each visitor to your website, regardless of where the badge was located.

So far, so simple, isn’t it?

A useful tip: Beautiful badges also have a role on social media, as you can include them on your Facebook/Twitter pages, and make them an integral part of your event announcements. The best way to go here is to get a badge that is easy to change, or will ideally be useful for a number of different events.

Despite of being a popular design figure, a badge is not exclusively devoted to corporate users, and differs significantly from brands and marks. Instead of serving only the advertising industry, the representative, abstract image applies to broader concepts such as allegories, moral truths, or even people.

Basically, badges are easily comparable to icons, and touch on standardized and even universal concepts instead of promoting companies on crowded markets. Often, they convey a personal message, or symbolize value, beliefs, lifestyles, and more (think of vintage badge logos, for instance).

Turning back to the archives of our robust pop culture, we’d discover a number of great emblems that made it to history, including the one of Superman (DC Comics logo by House of El). Despite of not representing a successful business, this logo is the most recognized and universally appreciated one worldwide.

Emblems can, of course, be religious in nature, as shown by St. Catherine’s wheel, or the bell and pig on St. Anthony Abbott’s badges.

Looking for badge logo inspiration? Let us help you!

Not everything is about details

The first problem you’d encounter working on your brand logo design is the estate you have available – on a product like this, a green eye doesn’t have to drown in color, and there shouldn’t necessarily be a flying seagull over a coast scene. Bring your ideas down to mere essentials, and you’ll be surprised by how attractive simplicity can be..

Combine flashy and plain colors

While it is good to experiment with brave combinations and contrasts, and make sure viewers will remember your badge, you have to make smart and predefined choices to keep the logo in loop even once the novelty wears off. Saturated and flashy colors are also suitable, as long as you confirmed your audience would like them.

The drawing technique is not everything that matters

Let’s face it – most of the beautiful badges designed per day will never make it to an art gallery. Yet, you have to ensure that your audience will enjoy wearing them, and treat them as symbols of habits, likes, and aspirations. That’s what badges are all about!

Put this way, the badge art won’t require you to have perfect illustration skills, but rather do some basic, on-point drawings. For artists, this won’t be that much of a challenge.

Look outside the box

Who said your badge should always come in the same shape? A round badge may just be the starting point, and you may as well expand your ideas to Eiffel-tower or giraffe-neck shapes if you think that will work.

Also, how about a multi-functional badge? A piece that closes a bag or buttons up a kerchief will not only be beautiful, but practical as well!

As you see, there much more to a good badge than appearance. You have to be creative and take your design skills to the next level, as this way you will give users a special piece they can’t find elsewhere.

Ending thoughts on badge logos

Badges, according to some designers, are not equivalent to logos, but represent trendy pieces of graphic art you can easily skip in your marketing strategy.

On the opposite, you have those who claim badges are beautiful and very useful, and that their ‘complex simplicity’ and practical application can help every business promote its work.

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