Brownies, Rainbows & Guides Badges

By Calvin Innes in Case Studies with 0 comment
Brownies, Rainbows & Guides Badges

I’ve been illustrating badges for the Girl guides, Rainbow Guides and Brownies for several years now. All told I’ve created upwards of one hundred badges as well as various other bit’s and pieces. This is a particularly enjoyable project as I have nieces, and friends with children in the Brownies, Girl Guides and Rainbows, so they get to wear the badges I’ve designed.

I designed my first set of badges back in 2007 and have have produced new designs every year since. The badges from 2009 have also featured original characters I designed for GGUK.

 

Each project begins, as most projects do, with a brief from the client. This can be a specific idea, or something more loose and open to a little more artistic flair. I take the brief and sketch up some rough ideas, which are then sent off for approval.

Once any edits have been made to the sketches I apply rough colours to the designs. This is to get an idea of what the final badges will look like once produced. As each badge is limited to 12 colours this can sometimes be more tricky than others. The more complex the design, the more creativity is needed when selecting the pallet.

These new colour sketches are sent for final approval. Once I get the go ahead I get to work.

As with much of my design work for projects where a product will be produced, I put the design together digitally. Using a PC and drawing tablet I start by adding the basic blocks of colour. (over the years the designs have developed from having black outlines to most of the artwork having no outlines at all. This gives the finished badges a really nice, clean look).

I then add another layer of colour and start adding in the detail. Text is layered over the top, and in many cases the Guides Tree-foil logo.

The final artwork is then flattened and sent over to Sarah Fawkes, who turns my illustrations into print ready files. Usually a month or two later the badges are available to Guides and Brownies all across the land!