This was such a fun project! A good friend turned 30 this year and his wife wanted to make it feel special, despite the ever-changing COVID situation. The result was an absolutely lovely outdoor event with a few close friends (i.e. camping in a field).

One of her ideas to add sparkle to the weekend was a series of achievement badges – along the lines of Girl Guides or Scouts badges – for activities that we might do anyway. The tongue-in-cheek gamification of enjoying time spent together was funny and sweet, especially since the group is fond of playing games of all types.

One of the core ideas we discussed when selecting badge activities was the level of challenge. This was supposed to be a fun and silly activity with the reward of some little pieces of art; there was no real need to make gaining badges any sort of trial. Besides which, individuals within the friend group have varying levels of mobility and physical fitness, and there's certainly no fun in limiting the definition of success to exclude them. 

Therefore, the badges may range from sedate "activities" like Slept in a Tent right through to the more active Sea Swimming and Team Sports, but that sport might be boules, and the swim is entirely based on comfort levels of the individual.

Aside from these minor pieces of direction to begin with, the brief was left quite open for me. I used a bold but vintage palette, and wanted to keep the shapes quite simple so they'd be readable at small sizes. The finished badges were 25mm across, so I aimed for strong contrasts and clear iconography. I added a rough-edged aesthetic to make the final art feel a little more handmade.

Here's the full set: