Badges…

[Mouring]

Does everyone like the laminated badges we’ve done for the last few picnics and last two hotel events? Does everyone like the size? As most furries have their own “character badges” would it bother you if for the convention we just put the badge artwork and a number on it if it speed registration process up? Would you be willing to upsize the badge and have your name on it if you paid for a sponsorship?

Just let us know what you like, dislike, or would love to see us do for badges. There are a lot of different models from scifi to furry fandom and we’re looking for ideas to help do something unique and exciting.

[Cybergarou]

As most furries have their own “character badges” would it bother you if for the convention we just put the badge artwork and a number on it if it speed registration process up?

Only if the theme for the first convention is “secret agent man.”

I have thoughts regarding these questions, but will bring them up somewhere else because I don't want to bias this discussion with my conclusions.

[Skystrider]

looking at my MFF badge and the badges for the events thus far im pretty pleased with them, I love that each event is unique for the badge and that our local artists get a say in the design.

 

 As far as a con badge go, why fix something thats not broken?

[Snap E. Tiger]

I think the badges are an awesome idea.  Collectible & it helps to bring $ into the group to pay for things.    Like Sky said…   it works.  Keep rocking it.

Furry Migration Staff (Volunteers) & MNFurs Board Member.

Posts on the MNFurs forums are of my own opinion and do not reflect that of MNFurs or chartered events unless otherwise stated.

http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Snap_E._Tiger

[Zepaw]

I feel the names are an important part of an event badge. They make it something more than just a procedural formality; it becomes an even more personal keepsake.

[Sike]

I feel the badges are, for now fine. But honestly, I'd love to see a preregistration set up again. Where the person can just show up, with an ID/Confirmation slip/Receipt and pick up their badge (name already on it, and numbered for easy fine). Theyd be able to pick up and go. Considering ours is $5, non-refundable would prolly be best.

 

Then in a second line, have the people that still need to pay/Get their badges. I could see this becoming a 2 man process. One to take the money and after the name written down, feed into machine, the second to take from the machine, punch the hole and hand off to the owner.

Wut o.o

Im Sike AND Banana

[Ski Sharp]

what about a “fursonalized” badge for each per-register i.e. their desired name being written/printed on to the per-registration badges.

[Mouring]

The de-personalization of the badges came up because another larger local convention is discussing doing that and looking at it. And I was just looking for the community’s view on it.

What about the badge size? The next size up is the 4″x6″. It gives more space for better viewing the art and large space for the name space.

Note remember this is in the Convention section so I’m looking mostly at the convention side, but it is also valid if there are things we can do for badges at picnics or any other events where we do memorial badges.

BTW, Cyber.. Please just discuss what your views are. I’m not caring about taint. I’m caring about a public conversation.

[Snap E. Tiger]

Please do not increase the badge size.  Instead of making the size bigger, just make the area for the name bigger or just fade that area of the badge out (make it lighter) so someone can read the sharpie name without ruining the art.    I like names.. people are not just numbers.  PLUS if someone doesnt have any character badges, I can read their name and pretend that I remember who the person is.

 

Ya Cyber.. why hide your views behind closed meeting doors?   This is what being transparent is all about.

Furry Migration Staff (Volunteers) & MNFurs Board Member.

Posts on the MNFurs forums are of my own opinion and do not reflect that of MNFurs or chartered events unless otherwise stated.

http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Snap_E._Tiger

[Twisted]

*warning, random thought bubble paragraphs*

Art, Verbiage for the event (as simple as name of event), Name of recipient, Badge #. With the age old challenge of not cluttering up art when doing everything else. The current size seems to fit fine, bigger isn’t necessary. I think the last few events we have floated around a 3×4? Fits in common plastic clip-on holders. If we can’t figure that out then we have a different problem with font sizes.

In fact let me rant on the dimensions for a moment. The purpose of a con badge is not to get free art, yes there’s some effort put into them but that’s for cosmetic appearance. The only reason for a badge is for the sake of badging. They could have bland Helvetica text saying “Convention – Year – Name – Number” and tada that’s all you need. Do any of us parade around the house with our Cat Days badge on? When we were around the hotel did we even parade around with it for everyone to see because oh-my-god the art was awesome? The art may have been awesome but no, we don’t. Because EVERYONE has one. My personal badges are 4×6 and 5×8 but their unique and represent an individual. The con badge is worn for badgers, and “hi my name is ___” purposes. If we want to show off art on a bigger space then let’s offer goodie bags with high-res versions. For a small donation of course.

Maybe more time communicating with the artist so that a person can print a test out, grab a sharpie, and see for certain the final product is up to desired results. And if not, fix it. Lastly on the subject of artist keep with the home-grown art!

Lamination itself is wonderful, my spring picnic badge died due to humidity. An extra dollar or two to prevent that is worthwhile.

The name of the recipient is somewhat critical I think. I took a look at my last few convention/event badges (not just mnfurs) and they all share that common “Hello, My Name Is ____” purpose. Yes most of us carry some sort of custom badge but it’s not a stead-fast rule, and even if we do some times we choose not to bring it/them around. Yeah we can ask people their names but I know at least one encounter of someone I met at MFF, struck up a good 4-5 minute conversation and then bothered to look at the name of the badge and proceeded to hit myself on the forehead for not doing so sooner.

The number is something I think we can incorporate, it shouldn’t be intrusive but serves many logistical purposes (speeding up registry, for any con staff/security concerns a # is easier to remember and track then a name). The number provided a fun little raffle trick at Anime Detour while everyone was getting mini-badges. People felt very comfortable giving some number and were never asked for name or contact information.

Now, IF the name was stricken, going to explore this avenue. Given that I do have custom badges and blah-blah I’m a hypocrite =) .. my name on an event badge as apposed to no name at all is not what gets me to give sponsorship. I might do so because I want to sponsor in general but not something I care about as a “perk”. Is there a challenge of printing badges with names on them as apposed to just a number? ie… a number is unique but also sequential, predictable. If no… then just pre-reg vs at-door reg like with Cat Days. If you pre-reg then your name may be included otherwise just a number.

What about on-site printing? Not for casual picnic and such but for a convention. It’s always one more piece of hardware to break but at least we won’t have the sharpie issue.

[Cybergarou]

Not hiding my views but rather taking advantage of having time. I have already spent a lot of time working with registration systems so I know a lot about our needs. But I don't know everything. What I have to say is in regards to what we are currently doing, what I think we should be doing, and since it has been brought up what I think about what Convergence is doing. If I post that right away the discussion will focus on suggestions regarding my proposal. Which is great, but I first want to allow some time for fresh ideas to pop up. The kinds of ideas that come from people who don't know a lot about registration systems.

Since it has been discussed a little, I'll explain some about Convergence's scheme as an illustration as to why I want some time before I tell all. From what I was told, Convergence took names off the badge and have just numbers so that they can speed up the registration lines. When you check in, you tell them who you are and they find you in their database. Then they pick up one of their numbered badges, enter the number on the badge into the database, and now that's your badge. This means there's no time wasted on looking for your badge or printing one out for you.

Now, if I told you where they got the inspiration for doing that, you would be like, “OMFG!” because that's exactly where the inspiration leading to their system came from. A lot of times your registration is tracked by name and address, because two people can have the same name or the same address, but normally not both. At OMFG one of the Convergence registration staff was helping us laminate badges, and this person was asking about how I set the system up. Since I had no exposure to existing registration systems at the time, I developed my own method. I tracked all registrations using a number that is attached to all that other information. The fact that all I needed was their number was interesting to this person. It was a fresh idea.

Now, what I was doing exactly wasn't that useful to them, but they took that idea and made a change to their system to improve it. I don't take any credit for either that idea or their system. The idea wasn't a new one, just new to this circle. And the system is all theirs. This is how innovation works. Now that people are starting to talk, I want to give one more week before I start posting my ideas. Maybe somebody will have a fresh idea that doesn't seem that special to them, but is something I haven't considered before. Yes, that can also happen after I post my ideas, but it's more likely to happen before I do.

I will throw one thing out for opinions though since it's just an interesting idea to me right now and not something I'm seriously considering. I know an artist who draws character badges with a NFC tag on them. This tag can be scanned by certain devices to reveal character info and an FA address. On a badge, I could see that containing some of the registration info. Scan the badge at the door to either check age or generate statistics. I only took a quick look at the price of these tags, but it seems too expensive for something that isn't a commissioned art badge.

[Cybergarou]

It was worth a shot.

When talking about badges, you are talking about two things. The first is the physical design of the badge itself. The second is the purpose of the badge and how it is used for registration. This is one of those cases where it is a good idea to stick to the form follows function rule, meaning the design of the badge should be built around it's function.

So what is the function of badges for a furry convention? We've already touched on most of these points, but let's just summarize them again for clarity.

1. They help track registrations: Once someone walks away from the registration table, we need a quick visual confirmation that everyone entering convention space has in fact registered. This needs to be something identifiable and not easily duplicated.
2. They introduce the wearer: Furry fandom is special because the consumer attendees are just as important as the producer attendees. Most fandom conventions are focused on what I call external creators, people gather to share an appreciation of something they don't have any serious control over.
3. They are a memento: People hold onto these things even after the convention is done.

Those are the functions I consider inseparable from a furry convention badge. There are also functions that can be included, but not universally required.

• indicate separate registration classes: Either different payment levels or age groups, sometimes more exotic classifications.
• statistics tracking: Some conventions are so big that knowing where people are going becomes both difficult and important. A badge that can be scanned can generate data useful for future planning.
• entertainment: Sometimes badges are used as an entertainment device. I have even heard of a convention that had pieces of info randomly programmed into badges and after scanning enough of them you where able to decode a URL that gave you access to goodies.

So what is the current state of our badges? We have functions 1 and 2 sufficiently covered. Provided the artwork isn't posted somewhere before the event ends, it would be very difficult to manufacture a badge for one of our events. The badges also adequately identify the wearer, though eventually we should look into the readability of the names.

I don't think we have function 3 covered well enough for a convention. The current badge printing specifications and process leads to badges that are unevenly cut and can't be printed at the door, which leads to a worse problem. We still have people writing their names in sharpie. That's ok for a smaller event, but not for a convention.

So far I have come up with two options for addressing the printing issues.

1. Have people RSVP their name if they are registering at the door, even if they aren't sure they are going. We print out extra badges anyways, so I don't see a major cost issue with printing names on badges for people who might not show up. This doesn't address the uneven badges, but it'll minimize the number of sharpie names. There will still be some though.
2. Buy pre-printed badges that we can run through a printer. (Like MFF for those that have seen them.) We could have a strip that has the badge art on the bottom and a mini schedule on top, or something else worth handing out. Print the name on the badge, tear it off, and laminate it. This will cost more than what we currently do, but I recommend this option.

From a badge art perspective, we need to create a clear and solid guideline for artists to follow. This is also to make sure certain requirements are covered for different events without the person in charge of making badges responsible for remembering everything. Right now, the sole requirement is that the art fits the size of the lamination pouch. Yet the badges at the last picnic were too big and I ended up trimming a lot of the ones I laminated. They also lacked a year, event name, or group name. Some of the badge art I've gotten in the past was a headache to make useable for registration.

If we start using pre-printed badges we can have a badge size that fills out the lamination pouch, since each badge would be a separate sheet. However, if we go the RSVP route or even just continue what we are doing now, we need to set a size that is smaller than the pouches. The reason for that is because the lamination pouches are not a good size for printing a sheet of badges out. Either way, we need to specify an area on the badge that is going to contain the name and tell the artist to expect a faded box to be placed there. Finally, there should be a list of things that will always be on a badge. Year, event name, maybe group name or logo, and a drop in slot for theme.

My final statement for now will be regarding the numbered badge process with no name. (This is more of a registration process thing, and not badge design.) It's not for us. The whole point of doing that is to gain a little bit of speed. Literally a measure of seconds. We are not large enough to benefit from that gain. We already make use of a numbered badge system for preregistered people and we stand to gain more speed in other areas. (Either minimizing the amount of laminating that needs to be done at the event or minimizing the amount time people are actually in line by offering at-the-door online registration.) I've already mentioned that I'm the second person who thinks the name is not a function that can be removed from furry convention badges. As someone who sat at a table checking people in, “most of us” does not describe the number of people with character badges.

[Lailadie]

Something I’ve seen at a con in the past, and I don’t know if this is a common thing, since I’ve only been to one, but they had “Premium Badges”. For an extra fee you could get your badge with an additional character on it. These characters were pre-determined and set, but you got to choose out of the 6 or 7 of them which you wanted. When I registered for the con, they had run out of normal badges so we got premium badges for free, and having a premium badge made it extra rememberable and made me feel like I had actually had a say in what my badge was (even though I really didn’t). It would require a little bit of extra work out of the badge creators but it would help bring in a little extra revenue (I think) as well as make the experience better for our con goers.

[Bee]

What I’ve seen recently is badges that are different colors/designs for different age groups (which I think is important) and then when one registers, either at the door or in the pre-registered line, they check your ID and stuff and print out a sticker with your name, registration #, age and other important information on it and stick it to your badge.

I think, other than printing and laminating badges right there at the front of the line, this would be as close as one can get to a badge being functional and informational, as well as relatively easy to do.

About the factor of art and having personalized badges, I don’t think that’s practical at all. These need to be things that are printed and laminated in bulk or else it would simply take too long. They can still be mementos even if they don’t have personalized art of your character on them. And people can have more than one badge on their lanyard as well: one for their character and one for the con.

Though I’ve never been to a furry convention before, I’m just providing my own little spiel. ;u;

[Author]

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