Badges

[WhiteShark]

@SpellSword, I don't like how busy the background is for the Alpha Protocol badge, but, in general, I very much prefer the brighter and more contrasting backgrounds you've picked.

[Silver]

I'm not part of AG and I have a genuine question. Why there's such an accent being made about keeping everything brown?

[Lich]

Why there's such an accent being made about keeping everything brown?

It's a grognard thing. You wouldn't get it.

[Vergil]

Wow making them look even uglier pretty cool choice

[WhiteShark]

I'm not part of AG and I have a genuine question. Why there's such an accent being made about keeping everything brown?

@J1M volunteered to be the badge guy, and he modeled them after Boy Scouts badges.

[Vergil]

volunteered

Well, I guess you get what you don't pay for

[J1M]

I'm not part of AG and I have a genuine question. Why there's such an accent being made about keeping everything brown?

@J1M volunteered to be the badge guy, and he modeled them after Boy Scouts badges.

The feedback indicated that the common background was not something people liked, so it won't be done going forward. I expect the ones with a brown background will be updated at some point, but for now with a couple of exceptions it served to differentiate the two adventurer guild programs.

[Stack of Turtles]

I'm not part of AG and I have a genuine question. Why there's such an accent being made about keeping everything brown?

@J1M volunteered to be the badge guy, and he modeled them after Boy Scouts badges.

The feedback indicated that the common background was not something people liked, so it won't be done going forward. I expect the ones with a brown background will be updated at some point, but for now with a couple of exceptions it served to differentiate the two adventurer guild programs.

I don't think the common background or the merit-badge-like design were bad ideas in concept, but I think the particular choice of plasticky brown case like you got them in a happy meal was badly selected.

[Nemesis]

Opinion on the classic AG badges having a silver border?

Much better. I suggest halving the border thickness and using a slightly brighter silver.

[logincrash]

Why not use the RPGHQ colors?
Here's a 9001 hour paint sketch:

[Lich]

What is the purpose of the border?

[SpellSword]

I'm not part of AG and I have a genuine question. Why there's such an accent being made about keeping everything brown?

@Silver join the Adventurer's Guild and find out.

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[Stack of Turtles]

What is the purpose of the border?

To keep immigrants out.

[Silver]

Apologies for the wall of text.

I don't want to take badge duty from J1M, I'm only an occasional poster on the forum and mostly a lurker. But I'd like to help badges section to look better. So below I'll raise some points about current badges, hopefully providing constructive criticism. It's still, of course, up to you guys what to do with all of it.

---

• Uneven spacing + Non-utilised space of the profile

Assuming the whole width of the profile can be used (160 px) AND with leaving an even gap of 5 px on each side AND with space between badges being 6 px THREE badges can fit inside being 46 px in width. Right now it's only 32 px. It is a decent amount and will bring a lot of clarity to the badges, making it cleaner looking overall.

► Unevenness

(grid is off by 1 pixel, but my OCD isn't strong enough right now to fix it again)

On the picture above you can also see how skewed current setup of badges is (shown in blue).
So "even" possible ratios utulised can be 46 width + 6 spacing OR 48 px width + 3 px spacing (assuming there is still 5 px edge on either side).

You can scale it down as well, but IMO 32 pixels right now is a bit too tiny CONSIDERING how busy some of the badges are. The badges where it's NOT just a logo / symbol on a blank background, but actually an artwork do not look well on 32 pixel space.

---

• Colour scheme

I agree with @logincrash that HQ theme colours might look nice for badges. Though, I wouldn't go 1 to 1 as bright on red and blue.

For me, the issue with brown is how it clashes with website itself. Forum is cool, while badges are all reading very warm with predominant use of brown. Brown also muddies the entire section of badges (especially with the scale of pictures being so teeny weeny), there's no definition between them, and I'll mention it again -- they are really too tightly put together, no room to breathe.

Should you wish to stick with the 32 px badges, here are my suggestions on how to make it read visually a bit better.

• 1. Consider adding shadows / highlights to make background stand out from the frame. If you take a look at VtMB or Redemption badges, the picture has subtle shadow (top shadow on VtMB and side shadow on Redemption). It allows for a slightly more clear definition even on low scale picture. BUT, since it's not uniform shadow, it also clashes with each other, so I'd suggest picking one shadow / highlight option.
  
  2. Let brown background not be opaque, but transparent instead. Something between 25% and 40% should be alright. It'll just blend better with blue of the forum.
  
  3. If badge has a single logo / symbol, let it have slight shadow around or underneath it.
  
  4. Should you wish to keep brown cause it's dear to you guys, make OG badges have brown instead and the rest are gray / silver frames. Majority of badges would have that cool tone border that would fit better overall, but OG ones will stand out with brown.
  
  5. If applying HQ colour scheme, keep OG badges in red and the rest in blue for the same reason of blue working better with forum and red standing out more.
  
  6. Adding even 5 pixels to the height can do wonders, allowing (for example) crystal from Shard of Spring and symbol for Ambermoon to "fit" better in the box.
  
  
  
  (1 - original, 2 - OG badges silver, 3 - OG badges brown + definition, 4 - HQ colour scheme, 5 - HQ + sized up (very poorly))

---

• Badges uniformity VS Badges uniqueness

It's in the nature of badges like that to be in conflict with each other because of different styles that games have and which pictures are used for "framing". But badges also do not need to look soulless with with just the use of monochromatic flat game logos. You guys have a tight community here, allowing badges to be more so dear to heart than "visually uniform" is probably a priority? I don't know, it's just my speculation.

The biggest problem of old badges (imo) was only in part because of how they (styles) clashed with each other, but mostly it was because of how crooked whole "badges" section looked in the profile of a user + no cohesion in pictures used. Some are text, some are framed, some are not, some are smooth, some are heavily pixelated. The general idea of putting various pictures and game aesthetics IN FRAME (to unite those) that J1M had here is not bad, it's the execution that is lacking. Just make general frame small, preferably of cool colour (silver or blueish). Give inside of it some shadow / highlight. Make OG badges brown, gold, have a star on it or something. And -- of course -- make badges bigger and centered. All of that will make badges section clean, while also allowing games to "shine" better.

If necessary, I can provide a PSD template of sorts to use as base that can be tweaked however you guys want.

[J1M]

What is the purpose of the border?

Context: viewtopic.php?t=3021-wanted-free-labor-badge-art

[J1M]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. There were a range of responses. If you'd like the full context of where the first round of badge changes came from you can read this thread that I'm hoping a moderator will close so we don't have the conversation split across two locations.

These are the specific points I've distilled the feedback down into:

• When I initially asked, it was decided that the junior guild should not be differentiated, but there appears to be an appetite for that now.
• While the integration of consistency was generally welcome, the sophisticated purveyors of this site see themselves as space marines, not boy scouts, and would rather have an image frame evocative of a military pin than a merit badge.
• Vertical space is extremely valuable due to the height limit of 22px. Reallocate some of this.
• Utilizing the background color is helpful for conveying ideas at this resolution, the Dragon Age badge is a great example of this.
• There were a number of negative comments about the plain brown background some of the badges have. These need to be updated. Open to suggestions.
• While it may be possible to create a 'silver' frame, I don't think 'gray' looks good on the background colors of this site. Use of brown initially was to convey the boy scout merit badge inspiration. To sell the concept of 'pins', I think the frames should be metallic.

Some iteration for people to provide feedback on:

• I created a new frame inspired by military pins to reclaim 3 pixels for content, allowing 15% more vertical information.
• A variety of frame colors are shown to narrow things down. I intend to put more effort into a specular highlight to make the frame look more metallic.
• The 'shield' shape is an experiment.

► Inspiration: military pins

Merit badge:

• 

Military pin:


@Silver @SpellSword @logincrash @Nemesis @Oyster Sauce @rusty_shackleford @1998 @WhiteShark

[Oyster Sauce]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. There were a range of responses. If you'd like the full context of where the first round of badge changes came from you can read this thread that I'm hoping a moderator will close so we don't have the conversation split across two locations.

These are the specific points I've distilled the feedback down into:

• When I initially asked, it was decided that the junior guild should not be differentiated, but there appears to be an appetite for that now.
• While the integration of consistency was generally welcome, the sophisticated purveyors of this site see themselves as space marines, not boy scouts, and would rather have an image frame evocative of a military pin than a merit badge.
• Vertical space is extremely valuable due to the height limit of 22px. Reallocate some of this.
• Utilizing the background color is helpful for conveying ideas at this resolution, the Dragon Age badge is a great example of this.
• There were a number of negative comments about the plain brown background some of the badges have. These need to be updated. Open to suggestions.
• While it may be possible to create a 'silver' frame, I don't think 'gray' looks good on the background colors of this site. Use of brown initially was to convey the boy scout merit badge inspiration. To sell the concept of 'pins', I think the frames should be metallic.

Some iteration for people to provide feedback on:

• I created a new frame inspired by military pins to reclaim 3 pixels for content, allowing 15% more vertical information.
• A variety of frame colors are shown to narrow things down. I intend to put more effort into a specular highlight to make the frame look more metallic.
• The 'shield' shape is an experiment.

► Inspiration: military pins

Merit badge:

• 

Military pin:


@Silver @SpellSword @logincrash @Nemesis @Oyster Sauce @rusty_shackleford @1998 @WhiteShark

I like it. Would like to see the VTMR cross zoomed out a bit to give it more verticality, center it if possible, and match the VTMB one.

[logincrash]

Military pin:

I like the shape. Looks much better. VtMB ankh looks much better than on the merit badge.
Second row from the top looks the best, frame color wise, I think. Not too bright and not ****-brown.
Second row from the bottom could look a bit better if it was a little more subtle. And gold frame could be used for the OG AG games.

[SpellSword]

@J1M Glorious! I really like the Military pin design. The VtM Redemption & Bloodlines badges really benefit from those extra three pixels of vertical space.

[*]While the integration of consistency was generally welcome, the sophisticated purveyors of this site see themselves as space marines, not boy scouts, and would rather have an image frame evocative of a military pin than a merit badge.

Space Marine.gif

[WhiteShark]

Military pin:

I like the shape. Looks much better. VtMB ankh looks much better than on the merit badge.
Second row from the top looks the best, frame color wise, I think. Not too bright and not ****-brown.
Second row from the bottom could look a bit better if it was a little more subtle. And gold frame could be used for the OG AG games.

I actually prefer the third row. You've said you wanted to avoid grey, @J1M, but I actually prefer the muted color because it doesn't draw the eye away from the content of the badge. With the rest, to a greater or lesser degree, I feel that the first thing I see when I look at them is the border, not the logo.

[TKVNC]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. There were a range of responses. If you'd like the full context of where the first round of badge changes came from you can read this thread that I'm hoping a moderator will close so we don't have the conversation split across two locations.

These are the specific points I've distilled the feedback down into:

• When I initially asked, it was decided that the junior guild should not be differentiated, but there appears to be an appetite for that now.
• While the integration of consistency was generally welcome, the sophisticated purveyors of this site see themselves as space marines, not boy scouts, and would rather have an image frame evocative of a military pin than a merit badge.
• Vertical space is extremely valuable due to the height limit of 22px. Reallocate some of this.
• Utilizing the background color is helpful for conveying ideas at this resolution, the Dragon Age badge is a great example of this.
• There were a number of negative comments about the plain brown background some of the badges have. These need to be updated. Open to suggestions.
• While it may be possible to create a 'silver' frame, I don't think 'gray' looks good on the background colors of this site. Use of brown initially was to convey the boy scout merit badge inspiration. To sell the concept of 'pins', I think the frames should be metallic.

Some iteration for people to provide feedback on:

• I created a new frame inspired by military pins to reclaim 3 pixels for content, allowing 15% more vertical information.
• A variety of frame colors are shown to narrow things down. I intend to put more effort into a specular highlight to make the frame look more metallic.
• The 'shield' shape is an experiment.

► Inspiration: military pins

Merit badge:

• 

Military pin:


@Silver @SpellSword @logincrash @Nemesis @Oyster Sauce @rusty_shackleford @1998 @WhiteShark

Wew lad

That's some nice work. 3rd from top is the nicest accent colour imo

[rusty_shackleford]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. There were a range of responses. If you'd like the full context of where the first round of badge changes came from you can read this thread that I'm hoping a moderator will close so we don't have the conversation split across two locations.

These are the specific points I've distilled the feedback down into:

• When I initially asked, it was decided that the junior guild should not be differentiated, but there appears to be an appetite for that now.
• While the integration of consistency was generally welcome, the sophisticated purveyors of this site see themselves as space marines, not boy scouts, and would rather have an image frame evocative of a military pin than a merit badge.
• Vertical space is extremely valuable due to the height limit of 22px. Reallocate some of this.
• Utilizing the background color is helpful for conveying ideas at this resolution, the Dragon Age badge is a great example of this.
• There were a number of negative comments about the plain brown background some of the badges have. These need to be updated. Open to suggestions.
• While it may be possible to create a 'silver' frame, I don't think 'gray' looks good on the background colors of this site. Use of brown initially was to convey the boy scout merit badge inspiration. To sell the concept of 'pins', I think the frames should be metallic.

Some iteration for people to provide feedback on:

• I created a new frame inspired by military pins to reclaim 3 pixels for content, allowing 15% more vertical information.
• A variety of frame colors are shown to narrow things down. I intend to put more effort into a specular highlight to make the frame look more metallic.
• The 'shield' shape is an experiment.

► Inspiration: military pins

Merit badge:

• 

Military pin:


@Silver @SpellSword @logincrash @Nemesis @Oyster Sauce @rusty_shackleford @1998 @WhiteShark

Looks great to me. Whatever @Oyster Sauce settles on I'll swap the badges out to.

[Nemesis]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. There were a range of responses. If you'd like the full context of where the first round of badge changes came from you can read this thread that I'm hoping a moderator will close so we don't have the conversation split across two locations.

These are the specific points I've distilled the feedback down into:

• When I initially asked, it was decided that the junior guild should not be differentiated, but there appears to be an appetite for that now.
• While the integration of consistency was generally welcome, the sophisticated purveyors of this site see themselves as space marines, not boy scouts, and would rather have an image frame evocative of a military pin than a merit badge.
• Vertical space is extremely valuable due to the height limit of 22px. Reallocate some of this.
• Utilizing the background color is helpful for conveying ideas at this resolution, the Dragon Age badge is a great example of this.
• There were a number of negative comments about the plain brown background some of the badges have. These need to be updated. Open to suggestions.
• While it may be possible to create a 'silver' frame, I don't think 'gray' looks good on the background colors of this site. Use of brown initially was to convey the boy scout merit badge inspiration. To sell the concept of 'pins', I think the frames should be metallic.

Some iteration for people to provide feedback on:

• I created a new frame inspired by military pins to reclaim 3 pixels for content, allowing 15% more vertical information.
• A variety of frame colors are shown to narrow things down. I intend to put more effort into a specular highlight to make the frame look more metallic.
• The 'shield' shape is an experiment.

► Inspiration: military pins

Merit badge:

• 

Military pin:


@Silver @SpellSword @logincrash @Nemesis @Oyster Sauce @rusty_shackleford @1998 @WhiteShark

Nice work, and thanks for the update. I like the third row of the military pins.

[Silver]

@J1M You REALLY like tiny stuff, huh.



2nd or 3rd row look the best colour wise for the frame.

I don't know what software you use to align background inside, but I HIGHLY recommend using guides, because well...

► Show Spoiler

[Vergil]

Silver you are an honorary man in my book

[J1M]

@J1M You REALLY like tiny stuff, huh.



2nd or 3rd row look the best colour wise for the frame.

I don't know what software you use to align background inside, but I HIGHLY recommend using guides, because well...

► Show Spoiler

Achievement unlocked: Pixel Hunter

I shifted the ankh over one pixel to see if people would comment on that or the ankh's color change.

I didn't pick the size constraint. I'm planning to create 44px versions so they don't look so pixelated at x2 size, and have advocated that rusty remove the x3 size entirely since it only appears on one page. Exporting these is tedious so I'm not putting much effort into the individual images until this frame thing is locked down.

[rusty_shackleford]

The badges have to be tiny because there's a lot of them. Another year and people's profile fields would start being longer than the messages.

[Finarfin]

The badges have to be tiny because there's a lot of them. Another year and people's profile fields would start being longer than the messages.

Hell yeah. Like on the Path of Exile Forum.

[J1M]

► Inspiration: military pins

The border color preference was pretty clear. Here is some exploration of different shapes for the pin to evoke the idea of a shield.


Regarding differentiation of the original adventurer's guild, I am not really a fan of using the border color to do that. Many of them have pixel-art icons due to their publishing date. I think using pixel art icons on top of a two-tone classic shield background would appropriately differentiate them and solve the "too much brown" feedback about the background color. This would also address some very early feedback about reverting the Strahd image.

Like this, but 22px high:

[Oyster Sauce]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. There were a range of responses. If you'd like the full context of where the first round of badge changes came from you can read this thread that I'm hoping a moderator will close so we don't have the conversation split across two locations.

These are the specific points I've distilled the feedback down into:

• When I initially asked, it was decided that the junior guild should not be differentiated, but there appears to be an appetite for that now.
• While the integration of consistency was generally welcome, the sophisticated purveyors of this site see themselves as space marines, not boy scouts, and would rather have an image frame evocative of a military pin than a merit badge.
• Vertical space is extremely valuable due to the height limit of 22px. Reallocate some of this.
• Utilizing the background color is helpful for conveying ideas at this resolution, the Dragon Age badge is a great example of this.
• There were a number of negative comments about the plain brown background some of the badges have. These need to be updated. Open to suggestions.
• While it may be possible to create a 'silver' frame, I don't think 'gray' looks good on the background colors of this site. Use of brown initially was to convey the boy scout merit badge inspiration. To sell the concept of 'pins', I think the frames should be metallic.

Some iteration for people to provide feedback on:

• I created a new frame inspired by military pins to reclaim 3 pixels for content, allowing 15% more vertical information.
• A variety of frame colors are shown to narrow things down. I intend to put more effort into a specular highlight to make the frame look more metallic.
• The 'shield' shape is an experiment.

► Inspiration: military pins

Merit badge:

• 

Military pin:


@Silver @SpellSword @logincrash @Nemesis @Oyster Sauce @rusty_shackleford @1998 @WhiteShark

Looks great to me. Whatever @Oyster Sauce settles on I'll swap the badges out to.

you pick