International Women's Day Badge - Final Designs and Evaluation

Finally, I decided to submit three designs into the competition, these did not take long to make, yet I thought the spontaneity helped the badges seem more like an act of protest. Protests and movements are all about creating a stand with whatever materials are to hand, by using pens and paper it gives the designs some authenticity.

The two women in the designs are Princess Leia and Boudicca; the phrases used are drawn from quotes of theirs. The central badge is the suffragette rosette, the colours match the original and so have some historical reference. Using just the outline of the text was decided as it went well with the clean white background. Yet in hindsight this was a mistake, the badges are only going to be 25mm x 25mm which means the text may not be readable.

In fact, I am unhappy with the designs I submitted, I feel if given more time I could have created something far more contemporary and innovative. Even though the faces are stylised, I think they could have been developed to have more even shapes and clearer identities - neither are really obvious about who they represent. Yes, they do have a more personal handmade aesthetic, but I do not feel they particularly stand out as good design.

Update: However, the central design, the suffragette rosette, was chosen to be taken forward by the university. This leads me to think that perhaps the handmade style worked well for something that didn't include the figures. Even the text was handwritten which is something I should have considered for the other two designs. It will be exciting to see this design produced and it has motivated me to enter more design competitions. The fact I am not 100% with the designs means in future I need to put in enough effort so when it comes to submission I am happy with the result. Perhaps with more development the outcome would be more grounded.