International Women's Day Badge - Initial Ideas

Before making sketches I began by making a brainstorm of ideas. This involved researching the theme of this years international women's day - #pressforprogress. Many of the reference images of this were women holding out there hands, being forceful and strong. Perhaps the badges could involve hands pressing for progress? This movement also celebrates all genders and promotes for the acceleration of gender parity. I also looked at some similar campaigns for reference, such as #metoo, #timesup and #heforshe.

For part of this brainstorm I also looked at famous women, such as Boudicca and Princess Leia (who although is fiction, she still has inspired many.) I then also looked at key shapes and ideas of the feminist movement, one idea was to create a badge that was a nipple - so people could wear nipples over their clothes - targeting discrimination and the fact some nipples are okay and some aren't. However this felt like an idea that was straying to far from the topic - it wasn't celebratory enough.

Additionally there was some exploration of different style ideas. I researched lino cutting to create powerful block shapes, sketch ideas like those seen on pinterest and cartoon styles like Roy Litchenstein. The Sad Ghost Club had an interesting sketchy style which I also looked at, they also have produced badges which were useful to look at.

 I then began doing sketches of historical figures within feminism. There is some development of Boudicca and Princess Leia here. I also looked at particular significant symbols of the suffragette movement - such as the 'votes for women' rosette. Finally there are a few sketches of minimalist symbols, like halving the circular symbol and writing 'press for progress' inside.