Friday, September 26, 2008

Weekend Assignment #235: Button Up!

This one is inspired by what I've been doing, with a few short breaks, for the past 14 hours!


Weekend Assignment #235: Design a button (a badge, a pin...). It can say anything you like as long as it's clean and not defamatory. Or maybe you prefer a photo button. You can just describe it if you like, or tell us what it says - or you can actually create the complete design. I am hoping to actually make your button and mail it to you, so do play along, okay?

Extra Credit: Have you ever designed a button or other apparel before now?


Here are some of the ones I designed today for the local Obama campaign, starting from the downloaded logo and names:











See, back in 1979 to 1982, John and his best friend Kal and I owned a store called Rockarama. I was the manager - and no, I didn't make anything close to minimum wage. Anyway, one of the things we did for merchandise was design and sell buttons. When Paul McCartney was busted for pot in Japan, I made buttons that said LET HIM OUT, and alternative buttons that said LET HIM ROT, and a third design that said FREE PAUL. We did a Lennon memorial button, which I gave away the day after. we did slogans and special orders, and designs based on popular rock albums of the day.

Originally we had a cheap Badge-a-Minute button maker, which was a pain to use, and promptly broke. Then we got the next model up, which was metal instead of plastic, but still a pain to use. Finally we got a heavy duty, top of the line Badge-a-Matic. That's what I loaned to the local Democratic Party toay, and that's what the designs above are for.

All of those button makers took designs that were 2 3/4" in diameter, and produced finished buttons 2 3/4" in diameter. Eventually we also bought a different brand that made smaller buttons - 1 3/4" I think. I donated that one to Project Quantum Leap long ago.

Your turn! What would you like to have on a button? Write about it in your journal or blog with a link back here, and then visit the comments section below to leave a link back there. I'll be back in a week to link to your handiwork!

Karen

6 comments:

Florinda said...

I don't think I'm going to be doing this assignment, but I do have a little award for you at my blog today!

Anonymous said...

I did this a while back: Obama buttons for my avatars.

I often use either a Sherlock Holmes avatar (late 19th century illustrations are still wood-blockish) or recently a Psmith avatar (early 20th century illustrations started using washes and more subtle effects). Thus I created these for fun. Also, they're good as GIFs and are very small, file-size wise.

Carly said...

Finally!

It took me forever to get this done this week, but I am finally posted. Or postal... lol... you be the judge! LOL.

Carly

Carly said...

And oh yes, how about I leave the link, jeepers.

http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com/2008/09/weekend-assignment-235-button-up.html

Kiva said...

It seemed so easy at first... Here's my musings & button suggestion.
Kiva

http://eclecticgranny.blogspot.com/2008/10/weekend-assignment-235-button-up.html

Mike said...

Mine is up now. Beware: These may hurt to read. You'll see. Thank you for not making us design them. I wouldn't have been able to do the assignment otherwise. Though, that may have been a good thing. Really, it's not pretty.