Good Button Designs?

[Liz Smith]

I think my favorite buttons are from the "bad robot" team. Each year they have a button with a "bad robot" misbehaving with some relation to the current year's game... Like... A robot putting a stick figure human player into a goal.

It's funny, and you know it's from their team, but also it's not just a team button it's more of a keepsake.

[MarkoRamius1086]

I have to agree with many of the others above, a good button is one that has a backround that matches the team's main color, their number, and their symbol or logo (or another simple design that represents your team). Having these minimal things really makes a good button, as others have said the simplicity makes people remember those things about your team.

Some symbols that jump out to mind for me are Exploding Bacon's logo (1902), I'd look at that one and see what allittle bit of good artwork can really do for a team's image. The Stags (their number escapes me at the moment), a Virginia team, have a really nice and simple logo they put on their button.

Keep it simple!

[onecoolc]

Buttons are small, so designs have to be clear and bold. A lot of little text on a button looks messy and is hard to read, so if you want a quote or a saying, keep it short.

ALWAYS RUN YOUR TEXT THROUGH A SPELL CHECK. ALWAYS.

Last year our team captain made us a great design, but misspelled “Einstein”. So we ended up with a good two hundred buttons with errors!

Contrasting colours = Good idea.

I'll go through my button collection tonight and take some pictures, and give some better design-oriented advice.

[mattiej]

Thank you guys so much for helping us with this! So it seems that bold contrasting colors seem popular. I know that our main team color is red, so what would be a good offset for that? Oh and pictures would be appreciated yes! I lost my buttons last year

[Cyberphil]

Although this might seem obvious and even implied, make the design round. Concentric circles are pleasing to the eye, and text that follows that is sometimes easier to see.

But don't get me wrong! I have seen plenty of buttons that look nice without having a round design, and by no means am I an artist. For all I know, it might just be my eyes that like concentric circles!

[Cynette]

We have several regular buttons that go from year to year, but we also design one or more that are related to the new game that makes them more collectible. Being the red camo team, one of our favorite regular patterns actually violates all the rules mentioned above. Very similar to those color blind tests, our team number is in camo up against a camo background, yet visible.

Last year's favorite theme button took us all by surprise and we kept running out of that pattern. (It was a giant awesome smiley face red-camo soccer ball) So I recommend that you make several design and then have some team and non-team people vote on their favorite.

[Chickenonastick]

Most teams give away buttons at regionals/championships, as you may already know by the people with 12014124 buttons on their shirts.

To compete with the many other buttons out there, I would suggest at least making it with a color that stands out, etc.