Badge Art - good and not so good

[RememberSchiff]

I made the comment that the new God & Country religious emblems reminded me of the Simon electronic game. I offer these additional opinions to further entertain or annoy

 

Good looking

- Eagle...definitely

- Electricity MB is the coolest looking mb ever

- Oceanography

- Astronomy

- Geology

- Small boat sailing

- Soil & Water, Fish & Wildlife, Forestry, and Nature remain classics

- Photography, well because I had an old Argus like that

- Pulp and Paper, reminds us all to take toilet paper with us into the woods.

- Leave No Trace

 

Not so good looking

- Webelos

- Cooking mb, can we go back to the black pot?

- Aviation mb, sort of a Rorschach test. Do you see einen Helicopter or eine island? What was wrong with the Saber jet? Please allow variant P-51, F-18, PA-18 Super Cub...

- Archery needs an archer and/or target

- Snow Sports, excuse me where is the SNOW! See Water Sports for a clue.

- Wilderness Survival looks like 3 graves under a fallen tree.

- Horsemanship looks like a flea can we go back to the horse head?

- Golf & Cinematography, only mb's with a fleur de lis. Maybe there is an inside joke about that?

- Archeology, was is that? How about Indiana Jones?

- Music, where did this come from, the Greeks? Get a guitar on it.

- Nuclear Science, get over the Radioactive Boy Scout and go back to the Atomic Energy (atom) artwork.

- All the Venture ribbons look like salt water taffy wrappers.

 

Maybe BSA should license custom embroiders to stitch approved variants of certain badges like Aviation. I would pay the premium.

 

My $0.01,(This message has been edited by RememberSchiff)

[scoutldr]

I liked the original Aviation MB with the Wright Flyer on it. I earned most of my MB in the 60's...the old style. Then my sash got stolen out of my tent and when i got them replaced, most of them were the new "technicolor" designs with the silver borders for Eagle MB. Boy was I disappointed. I bought a grab bag of patches at a patch auction and in the bag was a Fingerprinting MB. Only later did I realize it had a silver border...obviously a rare error.

 

I also liked the old POR patches, without the position names on them. Just seemed more classy.

[desertrat77]

The Philmont Arrowhead patch is superb, timeless.

 

Speaking of MBs, I still get a kick out of my camping MB that has no silver/required border, earned at the peak of the 1970s "new scouting" program.

[Lisabob]

I like the ones where you can tell at a glance what they were for.

 

So here are a few of my favorites:

Indian Lore

Basketry

Finger Printing

Fishing

Hiking

Camping

small boat sailing

water sports

space exploration

reptile & amphibian study

 

And these, I just think are cool although in some cases it isn't immediately clear what they're for:

electricity

oceanography

astronomy

architecture

athletics

genealogy

radio (never would have guessed it was for radio though)

wood carving

 

 

And these, I think are stinkers:

*archeology (sorry but it looks like an animal dropping!)

*chemistry (most people have no idea what that thing is.)

*collections (looks like a junk collection to me)

*computers (is that my old 1980s Tandy TRS-DOS?)

*cooking (oh yeah, lots of scouts wear chef hats on camp outs)

*cycling (this looks like a warning against cycling - how bout putting Lance Armstrong on there somehow instead?)

*electronics and energy (really? could they be more boring? electricity was so cool, you'd think they could do better here)

*nuclear science (agree w/ Schiff, the old atomic energy was better)

*music (not cool, not cool)

*pets (what sort of mutant creature is that?)

*skating (huh??)

*snow sports (ok image but on a purple/blue background? for winter?)

*family life (not cool, but then I don't know what would work for that one)

*model building (that red thing looks like a flaming car crashed off a bridge and is headed straight into the river, where it will hit the boat any moment now)

 

And finally, the one I think would be most likely to win the "stump the chump" contest, where non-scouters are asked to guess which badge it represents:

 

graphic arts

 

 

[shortridge]

- American Labor looks like two Andorians shaking hands.

 

- Crime Prevention: It's a sign of a poorly designed badge that you have to have the name of the badge emblazoned on it. And how many police officers really wear whistles these days, except those at big-city traffic intersections?

 

- Dentistry. Uhhm... okay... I don't get it. Wouldn't a tooth be simpler?

 

- Entrepreneurship reminds me of a "Dora the Explorer" episode.

[sherminator505]

Personally, I wonder why we got rid of the red shoulder loops and troop numerals. There really wasn't anything wrong with that aestetic.

[emb021]

"Personally, I wonder why we got rid of the red shoulder loops and troop numerals. There really wasn't anything wrong with that aestetic."

 

Some thought it too bright/colorful.

 

Same thing when they redid the rank & office patches around 1989, when we got rid of the colorful background of those patches. Some like that, some didn't.

 

I think that what ever design change you make, there will always be some who like the old style.

 

 

[scoutldr]

I kinda liked the old Red/Khaki community strips (prior to the red/white, which were prior to the multicolor CSP). More subdued. The more colors, the more the uniform looks like a cartoon or comic book. It seems that today's kids need more sensory stimulation than they did in the 30's - 60's in order to stay interested and engaged. Now we have full-color MB books....what next...MB and Handbook videos that they can watch on DVD or iPhones? Compare today's high school textbooks with what we had in the 60's...more full color pictures and white space, very little text (too "boring").

[Twocubdad]

I thought that was a muffin on the cooking MB. Chef's hat? Hmmmm......

 

I'd make more difference between Rifle and Shotgun shooting. They're identical except for the shotgun shells and rifle cartridges. You really have to look close to tell the difference.

 

Metal work is lame. How about an anvil and hammer?

[scoutldr]

I earned "Marksmanship"...a red and white bulls-eye. Now that was cool.

[Hal_Crawford]

"Compare today's high school textbooks with what we had in the 60's...more full color pictures and white space, very little text (too "boring")".

 

Those text books may not be around much longer. School systems are beginning to use or are considering using digital media instead of expensive (not to mention heavy) text books.

[le Voyageur]

Horsemanship looks like a flea can we go back to the horse head?

 

Actually, the orginial horse head was for Animal Husbandry, the Horsemanship mb of my era was the horseshoe...

 

I agree, bring back the black pot for cooking....the muffin hat looks silly....

 

[RememberSchiff]

Horseshoe for Horsemanship, even better. Thanks for the correction.

 

Tooth for Dentistry, I like it. Maybe attach a sound chip on the back of the merit badge with the sound of a dentist drill Brrrrph, brrripp. Hmmm, maybe BSA should add some mini LED's to some mb's. Electronics comes to mind. Traffic Safety too.

 

I too earned the old Marksmanship merit badge - a very cool looking badge. Maybe bring that back for Rifle Shooting and have an exploded clay for Shotgun? I like the hammer and anvil idea for Metalwork.

 

A Shop Manual for Auto Mechanics - yawn. How about a two-tone '57 Chevy with hood open? Doesn't the BSA have connections with NASCAR now, maybe they can suggest a cooler design? Engine sound chip would be cool here.

 

Another $0.01,