Award Design

Project Brief

In any design, it's important to consider the audience. Good design has a specific user in mind. In this project, you will design a badge, award, or prize for someone. The distinction and recipient of the award are up to you. For instance, maybe your roommate deserves an award for doing the dishes or your pet dog deserves an award for being the best at fetching. The final award should be approximately 4" x 4" and must be made out of an appropriate material for your concept. The construction of your final award should involve a laser cutter or similar tool. 

Learning Objectives

At the end of this assignment, students will be able to 

• demonstrate technical proficiency in Adobe Illustrator
• prepare files for production by a vendor
• design with a specific client or audience in mind

Deliverables

• PDF of award graphic
• Adobe Illustrator file to be used for laser cutting, vinyl cutting or machine embroidery
• physical award
• photos of the physical award

Readings/Resources

• technical guidelines from the University's digital fabrication studios
• online gallery of Olympic medals for visual design inspiration
• Marian Bantjes' Certificates for Everyday Things or AdultingFTW's ribbons for award subject inspiration

Reflections

Students came up with a lot of unexpected ideas. After I first introduced the assignment, I expanded the possible outcomes beyond laser cutting to include options for machine embroidery or cut vinyl applied to a physical piece. Our university has a digital fabrication studio where students hand files over to a vendor, but the project would be a perfect opportunity for a collaboration with a maker space where students perform the laser cutting themselves. The project would also work with a 3D printed form.