Comments on: A tale of three nametags

By: DB

DB — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 13:21:48 +0000

Having worked on a few science fiction conventions which either had, or narrowly avoided getting, tiny nametag fonts, I think I know how this happens. The organizers are seated at a table, with the proposed design printed out in front of them, and they look down on it and say, “It looks fine to me.”

If I’m at the meeting, I say what you’d say, “Let’s hold it up ten feet away and see how it looks then.”

By: DMcCunney

DMcCunney — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 05:22:02 +0000

I’ve been complaining about this for decades. I’ve been helping to run literary SF cons for 40 years. Because I have in the past been a designer and print production guy, one of the hats I’ve worn has been Publications, fighting an uphill battle to produce con publications that actually look good as well as read well. (Most folks producing con publications are competent writers and editors with no clue about design.) Even cons where I’ve had input into the the process struggle to get it right.

Part of the problem is name tags intended to showcase the Art GoHs work. Another is the increasing tendency to provide badge holders strung from a lanyard the attendees wears around their necks. It makes it clear they are registered attendees, but often result in badges not visible because the holder has turned to have them facing the person’s body, or the badge is visible, but reading the person’s name requires apparently staring at their crotch. When I have to deal with the latter, I contrive a way to pin it to a lapel so my name is easily visible, and in some cases use a mailing label placed over the space provided for the name and calligraph mine in something like a readable form.

I agree on your suggestion about what should have been done. Dublin’s has the “We must show off the GoH’s art” issue. Eurocon gets the name too small. TYPO-L gets the name right, but I fear I don’t find the overall design all that compelling.

(And as far as branding, a job I’ve really *wanted* at a con has been Design Director, in overall charge of what material produced by the con *looks* like. Others can write and edit the copy. What it looks like would be my call. But each thing produced by the con – souvenir book, progress report, pocket program, flyers, name tags – tends to be done by different hands who will squawk at meddling in their work. I dream of a proper corporate ID program for a con, but have yet to do more than approximate it. Someday.)

>Dennis

By: Lisa Deutsch Harrigan

Lisa Deutsch Harrigan — Sat, 05 Oct 2019 09:49:09 +0000

Part of the Worldcon badge is the prominent art work, done by the Artist GOH, or some other prominent artist, it is a souvenir of the con. So a large but not huge name is on the badge. If you can read this badge, you are close enough to establish a relationship. In other words, you can’t read it from across the room, but you can from a few feet.
There is no excuse for Titancon.
That last badge is obviously printed completely in one print pass. Nice one color graphic and name. The name should have been in black (color printers have black cartridges for a reason), but they may have gone super cheap on their printer. It is obvious they are not concerned with the artwork or even any souvenir value. Use it and toss it.
So YMMV. I like #1 myself, I do keep con badges with art work.

By: Jerry Kaufman

Jerry Kaufman — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 23:47:56 +0000

As you know J/i/m John, I also attended Dublin 2019 and Titancon. In my opinion, aside from one’s name, the badge should also show one’s home city and state/province/country – this would be useful in knowing people who might be located where one lives.

The line on the Titancon badge that says, on your badge, “Adult Attending,” said different things on other people’s badges, like “Program Participant,” or “Charter Trip.” As this information was included inconsistently, it probably added confusion rather than clarity. In my case, both myself and my spouse signed up for the charter bus trip, but only one of our badges showed this. It took me some time and effort to confirm the convention had reservations for both of us.