Badge Initial Designs

I have now started to create my badge designs for my chosen object. At first I started to create designs using 70s/80s patterns, however I felt that this was a little bit basic and generic.  I then had the idea of exploring collage through my designs, collage is one of my favourite techniques and I felt that I could experiment with a wide range of retro imagery through my collage designs. When creating my collages, I took inspiration from things that I have researched; the 5 signs, the 5 objects, the 5 textures, radio dials, imagery of artists from my playlist, retro logos/slogans (that I changed and edited from the originals) etc.

I made some of the imagery fuzzy on purpose to give them a 70s/80s photograph aesthetic, almost like the quality of an old film camera or an old 70s TV. I am also going to create stickers from my final badge designs so that they are shown in different contexts. I am happy with these designs and really enjoyed creating them, the retro aesthetic is clear to see throughout each design, however some of them do need a little bit of tweaking.

1. This design is inspired by the Jackson 5 (a group that appear in my Quiet Storm playlist, they are also one of my favourites from the genre). The imagery is combined with imagery of a disco ball which was inspired by one of my initial J-Cards. I think I will change this design as the background doesn't work as well as I'd hoped, however I will still base it on the Jackson 5.

2. This is one of my favourite designs that I will definitely use as one of my final badge designs. The design uses imagery of a 70s skater dancing on top of a old school 70s car, creating a fun, wacky aesthetic. The background uses a street scene from the time era of my genre. The contrast between the black and white and the bright colours is what makes the design strong.

3. This badge design has more of an abstract aesthetic. The design uses a 70s radio dial (my genre first started as a radio format) I have also used an image of a vintage radio. The smiley face is one of my 5 symbols that I researched; this was a common symbol which was used on t-shirts and badges. It was also known as 'the acid house symbol'. Furthermore, RUN DMC is relevant to my genres time period (70s-80s).

4. This design is another one of my favourites; similar to design 2, using a 70s street scene as the background combined with a black and white image of Aretha Franklin (one of the artists from my playlist). I also love the type used, this was from an album from the era of my genre, which I edited in yellow to match the colour of the cassette and also made it more fuzzy. The cassette is a photograph of one of my own cassettes which I ordered.

5. Im not too sure about this design either, I will either scrap this design completely or create a new design using only some of the imagery. I used an image of trolls as they are a toy which was popular in the 70s. I then took inspiration from my other designs for the cassettes and disco ball. I don't think the layout is successful, and the 'Groove' type looks a little bit too modern, instead of retro.