Program Badges
Program badges are unique signifiers of student-facing programs, groups, and resources.
Program badges are NOT used by offices and departments; those groups have official department lockups.
These emblems have been created by Communications with the understanding that groups often want unique “stuff” to show off their pride and membership—stickers, shirts, mugs, social media icons—and plenty of other contexts that require a bit more than the wordmark can provide.
Program badges must follow the guidelines below:
- Each program badge includes a graphic element and the name of the program.
- The graphic element can be used on its own only for small promotional merchandise like stickers or pins.
- In any other context, the name of the program must be included.
- Communications retains the art files for these badges, and can work with you and your vendor for best results across a variety of items.
- These badges are primarily inward-facing—they'll be recognized and celebrated by our campus community. For any outward-facing promotions, like event posters, the Bowdoin wordmark must also be used.
Example of Program Badges
Rachel Lord Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, black on white, single-line.
Sexuality, Women, and Gender Center, white on black, single-line.
Rachel Lord Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, white on black, multi-line.
Sexuality, Women, and Gender Center, black on white, multi-line.
If you're having trouble picturing how these things can work together, let's look at another organization that does this famously well.
NASA's primary logo, nicknamed “the meatball”, is one of the most recognizable logos on the planet (and beyond)!
The NASA logo represents the central organization and all of its offices, facilities, and laboratories.
There's also a long tradition at NASA of unique mission patches. These emblems started out as literal embroidered patches, sewn onto flight suits and team shirts.
They have now expanded beyond space missions to encompass unique programs and facilities, and give those team members a uniting badge.
Mission patch for Apollo 12.
Mars 2020 mission branding.
Team emblem for the Psyche project.
So while these teams may have stickers, keychains, or even tattoos of these unique badges, when used in a public-facing way, they are always paired with, and secondary to, the primary NASA logo.
If you're looking to make merchandise using your program badge, please let us know!
In addition to providing the right files for your project, we can help work through any design issues and ensure that you're using the badges correctly, for maximum impact.
