I'm sharing the badges I made for the
Blogging from A- Z Challenge (which takes place in April) for anyone participating in the challenge as alternatives to the official badges. But I mostly made them for myself because I didn't like the official ones. Below are the official 2026 badges. They are using the same design as the previous year but with different background, colors and images.
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| A-Z 2026 official badge and the second version on the right. |
At the official A-Z blog, they use the first version as the header so you can see quite clearly all the elements. I wouldn't say these are ugly but what the heck is this? Readability is not an issue except in smaller sizes but the second version is more readable. Still, why the texture, why the butterfly, why the flowers, why the square shape or why anything at all? Most people are probably not bothered by this design but I guess it's a job habit as a graphic designer to question every design decision. The old badges are better because they are more like logos being circular and everything is clear and easy to read. (See all offical badges and graphics for this year at the official
A-Z blog here. ) The old badges were created
by a different person so it's why these versions looked vastly
different. But it probably didn't matter what my opinions are because
everyone thinks differently so let's leave it.
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| a version of the old badges |
For this year, I used the theme of adventure/exploration for the badges. The yellow one has mountains or what I call the
land version and the blue one has the water so it's the
sea version. And that middle thing is a compass/ship's wheel. I hope that explains things.
Anyone participating in the challenge are free to use any or all of them. Click on the image for the larger view and download them.
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| version 1 - land version |
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| version 2 - sea version |
And here are the winner's badges for completing the challenge. I've never used the winner badges so I didn't realize they had been changed. Kristin (at Finding Eliza) pointed it out that the old winner badges used to say survivor but then it was changed to winner - that didn't make sense to me. The A-Z Challenge
is not a contest so I don't understand why they changed it to winner. I prefer survivor so I switched it back.
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| survivor badge - version 1 |
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| survivor badge - version 2 |
To use
survivor makes more sense because the A-Z Challenge is demanding and exhausting so in the end, if you complete it, it meant you've survived something. I plan on participating in the challenge and I'll talk about it in a later post.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Update: Charlotte would like a combined version for the survivor badge but I decided to do all of them. It does make sense to combine the land and sea versions into one. So here they are:
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| version 3 |
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| version 4 |
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| survivor badge - version 3 |
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| survivor badge - version 4 |
More about the Blogging from A-Z Challenge here.
Do you plan on participating in the Blogging From A-Z Challenge this April?
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Your badges are a MILLION GAZILLION times better than the official ones! One of these years I'll try my hand at the A-Z Challenge but this is not that year. I look forward to reading your posts though!
ReplyDeleteOh no. Wait a minute. I think I've just gone insane. An idea has occurred to me that I could do for this year's A-Z Challenge. Can I handle all the work it's going to take? CAN I?
DeleteDebra: I'm sure whatever idea you have could work, maybe try it and see. I hear insanity brings good results sometimes.
DeleteThank you for dropping by. Have a lovely day.
The butterfly and the flower are very spring-like, so I get them - but the background isn't it. There's no contest with your badges.
ReplyDeleteHappy challenge! I'm looking forward to your posts (especially since last year I was on hiatus and I missed them).
Also, your banner...WTF=Where's The Food 😂.
DeleteRoberta: Butterflies and flowers are spring-like but the rest I don't know. WTF - I had that idea for a slogan but didn't use.
DeleteThank you for dropping by. Have a lovely day.
Nice
ReplyDeleteChristine: Thanks and thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.
DeleteSo much better. Thank you very much!
ReplyDeleteI have a suggestion - I was thinking of doing a travel challenge this year, so your badges fit perfectly :D ... but could your do a combined survivor for land & sea? As I plan to use both alternating, or as the y fit.
I agree 100 % on the survivor instead of winner for the badge! I'm going to change those in my sidebar saying 'winner' I just used the word from the badge without thinking.
Charlotte: I have made two new survivors badges but I thought to do all of them so now you have more options. It actually make sense to combine land and sea. Thanks for your suggestions.
DeleteThank you for dropping by. Have a lovely day.
Yay, perfect, thanks!
DeleteI'm torn about participating in the A-Z. It takes a lot of work as I don't do anything ahead of time. When I'm in the middle of it, I often regret that I signed up. But in the end, I'm glad I did. So like I said, I'm torn about participating.
ReplyDeleteLive and Learn: I've been like that too. It really is a lot of work if you don't write/prepare your posts before the challenge. I do little preparing but mostly I just wing it which is pretty much how I do most blogging. I hope you'll participate in the challenge but if not, there's always next year.
DeleteThank you for dropping by. Have a lovely day.
I love those badges! Seriously. I miss the A-Z challenge, which I had it in me time wise and energy wise to participate...but when producing daily content for our current project, it would definitely destroy me.
ReplyDeleteCrystal Collier: I know you're super busy so not doing the a-z challenge is good idea.
DeleteThank you for dropping by. Have a lovely day.