A badge is a logo that must survive brutal conditions: a 30 mm pin on a backpack, a 36 px Twitch icon in a crowded chat, a 64 px achievement icon buried in a game menu. Most badge designs fail not because the idea is bad, but because they were drawn like posters and then shrunk. This guide covers the three decisions that actually matter: what silhouette to choose, what material you are implicitly designing for, and how to build a color system that stays readable at any size. Whether you plan to manufacture physical pins or just design digital series for a game or community, the same rules apply.
徽章是一种必须在恶劣环境里存活的 logo：背包上一枚 30 mm 的别针、拥挤聊天里一个 36 px 的 Twitch 图标、游戏菜单深处一枚 64 px 的成就图标。大多数徽章设计失败，不是点子不好，而是被当成海报来画、再缩小使用。本指南讲真正关键的三个决定：选什么轮廓、你其实在为哪种材质设计、以及如何搭一套在任何尺寸下都清晰的配色体系。无论你打算做实体徽章，还是为游戏或社群设计数字系列，规则都一样。
Choosing a silhouette: what each shape says选择轮廓：每种形状在表达什么
Before a viewer reads a single pixel, the outline of a badge already communicates a category. Pick on purpose:
在观众读到任何一个像素之前，徽章的轮廓已经传达了类别。请有意识地选择：
- Circle — the default of trust, medals and community. Round badges read as approachable, timeless, and "official but friendly". Every sport medal, every forum award, most sub badges start as a circle. Use it for participation, mastery and general achievement.
- 圆形——信任、奖牌与社群的默认形状。圆形徽章显得亲民、经典、「正式但友好」。每一枚体育奖牌、每一个论坛奖励、大多数订阅徽章都从圆形开始。用于参与、精通与通用成就。
- Shield — protection, rank, guilds, esports. The pointed bottom says "we stand for something". Choose shields for defensive achievements, team roles, or anything military- or fantasy-flavored.
- 盾形——守护、军衔、公会、电竞。收尖的底部在说「我们有所捍卫」。适合防守类成就、团队角色，以及军事或奇幻风格的一切。
- Star — excellence, firsts, rare drops. A star immediately signals "above the ordinary". Reserve stars for your top tier; if every badge has a star, none of them does.
- 星形——卓越、第一、稀有掉落。星星立刻传达「超越普通」。把星星留给最高一档；如果每枚徽章都有星，就等于谁都没有。
- Ribbon / rosette — events, volunteers, single occasions. The two tails hanging down say "you were here". Great for one-time awards, hackathons and charity runs.
- 绶带 / 花结——活动、志愿者、一次性场合。垂下来的两条尾巴在说「你到场了」。非常适合一次性奖项、黑客马拉松和慈善跑。
- Irregular / custom — brand personality. A die-cut shape that follows the artwork (a cat, a coffee cup, a lightning bolt) costs more to manufacture but stands out on a lanyard.
- 异形 / 自定义——品牌个性。顺着图案模切的形状（一只猫、一杯咖啡、一道闪电）制造成本更高，但挂在挂绳上一眼就能认出。
A practical series rule: one silhouette per tier. Circles for common achievements, shields for rare, stars for legendary. The shape itself becomes part of the language, so readers can rank a badge before reading its name.
一个实用的系列规则：每个等级用一种轮廓。普通成就用圆形，稀有用盾形，传奇用星形。形状本身成为语言的一部分，读者还没读到名字就能给徽章排定等级。
Designing for a material: what changes为材质而设计：什么会改变
If you only ever design digital badges, you can skip this section — but anyone ordering physical pins should know that the material decides what your file is allowed to contain.
如果你只做数字徽章，可以跳过本节——但任何要下单实体徽章的人都该知道：材质决定了你的文件里允许出现什么。
Metal and enamel pins金属与珐琅徽章
The classic cloisonné process separates colors with raised metal lines. That means: no color-to-color gradients (each color needs a metal wall), no fine details below about 0.25 mm of metal line at 35 mm size, and the metal itself counts as a "color" — gold, silver, nickel or black. Hard enamel is polished flat and feels glassy; soft enamel has recessed color under raised lines and is the budget standard at around half the price of hard enamel. Offset-printed metal (printed, not enameled) is the choice if you want photographic gradients, and it keeps color costs flat regardless of how many colors you use.
经典的景泰蓝工艺用凸起的金属线分隔颜色。这意味着：不能有颜色到颜色的渐变（每种颜色都需要金属墙）、在 35 mm 尺寸下不能有细于约 0.25 mm 的金属线细节、而且金属本身算一种「颜色」——金、银、镍或黑。硬珐琅表面打磨平整，手感像玻璃；软珐琅是凹陷的颜色配凸起的线，价格大约是硬珐琅的一半，是预算有限时的标准选择。胶印金属（印刷而非珐琅）适合你想要照片级渐变的情况，而且不管用多少种颜色，费用都一样。
Woven patches织唛布章
Woven patches are made of thread. Curves become stair-steps, tiny text becomes fuzzy, and the minimum line thickness jumps to roughly 1 mm. The upside: woven patches read as friendly, tough, and perfect for lanyards and jackets. Design woven badges as bold silhouettes with 3 to 5 thread colors, and test your artwork by squinting — if the idea survives a 2-meter squint, it survives weaving.
织唛布章由线织成。曲线会变成阶梯，极小的字会糊掉，最小线宽跳到约 1 mm。好处是：织唛显得亲切、耐造，非常适合挂绳和外套。把织唛徽章设计成粗轮廓、3 到 5 种线色，并做个「眯眼测试」：如果图案在两米外眯着眼还能认出来，它就能被织出来。
PVC and digital badgesPVC 与数字徽章
Soft PVC allows full-color printing, waterproof durability and cheap small runs; it tolerates gradients and fine print better than enamel. Digital badges — Twitch sub badges, game achievements, forum awards — ignore manufacturing entirely but obey the opposite constraint: they are displayed at 18 to 72 px. Design them bold, with one focal shape and no text, because text at 36 px is unreadable anyway. Our Twitch Sub Badge Maker ships templates already constrained to that tiny canvas.
软 PVC 支持全彩印刷、防水耐用、小批量便宜；它比珐琅更能容忍渐变和精细印刷。数字徽章——Twitch 订阅徽章、游戏成就、论坛奖励——完全不考虑制造，却受另一个约束支配：它们被显示在 18 到 72 px。要设计得粗、只有一个主形状、不要文字，因为 36 px 的文字反正读不出来。我们的Twitch 订阅徽章生成器自带已经按小画布约束好的模板。
Building a color system搭建配色体系
A single badge can use one nice color. A badge series needs a system, or your ten badges will look like ten unrelated logos. The cleanest approach is a tiered palette: common badges sit on neutral fields (navy, forest green, charcoal), rare badges use saturated primaries (red, royal blue), and legendary badges use the warm gold-to-orange range that readers already associate with top rank. Keep the emblem color close to white or the metal itself so it pops on any field. Aim for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 between emblem and background — the same rule body text follows — and remember that metallic gold on yellow is invisible no matter how premium it looks on your screen.
单枚徽章可以只用一个好看的颜色。徽章系列则需要一套体系，否则你的十枚徽章会像十个互不相关的 logo。最干净的做法是分级配色：普通徽章用中性底色（藏青、森林绿、炭灰），稀有徽章用饱和主色（红、宝蓝），传奇徽章用金色到橙色的暖色范围——读者本来就把这个范围和最高等级联系在一起。主图案颜色尽量接近白色或金属本色，这样在任何底色上都跳得出来。主图案与背景之间的对比度至少 4.5:1——和正文文字同一条规则——而且要记住，金属金配黄色底是看不见的，不管在屏幕上看起来多高级。
Readability: the final boss可读性：最终 Boss
Here is the exercise that kills 90% of bad designs: shrink your badge to 64 px and put it on a busy background. If you cannot tell it apart from a coin, the design has too much detail. Concretely: keep text to three or four characters, make the main silhouette fill at least 60% of the frame, drop drop shadows entirely (they vanish when small), and test both light and dark backgrounds. The Achievement Badge Maker and the Round Medal Maker are good sandboxes for this: start from their restrained defaults, add one idea, then check the 64 px preview before adding a second one. For unusual silhouettes, the Custom Shape Badge tool lets you die-cut the outline itself.
这个练习能枪毙 90% 的糟糕设计：把你的徽章缩到 64 px，放在一张杂乱的背景上。如果你没法把它和一枚硬币区分开，那细节就太多了。具体说：文字控制在三到四个字符，主轮廓至少占满画面 60%，完全丢掉投影（缩小后就消失了），并在浅色和深色背景上都测试一遍。成就徽章生成器和圆形奖章生成器是很好的沙盒：从它们克制的默认值开始，加一个点子，在加第二个之前先看 64 px 预览。想要不寻常的轮廓，自定义形状徽章工具让你连外轮廓一起模切。
FAQ常见问题
What size should a badge be?徽章应该做多大？
Most lapel pins and enamel badges run 25 to 35 mm. Twitch sub badges are delivered digitally at 18, 36 and 72 px, so they are designed as tiny graphics, not mini posters. Game achievement icons live inside a 256 to 512 px frame but are usually displayed at 64 px.
大多数领针和珐琅徽章在 25 到 35 mm。Twitch 订阅徽章以数字形式交付，尺寸是 18、36、72 px，所以要按小图形而不是迷你海报来设计。游戏成就图标虽然住在 256 到 512 px 的画框里，实际显示通常只有 64 px。
How many colors should a badge use?一枚徽章该用几种颜色？
Two to four colors plus the metal itself. Every added color raises the manufacturing cost and, more importantly, reduces legibility at small sizes. Strong contrast between the emblem and the background color matters more than the number of colors.
两到四种颜色，外加金属本身。每多加一种颜色都会提高制造成本，更重要的是会降低小尺寸下的清晰度。主图案与背景色之间的强对比，比颜色数量更重要。
What is the difference between hard enamel and soft enamel?硬珐琅和软珐琅有什么区别？
Hard enamel is polished flat, with the metal lines level with the color fill; it feels smooth and costs more. Soft enamel has recessed color with raised metal lines, feels textured, and is the budget standard for most pin runs.
硬珐琅被打磨平整，金属线与色料齐平；手感光滑，价格更高。软珐琅是凹陷的色料配凸起的金属线，手感有纹理，是大多数徽章订单的预算标准。
Why does my badge text disappear when I shrink it?为什么徽章一缩小字就没了？
At 35 mm, the smallest legible text is roughly 1.5 mm tall. Below that, metal lines merge, woven thread cannot reproduce the curves, and digital icons blur. Prefer an emblem plus three or four letters over a full sentence on a badge.
在 35 mm 尺寸下，最小可读文字大约 1.5 mm 高。再小下去，金属线会并在一起，织线无法还原曲线，数字图标会糊掉。徽章上宁可放一个图案加三四个字母，也别放一整句话。
