We are really lucky at Studio ROKIT sometimes – we get to work on some amazing jobs for some amazing people and not all of them are in the UK. A prime example of this is the work we did for the Scouting Australia for their World Scouting Jamboree 2015 Australian Contingent badge. As an ex scout we can say, hand on heart this job was something that meant a lot to us personally as well as professionally.
The new World Scouting Jamboree 2015 Australian Contingent badge wasn’t really designed by us though, it was more delivered by us. We were lucky enough to work closely on the project with a great chap called Aaron Wardle over in Australia who had already, along with the rest of the Scouts Australia team, narrowed down what they wanted. Our job was to take the idea and breath a bit of life into it. To create a final design that would look the part but also, crucially, be perfect for all sorts of usage applications including embroidered badges (as an ex scout I can safely say there’s nothing like swapping badges at an international camp, it’s just cool).
The uniform makes for brotherhood, since when universally adopted it covers up all differences of class and country.
Like all good international badges it brought together a bunch of elements that help define it and give it a place and nationality almost instantly. Colour is always central to items like this and the World Scouting Jamboree 2015 Australian Contingent badge was no different. The two important countries national colours appear prominently in the design, those of Australia (the green & gold) and also the jamboree host country Japan (in the case of Japan the red sun was used from their national flag and boarded by white, a perfect fit). The final colour to be included, to leave the viewer in no doubt as to the heritage of the badge, was the purple of the International Scout Organisation.
As badges go it’s quite a complicated one. It contains quite a bit of text, some quite disparate colours and some visual elements (the kangaroo, the Southern Cross star constellation, the Japanese Kanji character – [wa] – symbolising the theme of the Jamboree: “a Spirit of Unity”, a stylised Mount Fuji AND the Scouts Australia logo. All of which had to work together and not fight for dominance. A tall order.
When you add the extra complication of ensuring that the design would be suitable for embroidery it becomes an exercise in using space intelligently. Thankfully, the final design did just that. A beautifully compact design that contained everything required, looked the part and above all translated perfectly into the final embroidered product.
We’re really proud of our part in making the orld Scouting Jamboree 2015 Australian Contingent badge for Scouts Australia happen and we wish the 2015 contingent heading out to Japan all the best in scouting.
How did the final embroidered badge look? We’ll post a pic once we receive one from Scouts Australia.
Want to find out more about their Scouts Australia’s World Scouting Jamboree 2015 – check out their facebook page.
Want to find out more about the amazing world of Scouting, check out the UK website.