Veteran Career Badges - Icon Design

TopCoder is introducing special badges that will be awarded to members who are military veterans. Each badge will represent an occupation, which is a type of job that the member performed in the military. Occupations are grouped into categories, and the badges within each category should resemble one another. We are looking for attractive, pixel-precise badge designs that clearly represent each occupation. We are also looking for one badge to indicate a member's overall veteran status.

Round 1

Design badges for the following Army categories:

• Infantry: 1 badge
• Corps of Engineers: 2 badges
• Military Intelligence: 2 badges
• Psychological Operations: 1 badge

Design a badge for the following Coast Guard category:

• Engineering and Hull: 1 badge

Design the badge representing the overall veteran status.

• Veteran: 1 badge

That's a total of eight badges in the first round. All three badge sizes are required.

 

Round 2

Design all badges listed in the specification.

Badge Dimensions and Background

We require each badge to be designed in three sizes:

• 90 x 90 pixels
• 48 x 48 pixels
• 17 x 17 pixels

The 90x90 and 48x48 versions must use a new circular badge shape that is similar to the existing Beginner badge shape. Part of your job in this contest is to make the new circular badge shape. Follow these steps:

• Refer to the Beginner badge shape in the attached file "ui.kit.v1.psd" and recreate it as a 90x90 shape, observing the same border, background, and reflection. However, change the background color to something that will complement your icon designs.
• Change the color of the existing 48x48 circular badge shape to match your new 90x90 badge shape.
• Using the 90x90 badge shape as the background, make a large icon for each of the occupations listed below.
• Make a smaller version of each icon for the 48x48 badge shape. Do not just scale the icon down; you must redesign its features to suit the smaller size.
• Finally, make a 17x17 icon without a badge shape, like the 17x17 icons shown in the UI kit. You must rethink the design again.

 

Required Badges

In this contest, we are asking for badges that represent occupations in 14 different categories, plus a single badge that represents veteran status. Each category should have a general design theme, and the badges within a category should be variations on that theme.

The first 12 occupation categories are within the Army, which is the military's ground force. However, not all workers in the army are soldiers, and not everyone works on the ground. Each badge should give some sense of what occupation it represents.

Infantry: 1 badge

• Infantry

Corps of Engineers: 2 badges

• Engineer
• Combat Engineer

Field Artillery: 1 badge

• Field Artillery

Aviation: 1 badge

• Aviation

Special Forces: 1 badge

• Special Forces

Armor: 1 badge

• Armor

Military Intelligence: 2 badges

• Imagery Intelligence
• Signal Intelligence / Electronic Warfare

Financial Management: 1 badge

• Financial Manager

Psychological Operations: 1 badge

• Psychological Operations

Civil Affairs: 1 badge

• Civil Affairs

Adjutant General Corps: 1 badge

• Human Resources Officer

Medical Corps: 3 badges

• Cardiologist
• Pediatrician
• Psychiatrist

The last two occupation categories are in the Coast Guard, which is a naval force that patrols the U.S. coastline.

Administrative, Support Services, and Scientific: 2 badges

• Food Service Specialist
• Public  Affairs Specialist

Engineering and Hull: 1 badge

• Machinery Technician

A final badge that we require is for overall veteran status. This badge will be awarded to all veterans regardless of what they did in the military.

• Veteran

Note that only five categories plus the overall veteran badge must be submitted in the first round of this contest, as specified in the section "Round One Information" above.

You must use the attached submission template in both rounds. Add the template image as a separate layer of your Photoshop source file, and preserve the background transparency of the template holes so that your badge designs can be shown on backgrounds of various colors.

 

Branding Guidelines

You may not copy or imitate any existing military designs of the United States or any other country. Your badges should be completely original and should not look like official military badges.

 

Target Audience

The primary audience for these badges will be the military veterans who are eligible for them. Each badge should be a source of pride for someone who wears it. A secondary audience will consist of other TopCoder members, who should be able to recognize that these are not ordinary badges.

Judging Criteria

• Are the badges attractive?
• Do the badges clearly represent the occupations for which they will be awarded?
• Will veterans be proud to display these badges on their profiles?

 

Formatting Your Submission

Attached to this contest specification is a PNG template image that you should add to your Photoshop file as a separate layer. When you overlay the template with your badge designs, make sure to preserve the transparency of the template layer so that the finished badges can be displayed against backgrounds of various colors. To make a submission, hide any layers that you added behind the template layer and export your Photoshop file to PNG format. Use the resulting PNG image as your submission file.

 

What to Submit

Submission zip file: One PNG image with the required badges shown in the supplied template.

Source zip file: All the original, fully editable source files of the submitted design.

Preview image: Please create your preview image as one 1024 x 1024 pixel PNG file in RGB color mode at 72 dpi and place a screenshot of your submission within it.

 

Final Fixes

You may be asked to complete one round of minor changes to ensure that your submission meets the stated requirements of this contest. More information about Final Fixes.