Discover the process behind creating eye-catching double-sided name badges for the Royal Economics Society Annual Conference 2018. By designing and printing locally, we reduced costs and enhanced visual clarity, ensuring each delegate's role was highlighted. The thoughtful design keeps names visible, fostering meaningful connections among attendees.
Discover how to create visually appealing double-sided name badges for conferences with this detailed guide. Tailored for the Royal Economic Society Annual Conference in 2018, this project outlines a step-by-step process that not only reduces costs but also enables design customization to meet specific goals.
Why Double-Sided Badges?
Name badges serve as essential tools at conferences, fostering networking and enhancing the attendee experience. The project's main goals were to design badges that:
- Are attractive and professional.
- Clearly indicate the conference days delegates are attending or their special roles.
- Ensure the delegate's name is visible at all times by utilizing a double-sided format.
The design involved using plain blue single-clip lanyards paired with generous PVC wallets, allowing us to cut six badges per A4 sheet without waste.
Badge Creation with InDesign
Learn how to use Adobe InDesign's Data Merge feature for badge creation by utilizing a template. Key steps include:
- Setting up text and image data fields for delegate names, roles, and visual indicators.
- Merging delegate data from a text file to create printable sheets, resulting in well-organized badges.
Example Data Structure
The delegate data is structured as follows, ensuring optimal organization:
Name Affiliation Position
George MacKerron University of Sussex LOCAL ORGANISER
You can customize your data input to include dietary requirements or special session indicators as needed.
Preparing Double-Sided Layouts
To ensure that the badges are printed correctly on both sides, it's essential to properly manage the data merging process. This involves duplicating data entries and rearranging them to prevent mismatched names – a task simplified by our scripted solution.
Ruby Automation Scripts
A short Ruby script automates the duplication and rearrangement of delegate entries for printing, allowing for smooth integration into InDesign's Data Merge:
< delegates-data.txt ./double-six.rb > delegates-doubled.txt
This command streamlines the creation of double-sided badges ready for printing.
Efficient Badge Cutting
With approximately 750 badges to produce, we devised an efficient cutting method using a guillotine, cutting three sheets (18 badges) at once. By following a consistent cutting order, we maintained alphabetical organization throughout the process.
Integrate our cutting and duplication scripts into your workflow for an organized and efficient badge production experience. This approach ensures that all badges are presented beautifully while saving time and resources—perfect for any conference organizer looking to enhance attendee engagement through personalized identification.
By following this guide, you can simplify the badge creation process for any upcoming event, ensuring that your name badges remain functional, stylish, and easy to manage.