Jon’s Badge Collection

I collect badges for a few reasons…

• They’re iconic – used in many different ways to establish identity and authority. We’ve all seen cop shows where badges are the most used props, and most used icons in marketing and promotional material. 
• At some point most of us are issued a badge to have or wear regularly, even if it’s just a boring Employee ID. Working in higher eduction is a bit of an exception (We have ID cards, but we don’t wear them or ‘flash’ them often), but when I worked at Target I wore a name badge regularly.
• They serve multiple purposes to different viewers. At Target the primary purpose of a name badge was for customers to identify those who worked for Target as opposed to someone who was unfortunate enough to wear red and khaki into the store. On a lesser note they were used for employees to learn each other’s names, know an unfamiliar face was a new employee, etc. However for many a badge is a symbol of authority, whether it’s legitimate authority or psychological authority.

The last point holds a term I use when talking about certain badges: “Psychological Authority”. Some of these badges mean absolutely nothing authority wise, but their holders would like you to think differently. I’ll discuss each one in the caption for each image (You can either read the description by hovering over the image, or by clicking on it). Sit back, click on the pictures, and learn about my collection!

P.S. Got a badge you’d like to donate? I’m always looking for new badges to add 🙂

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