Name badges that can be read across a room BADGE

A badge exists to be read across a room

By somebody who has forgotten who you are, at four metres, while holding a drink, without appearing to look. That is the entire design brief, and it means the first name wants to be very large indeed and everything else wants to be out of its way.

Almost every badge produced in an office does the opposite. The organisation's name is the biggest thing on it, usually with a logo; the person's name is set in eleven point underneath, often with their full job title and their department. The result is unreadable at any distance that matters, which means people lean in and squint at each other's chests, or give up and ask again.

The organisation does not need to be on the badge in large type at all. Everybody at the event knows what the event is. What nobody knows is who the person in front of them is, and that is the one job.

Millimetres, not pixels

The other failure is the same one labels and envelopes have. Badge inserts are a physical size in millimetres, web pages are measured in pixels, and a sheet that looks right on screen prints two millimetres small, so every badge sits loose in its holder and creeps sideways behind the plastic all day.

So the sheet here is laid out in real millimetres against the standard insert sizes. Print at 100%, or “Actual size”, and check “Fit to page” is off: it scales the sheet by a percent or two, which is precisely the error that makes the inserts loose.

Print one sheet on plain paper and hold it against a holder before you print eighty. It takes a minute and it is the only way to find out that your printer's idea of 100% is not the same as everybody else's.

What to put on it

The name people will use. Not the name on the HR system: if somebody goes by Kate, the badge says Kate, and getting that wrong is worse than having no badge because it makes everyone read out the wrong name all day.

One line underneath at most: the organisation, or the role, or the table number, whichever is the thing people need at this event. Not all three.

Print both sides if the holders allow it. Lanyard badges rotate, and a badge that has turned round is a blank rectangle. This is the single cheapest improvement to any event of more than thirty people.

And be careful what you add. A badge is read by everyone in the room and photographed by some of them, so a surname plus an employer plus a conference is enough to find somebody afterwards. For an event where that matters, first name and organisation is plenty.

Nothing you type is uploaded, which for a delegate list (names, organisations, sometimes dietary or access notes in the same spreadsheet) is the right default. Nearby: LABELS prints a label sheet measured the same way, SEATING arranges the room, POSTER prints signage across several sheets, and BARCODE makes a code that scans at the size it will be printed.