Brassards. I think they look a bit messy if I’m brutally honest. I saw one on the book of faces and it’s just a mash-up of different shaped badges stuck in weird positions.
We discussed some ideas elsewhere, and so I’m posting this because I’m considering sharing it formally as a future concept. Always good to Red Team them first.
One thing I’ve been keen to preserve is @daws1159’s fair comments that cadets want badges, and so my focus has been trying to find a balance between recognising that progression but making everything look a bit slicker.
My proposal doesn’t have to change too much besides the badges, so I’ll start with the cleanest port.
Brassards have classification badges, which hopefully become our central progression indicator, rather than just academic exam rewards (so a master cadet really means something).
All badges are gone, except flying badges (because Air Cadets) and the shooting badges, because it’s theoretically a big USP and being able to show that competence is probably worth highlighting, if we were to make any exceptions.
Everything else is a digital badge on Cadet Portal, but instead of randomly-shaped badges being worn on the brassard, we give standardised laurel badges.
Up to X (depending on size) laurels can be worn in a central position, with higher-ranked laurels replacing lower ranked ones. This gives an indication of achievement at a glance, but we save money on juggling loads of different styles of badges and any future changes to our offer can simply be absorbed into this system.
So the below graphic with all the noise removed and my proposed laurel badges on shows a shooting badge and classification badge, plus some laurels which indicate that the cadet has had a very good career, obtaining two gold badges, one silver, a bronze, and then at least one other blue. It could be more blues, but at this point in a cadet’s career the blues are less important.
We prioritise their best achievements and focus on presentation.
., when I return to the organisation, i was surprised by how many badges there were. it was a bit like scouts or cubs. And because of that, I think that the classifications have really been marginalized in terms of importance, especially given the speed of which the Cadets can run through them using online exams and AI.
“back in t’day” by the time I finished in cadets my brazzard just had a single shooting badge ( as staff cadet was the yellow lanyard at the time). It was almost a bit like martial arts where the really experienced people who have black belt for a long time end up with a white looking belt because of wear and tear. I kind of like the idea that by the time you get really experienced your brazzard became almost empty, because ultimately you had more shoulder bling
Although I think that on reflection, then needs to be a criteria to achieve each ribbon that is accessible to all. For example, they may have to do four of the possible 6 blue badgers to get their blue ribbon and so on. Because you could have cadets who are really good at absolutely everything but a certain subject or skill
Hmmm, as much as I hate some aspects of PTS, as the overall concept does lead to badge chasing, I think that losing the badge subject would be detrimental.
It wouldn’t show the skill set / effort needed across the range of subjects, especially for some of the Gold awards. For example, Gold Road-marching could be said to be based on blood, sweat & tears, whereas a more classroom-based subject would be a different type of effort.
An interesting point is that cadets always ask what your medal ribbons mean and it sparks conversation. Conversations about which laurels you’ve earned wouldn’t be a negative in my view (not if the result is a much tidier brassard).
But your point about not all badges being equal is fair and perhaps unavoidable. They’ll always be different kinds of challenges.
Gold leadership vs Nijmegen vs instructor first aid. The challenges are always different.
And that is why they should be different, to show that it is a different challenge. All this does is reinvent the badges for everything for everyone, to a point where you cannot see what was earned.
But then I come from a time where you didn’t get a badge for signing up to and doing part of an external award; you actually had to complete it. IMHO, the blue DofE badge sums up how low the bar has sunk to.
So in order to get a blue ribbon you need to complete 3 blue bagdes, let’s say at least blue space, blue cyber, blue DofE… or 3 other blue badges.
So cadets can still specialize or choose their own path , but they need to achieve a specific number at Blue, bronze comets silver etc to get the blue, bronze or silver ribbon
Make PTS and classification integrated and allow cadets to achieve the next level with non academic options
Then award a Silver for top level achievement in a specialist subject and Gold for instructor,
I’d support a common set of subjects for First Class but could the core be slimmed down to make room for optional topics? Keep Flying Ops and Nav, add First Aid. Then 2 choices?
I love the idea of re-making the brassard layout. The idea i had was only to have gold badges on it for instructors so that its not a badge for everything but also not making it look too cluttered… So i thought why not just make it ROUND!! (I also removed some badges that I feel like we don’t need.
I love the idea of standardising the style in this sort of way and limiting it to higher levels.
From a positioning perspective, I wonder whether it’s better to have them be square and have them be placed together.
Or if circles, do the same with classifications and then place them in a way that is easier to do (so perhaps touching the classification badge and then touching the outer seam?
In your version, I’d also say any position is fine for a badge because they’re all circles.
We could run a few permutations?
Good graphics work, by the way. Did you do that all yourself?
I think keep the current system tbh, just make the badges have some coherence in size & shape. It does seem a little random what PTS subjects get you a bagel and what don’t though.
Surely any kind of tessalation would look better if we just had people start from the top and work down or something, rather than making them have gaps?
No more gopping than the the suggestion that opened the thread.
I don’t think we need a standardised badge, however I do think we need to look at shapes that mirror each other (so if DofE and First aid are going to be opposite each other they should be the same shape for example).
I would also look at some of the levels and see if we can eliminate some of not most of the blues where they were introduced purely so that we would have Blue, Bronze , Silver and Gold for all subjects.
So blue DofE can get in the bin.
First aid could be rationalised (Bronze for Heart Start or whatever it’s called now, Silver for YFA and Gold for AFA).
Shooting we are effectively down to 2 weapon systems so go back to just the rifle with the crown and crossed rifles, Bronze for trained shot, Silver for Marksman and Gold for Advanced Marksman with the badge indicating the weapon.
Leadership, bin off blue and link the other colours to courses, Bronze for JNCO course, Silver for SNCO and Gold for any of the national courses.
Flying can be left alone as it’s not on the brassard.
Comms/Cyber/Space, I just don’t know enough nor do I really care.
Classifications, bin off Senior and Master, make First Class a set of LAC slides and Leading (is that really needed?) SAC.
