CONvergence Badge Art: #CVG2008

I’m counting down to CONvergence 2012 on July 5-8 this year, and sharing some highlights from past year’s badge art that I’ve done for the convention.

CONvergence 2008 was our tenth convention, and our only real theme was a celebration of ten years of CONvergence!

#CVG2008 Ages 5 & Under Badge

#CVG2008 – Ages 6-17 Badge

#CVG2008 – Adult Badge

I was plenty busy with Guest of Honor badges that year (more on that in the next post), so I used some artwork by regular CONvergence contributor Lou Frank on the 5 and Under and Teen registration badges. That’s his line art incorporated into my badge layout, with my own artwork on the Adult badge. I was going for something fairly clean and elegant for Year 10, and I think you can see that in the design.

Up to this point the Board of Directors had featured in the sketches and/or videos that began Opening and Closing Ceremonies at CONvergence each year, and we knew that Year 10 was our grand finale before turning that task over to a committee of talented writers and performers that weren’t necessarily on the board. We staged this crazy big musical number that featured Tim Wick as Austin Powers, which ended with him running into the hotel and transitioned into Tim entering Mainstage still in costume from the sketch to act as Emcee for Opening Ceremony. So we figured that Austin needed his own registration badge, which you can see below.

The epic video is available on YouTube in two parts:

Part One – The Dr Evil Prologue
Part Two – The Musical Number

#CVG2008 – Exec Badge

#CVG2008 – Finance Badge

#CVG2008 – Director Badge

The 2008 Exec on Duty Badge was a re-purposing of artwork I had done for a Progress Report cover that year. Lou Frank’s artwork appeared again on the Finance Badge. The Director Badge for that year featured some vintage artwork by me – the earliest drawing of Connie! Note the extra-long antenna, the two low-set arm buttons, and the rarely-used telescoping arm!

And finally, the ConCom badge went horizontal that year, so it could hang behind the other vertical badges on a lanyard and still be seen.

If you’re coming to #CVG2012 be sure to look me up! I’ll be doing two signings and on a bunch of panels.

CONvergence Badge Art: #CVG2007 Guest Badges

It’s another 2-post day as I count down to CONvergence 2012 on July 5-8, sharing more art I’ve done for badges for the Guests of Honor of CONvergence 2007.

#CVG2007- Lois McMaster Bujold

#CVG2007 - Emily Hagins

#CVG2007 - Brian Keene

For author Lois McMaster Bujold I broke my rule again about not using Connie on badges for first-time Guests of Honor. When I break that rule it’s usually a sign of desperation. The four hands are a reference to the Quaddies from Lois’ work.

Emily Hagins is a remarkable filmmaker who wrote, produced and directed the zombie movie Pathogen at age 12. She’s still going strong, working on new films!

I hated to go to the “zombie well” yet again, but it seemed appropriate for The Rising author Brian Keene.

#CVG2007 - John Kovalic

#CVG2007 - Wally Wingert

#CVG2007 - Bernie Wrightson

John Kovalic’s badge featured a notoriously over-crowded page from the Dr. Blink comic written by John, drawn by me, and lettered and colored by Melissa Kaercher.

Wally Wingert’s badge referenced his role as one of the Almighty Tallest from Invader Zim, and his obsessive love of the Adam West Batman series (a man after my own heart!).

Bernie Wrigthson’s badge refers to the author page on the first printing of Bernie’s magnificent illustrated edition of Frankenstein, which gave a full bio of Bernie including where he resided with his two dogs, but merely said of the author “Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is dead and has no dogs.”

If you’re coming to #CVG2012 be sure to look me up! I’ll be doing two signings and on a bunch of panels.

CONvergence Badge Art: #CVG2007

I’m counting down to CONvergence 2012 on July 5-8 this year, and sharing some highlights from past year’s badge art that I’ve done for the convention.

The CONvergence 2007 theme was Creature Feature – a celebration the non-human characters in Sci-Fi and Fantasy. A lot of people heard “Creature Feature” and thought the theme was about horror, but it was really about everything from monsters to muppets and triffids to tribbles!

#CVG2007- 5 and Under

#CVG2007 - Teen Badge

#CVG2007 - Adult Badge

Here’s another set of three Registration Badges, with a different colors for each age range.

The 5 and Unders got creatures from My Neighbor Totoro. The smallest one has been Connie-ified.

TEEN Wolf – see what I did there?

For the record, his name is Gossamer.

#CVG2007 - Exec on Duty

#CVG2007 - ConCom Badge

#CVG2007 - Board of Directors

What better to put on the Exec on Duty badge than the King of Monsters?

Zombies seemed fitting for ConCom. Most of us feel that way by the end of the weekend. John J. Smith was NOT actually a programming sub-head that year.

And Connie got a ride in Cat-Bus in another My Neighbor Totoro reference!

This year’s badge for Performers and Temp Badges featured the Star Wars Cantina Band.

Dealers Badges featured a Gremlin for sale.

Finance on Duty Badges featured the miserly Daffy and a sea of coins featuring Connie.

If you’re coming to #CVG2012 be sure to look me up! I’ll be doing two signings and on a bunch of panels.

CONvergence Badge Art: #CVG2006 Guest Badges

Sure, I just did an entry this morning, but if I don’t double up on some of these, I’m never going to catch up with the current year before CONvergence 2012 starts on July 5-8.

Below is the badge art for our #CVG2006 Guests of Honor.

#CVG2006 - Bridget Landry

#CVG2006 - David Weber

#CVG2006 - Eric Flint

Bridget Landry is a genuine Rocket Scientist, working for the Jet Propultion Laboratory, having done things such as programming flight paths for the Cassini Missions.

David Weber is author of the Honor Harrington novels. I usually try to avoid using the CONvergnce mascot Connie on the badges for first-time guests, but David was brought to the convention by his friend and returning Guest of Honor Eric Flint, so I hoped it would be OK.

In addition to being an author, Eric Flint had just taken charge of the Free Library for Baen Books.

#CVG2006 - Greg Weisman

#CVG2006 - Miles Teves

#CVG2006 - Kenneth Hite

Greg Weisman was one of the driving creative forces behind Disney’s Gargoyles.

Artist Miles Teves did design work for the film Legend, including Tim Curry’s demon character.

When not writing games and gaming-related articles, Kenneth Hite is NOT a member of the Illuminati. He is NOT.

#CVG2006 - Robert O'Reilly

#CVG2006 - J.G. Hertzler

J.G. Hertzler had just completed some Shakespearean work on the stage, but is best known to Sci-Fi fans as General Martok from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Robert O’Reilly had just completed a directing stint, but is best known as Chancellor Gowron from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

If you’re coming to #CVG2012 be sure to look me up! I’ll be doing two signings and on a bunch of panels.

CONvergence Badge Art: #CVG2006

I’m counting down to CONvergence 2012 on July 5-8 this year, and sharing some highlights from past year’s badge art that I’ve done for the convention.

The 2006 theme was Boldly Go – a celebration of not just Star Trek (which was celebrating it’s 40th Anniversary) but all things Space Exploration.

#CVG2006 - 5 and Under Badge

#CVG2006 - Teen Badge

#CVG2006 Adult Badge

We again had Registration Badges for three different age ranges of attendees, and this year I went with photo montages of spaceships. These looked great on screen, but in practice I thought these printed a little too dark, and were harder to see than I would have liked, especially in the varying lighting conditions around the convention and under the protective layer of lamination. I thought the previous year’s more brightly-colored badges worked better, so I resolved not to go this dark again.

#CVG2006 - Exec on Duty

#CVG2006 - ConCom Badge

#CVG2006 - Board of Directors

Three more sets of badges. Exec of Duty is the term for the highest authority at the convention, a position held by members of the organization’s Board of Directors on rotating shifts.

Members of the Convention Committee got Cylons on their badges that year. You can see where I indicated the placement of the text that would indicate the ConCom member’s name and position title.

In a touch of self-deprecating humor, I gave my fellow members of the Board of Directors Borg badges that year. It went well with our ongoing Triumvirate of Seven running joke, where the seven of us had numbered designations of 1 through 7… of 3.

#CVG2006 - Service Animal Badge

#CVG2006 - Performer Badge

#CVG2006 - Finance on Duty

We have badges for Service Animals at the convention, indicating that an animal has been checked in by our Operations Department as a working animal assisting a convention member. That’s our mascot Connie’s robotic dog Sparky on the badge.

Our Performer badges that year featured a then-timely iPod joke.

And the Finance on Duty badge featured the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition. The visible rules are all taken from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, except for #34 which is a mantra of the CONvergence budgeting process.

If you’re coming to #CVG2012 be sure to look me up! I’ll be doing two signings and on a bunch of panels.