Who could tire of the humble button badge? A staple adornment of the era, these badges in Part 1 all hail from 1980/81, when I first took to the charms of Public Image Ltd. ‘Flowers of Romance’ the focus of the first few, pretty sure these are likely to be ‘Better Badges’ designs, though couldn’t say for sure – anyone?
Wow! You even knew the name of the company who made all of these badges? Incredible! I never knew anything about the companies that made these badges. I assumed that they were made locally by factions that just made them without engaging the artists in any way. I always assumed that badges were just made like bootlegs without the artist seeing a penny for their name/image. But if it was a company that did nothing but make badges, then the artist may have seen a few pennies, then.
I am just speculating that the first few were by Better Badges, I don’t know for sure – but Better Badges were by far the best in the field at the time – faithful and nicely adaptive of an act’s designs (often from the bands themselves). As well as that, their adverts in the pages of the music press at the time were always fun and a joy to see. Further reading:
Wikipedia entry for Better Badges
Moving the needle: the punk badges that defined the 1970s
A few favourite adverts from Smash Hits magazine I remember fondly: Retro Musings: Better Badges ~ Punk Pin Badge Adverts [1979-1982]
Another big name on the merchandising front at the time were Acme, I think they did merchandise for Bauhaus, The Cure and Cocteau Twins and many others around ‘83/‘84.