A couple of months back I created my first sub badges for Twitch. This was the first time I'd created sub badges so of course, I was learning a lot while creating these....
On April 1st however I created this silly and cute Potato Sub Badges set. It was a joke originally with friends. I was joking about how no one would want a sub badge potato and it'd be a silly idea to make them. Since I needed the practice I studied more tutorials on creating sub badges and came up with these cute little badges.
They were such a hit! I was over the moon! Originally I just did it as a, sort of 'reverse April fools joke?' It looked like a joke product (I even made some potato memes with them) but in reality it was a real thing you could buy and use. Everyone who's bought a set has absolutely loved them and I think I finally got my head around what works for sub badges.
Anyway, with this new knowledge I decided to revamp my old Donut/Doughnut set and wow! I'm honestly really proud of such a big improvement in such a small time! They look so cute and I'm really happy with the results. Here's a before & after of the set:
You can buy the set over here on Etsy: 6 Cute Yummy Donut Sub Badges Set!
Firstly changing the design to be more chunky and more on an angle makes them much "bigger". Since Twitch sub badges come in the sizes 72x72, 36x36 and 18x18 pixels I've found making the illustrations a bit more chunky helps understanding what they are at smaller sizes. Using all the space that you have is key. I've also changed the thickness of the stroke and made the stroke much darker. I did test with having a black outline but I found that it looked quite pixellated when smaller. Having a coloured stroke does go pixelated but it's much less noticeable. Finally I changed the shadows on the doughnuts and icing to just a gradient. At such a small size all those old, subtle shadows just moulded into one. Having the gradient helps create dept without it being lost.
Do you like the re-design? I hope so. Remember you can get this set of Donut Sub Badges and other cute sets over on my Etsy Shop.