Badges, Lanyards and Convention Culture
Launch library · evergreen read
Convention badges and lanyards serve a practical purpose, proving entry and identifying staff or volunteers, but they also become a small canvas for personal expression, decorated with pins, ribbons and small trinkets collected and traded across many different events over the years by devoted, regular attendees who keep coming back.
Pin trading in particular has become its own quiet subculture at many conventions, with attendees seeking out specific designs to complete a set or simply to swap something meaningful with a stranger they happened to meet in a queue earlier that same day, purely for the pleasure of the exchange.
A well worn lanyard, covered in pins and ribbons collected across several years of attendance, effectively becomes its own small, wearable record of a fan's convention history. Regulars often recognise each other partly through these small, accumulated, personal details long before they ever formally introduce themselves and properly speak to one another.