How to Create Custom Baseball Trading Pins

Custom trading pins are a common sight at baseball fields across the country, whether you're a member of a local Little League or a regional travel club. Games and competitions are frequently more active than Wall Street. Players trade in their pins for new ones, forming new friendships and memories. While most pin producers offer artwork assistance, designing your team's pin yourself is satisfying and unique. Here's how to make unique trading pins for your baseball team. Click here to know: An Overview of the Trading Pin's History.

Come Up With An Idea

Every great work of art begins with an idea.

To create outstanding personalized trade pins for your baseball club, you must first explore and establish a concept. Developing pins, like developing a brand, is easier said than done. Sometimes we can't think of anything. Or the opposite occurs—with so many options, it can be difficult to filter them all down.

Even the most inventive minds can have "designer's block."

If you're stuck, look for some ideas! Looking through some of the trading pins your team has used in the past or ones you've gathered from other teams is a wonderful place to start. Choose a few favorites and write down what makes them unique.

Another option to get ideas is to look at an internet photo gallery of baseball pins. Pins of teams from all across the country can be found, and you don't even have to meet them at a game or competition to see them.

If you need additional inspiration, don't be scared to broaden your search and explore outside baseball. Trading pins are popular collectibles in other sports as well. Check out the football, hockey, basketball, and soccer team pins. Look for pins from theme parks, museums, and events as well. They may not be related to sports, but they can show you all of the unique things you can put on a trading pin.

What You Might Include

Fortunately, there is a lot of fantastic imagery and symbols in baseball. Here are some design considerations to consider when creating bespoke trade pins.

Baseballs

The obvious one, but your baseball pin must include a baseball! Many pins employ the circular form of a baseball as the basic structure and outline of the design. Roundels, or circular motifs, are a common part of logos. They look fantastic on caps, clothing, and, of course, pins!

Baseballs can also be used as smaller design elements. They're ideal for interactive pin additions like sliders, spinners, and dangles. Click here to buy baseball pins.

Diamonds

Another recognizable feature of the sport is the diamond shape of the basepath. A diamond, like a circular baseball, is usually utilized in the background to set the main shape of the pin.

Bats

Long objects crossed into an X, like the famous pirate flag, have long been a popular design element. Even if your team name has nothing to do with pirates, crossed baseball bats could provide an aggressive atmosphere to your design. Baseball bats, with their long, flat design, also make effective underlining for a team or player's name.

Team Name, Location, and Logo

After all, the purpose of these pins is to represent your team. Including your team's branding encourages people who wear your pins to root for the team. They also assist others with whom you trade pins in remembering who you are and where you are from.

Seasonal Characteristics

Some teams only have one generic team pin. It's cost-effective because they may order a large quantity at once to supply the team's players for several seasons.

Other teams, on the other hand, like to order fresh pins for each season. To recall that specific squad, each group of players has a distinctive pin.

What could you include on a pin to make it special? One thing is the year. The team's members' names and numbers, which will probably vary each year, can also be included. After the season, you can order unique pins to commemorate the team's successes. In addition, you can list the team's win-loss record and any trophies and championships earned.

Draw Your Concept

It's time to draw up your design once you've found some inspiration and come up with some ideas in your thoughts. Some people could find this intimidating. But to create a design, you don't have to be a talented artist.

You don't need pricey art supplies or a beautiful sketch pad to design some ideas for your pin. Some of the best ideas were scribbled down on a napkin using a regular pen. Your initial drafts will be sloppy. Don't worry about perfection with these; the goal is simply to create a proof of concept.

You may go through multiple revisions of your design before settling on something you genuinely enjoy. Tinker and experiment until you find what you're looking for. This may be the end of your design for some. Send your sketch to your pin manufacturer, and their expert artists will create a more complete version based on your work.

The manufacturer will make changes to your design to meet their specifications, but the design and ideas will remain yours.

Create Your Pin Using Digital Design Software

For more advanced and tech-savvy graphic designers, you may choose to take the design a step further and create a final version of your design using a digital program. Through Adobe Creative Cloud, serious artists may gain access to top industry software such as Photoshop and Illustrator. These programs are powerful, but they are also expensive.

Fortunately, there are cost-effective alternatives. GIMP and Inkscape are two popular free graphics programs. You can even create some amazing designs using PowerPoint. For beginners, digital graphic design can be challenging, but learning how to use editing programs gives you more power to create the perfect artwork for your pin.

Make Your Trading Pins

After you've finished designing, upload and send them to the manufacturer. They'll turn your fantastic design into real pins that your team can collect and trade.

Contact us today for a free quote on your custom trading pin order for your baseball team.