The most common places to make new professional connections and meet new clients is at events and conferences. If you are part of an organization that regularly hosts events, name tags are an easy and fun way to help guests make a good first impression. No event is too big or too small.

Whether it’s an athletic championship, professional conference, trade show or anything else, a custom name tag is a great way to make your event secure, distinct, and memorable. In this blog we will run through some design ideas for name badges and show how to begin the creative process.

What Are Event Name Tags?

Participants and attendees of an event often sport a name tag or badge, as they are commonly called, to show an individual’s information to help people identify each other while the event continues. The information on the name tag can be a name, photo, organization, or anything else. Event Badges, and often custom event badges, are a standard part of any trade show, conference, athletic event or even a concert. Typically they are worn attached to a lanyard around the neck.

How To Choose Your Name Tag Design

Just because you are attending an event or conference for work, does not mean that your name tag has to be a snooze fest. At Bag Tags, Inc. we pride ourselves on making beautiful, distinct, wearable art. With full color printing and an in-house design team, the sky’s the limit. You can use your organization’s colors and logos to artfully distinguish your events from others.

Top 10 Creative Name Tag Ideas

Here are a few tips for making your name tags a hit.

1. Bold Designs

If you can think of it, we can print it. With full digital printing there is no limit to what you can do in terms of imagery, colors, or variable information. Don’t be afraid to go bold and put yourself ahead of all of those boring white name tags!

2. Creative Shapes

Bag Tags, Inc. has numerous sizes and shapes to meet your needs. We also have a variety of attachment options if you choose to add a custom lanyard, belt clip or anything else. 

You can find all of our product offerings here. We have everything from small, credit card-sized tags, all the way up to 4×6” name tags.

3. Ice Breakers

Event trends are showing how events like Teen Vogue summit had badges to spark conversation – social handles, causes the wearer is passionate about, hashtags.

It’s not uncommon to have variable headshots or photos, as well as fun information about the event attendee. One frequently added point of information is length of tenure within a company or organization. 

4. Custom Lanyards

If you really want to take your custom name tags to the next level, pair them with  a custom lanyard. Similar to the tags themselves, lanyards can be fully customized with logos, slogans, or other organizational information. Using a variety of lanyard colors is a great way to easily distinguish different levels of security access or types of attendees. 

For example, you can have bright yellow staff lanyards, while attendees have blue. Similar to our tags, we can print full-color dye sublimated lanyards with astonishing detail. On the flip side, if you want to cut some cost, we also offer stock woven fabric lanyards as well as other attachment options.

Feel free to check out our lanyards.

5. Explore More Environmentally Friendly Options

Not thrilled about using disposable products at your next event? Neither are we! Bag Tags, Inc. has begun the process of exploring more sustainable options. The fully custom-made lanyards we mentioned earlier can now be printed using PET. Specifically, your full-color custom printed lanyard, used to be a plastic water bottle. These PET lanyards have the same soft, comfortable texture, and eye-catching colors as our usual custom lanyards. You can rest easy knowing that your lanyard is giving a second life to an otherwise disposable piece of plastic.

Our name tags are made with an extremely durable, double laminated, waterproof substrate. These tags can hold up to just about anything you can imagine might happen to them. Whether you get stuck in the rain, spill your coffee, or your name tags get trampled at your event, no worries! We offer one of the most durable tags in the industry so there will be no need to print a replacement. Many of our customers, particularly athletes, hold on to their custom name tags for years. 

In addition to our traditional substrate we now offer a sustainable, recycled, and recyclable paper-based stock. It has a similar thickness to our usual tags but is a more eco friendly and fully recyclable option. This is a very new addition.  Stay tuned as we explore even more sustainable practices in the near future!

6. Add Name Badges to Event Decor

With full color design, tags can be arranged in a great eye-catching display. Over the years we have seen many displays for name tags at registration booths Everything from a colorful tags backdrop, to a miniature ferris wheel with all of the attendees name badges on it!

7. Add QR Codes

Get creative with where the QR code leads. QR codes are a very powerful tool that can hold a large amount of information. QR codes on the name tags can lead to static links such as an event schedule, or registration site. They can also be customized for each individual. When linked to each individual’s website or contact information, variable QR codes serve as a digital business card.

In addition to QR codes, Bag Tags Inc. offers many different types of barcodes to work seamlessly with event systems and security. Whatever type of code you are set up to use, we can certainly print them for you.

8. Make Caricature Badges

If companies already have team caricatures, why not display them on your badge for a great conversation starter?

9. Invitation Badges

– Consider making the invitation the name tag

– Badges are easy and economical to send in the mail. Cross off two items on your to-do list at one stroke by making your invitation the same as your attendance name tag.

10. About Me Badges

Get creative with an “about me” badge.  To do this add 3-5 blank spaces on the name tag design with suggestions like “3 facts about me”.

Each attendee can fill in the space for a great conversation starter. Let’s face it, meeting people and striking up a conversation can be tricky, especially at large events where making personal connections can be a little daunting. By putting a fun ‘about me’ spot on your badge you can easily invite friendly conversation and get the ball rolling.

How To Create Awesome Name Tags With BagTags Inc.

• Choose your size and style
• Send us your info such as variable names and data, logos, art files, or whatever else you may have
• Work one-on-one with our in house design team and an assigned account manager to create a tag you and your organization can be proud of
• We’ll take care of the rest!